Integration of filetags Into Common Tools

If your system has Python 3 installed, you can start using filetags right away in any command line environment.

However, users do want to integrate tools like filetags also in various GUI tools.

This chapter explains integration in some tools that allow external commands being added.

If you have integrated filetags in additional commonly used tools, please send me a short how-to so that others are able to get the most out of filetags as well.

Integrating into Geeqie

I am using geeqie for browsing/presenting image files. After I mark a set of images for adding one or more tags, I just have to press t and I get asked for the tags. After entering the tags and RETURN, the tags are added to the image files. With T I can remove tags accordingly.

Using GNU/Linux, this is quite easy accomplished. The only thing that is not straight forward is the need for a wrapper script. The wrapper script does provide a shell window for entering the tags.

vk-filetags-interactive-adding-wrapper-with-gnome-terminal.sh looks like:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/bin/gnome-terminal \
    --geometry=73x5+330+5  \
    --hide-menubar \
    -x /home/vk/src/filetags/filetags/__init__.py --interactive "${@}"

#end

vk-filetags-interactive-removing-wrapper-with-gnome-terminal.sh looks like:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/bin/gnome-terminal \
    --geometry=73x5+330+5  \
    --hide-menubar \
    -x /home/vk/src/filetags/filetags/__init__.py --interactive --remove "${@}"

#end

In $HOME/.config/geeqie/applications I wrote two desktop files such that geeqie shows the wrapper scripts as external editors to its image files:

$HOME/.config/geeqie/applications/add-tags.desktop looks like:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=filetags
GenericName=filetags
Comment=
Exec=/home/vk/src/misc/vk-filetags-interactive-adding-wrapper-with-gnome-terminal.sh %F
Icon=
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Categories=Application;Graphics;
hidden=false
MimeType=image/*;video/*;image/mpo;image/thm
Categories=X-Geeqie;

$HOME/.config/geeqie/applications/remove-tags.desktop looks like:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=filetags
GenericName=filetags
Comment=
Exec=/home/vk/src/misc/vk-filetags-interactive-removing-wrapper-with-gnome-terminal.sh %F
Icon=
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Categories=Application;Graphics;
hidden=false
MimeType=image/*;video/*;image/mpo;image/thm
Categories=X-Geeqie;

In order to be able to use the keyboard shortcuts t (adding tags) and T (removing tags), you can define them in geeqie:

Edit > Preferences > Preferences … > Keyboard.
Scroll to the bottom of the list.
Double click in the KEY-column of filetags and filetags-remove and choose your desired keyboard shortcut accordingly.

I hope this method is as handy for you as it is for me :-)

Integration into Thunar

Thunar is a popular GNU/Linux file browser for the xfce environment.

Unfortunately, it is rather complicated to add custom commands to Thunar. I found a good description which you might want to follow.

To my disappoinment, even this manual confguration is not stable somehow. From time to time, the IDs of $HOME/.config/Thunar/uca.xml and $HOME/.config/Thunar/accels.scm differ.

For people using Org-mode, I automated the updating process (not the initial adding process) to match IDs again:

Script for checking “tag”: do it tag-ID and path in accels.scm match?

#+BEGIN_SRC sh :var myname="tag"
ID=`egrep -A 2 "<name>$myname" $HOME/.config/Thunar/uca.xml | grep unique-id | sed 's#.*<unique-id>##' | sed 's#<.*$##'`
echo "$myname-ID of uca.xml: $ID"
echo "In accels.scm: "`grep -i "$ID" $HOME/.config/Thunar/accels.scm`
#+END_SRC

If they don’t match, following script re-writes accels.scm with the current ID:

#+BEGIN_SRC sh :var myname="tag" :var myshortcut="<Alt>t"
ID=`egrep -A 2 "<name>$myname" $HOME/.config/Thunar/uca.xml | grep unique-id | sed 's#.*<unique-id>##' | sed 's#<.*$##'`
echo "appending $myname-ID of uca.xml to accels.scm: $ID"
mv $HOME/.config/Thunar/accels.scm $HOME/.config/Thunar/accels.scm.OLD
grep -v "\"$myshortcut\"" $HOME/.config/Thunar/accels.scm.OLD > $HOME/.config/Thunar/accels.scm
rm $HOME/.config/Thunar/accels.scm.OLD
echo "(gtk_accel_path \"<Actions>/ThunarActions/uca-action-$ID\" \"$myshortcut\")" >> $HOME/.config/Thunar/accels.scm
#+END_SRC

Integrarion into Nautilus

Please do read the great instructions from that thread.

Integration into Windows Explorer

The easiest way to integrate filetags into File Explorer (“Send to” context menu) is by using integratethis.

Execute this in your command line environment:

pip install pypiwin32 filetags integratethis
integratethis filetags --confirm
integratethis filetags --parameter="--filter" --displayname "filetags filter"
integratethis filetags --parameter="--filter --recursive" --displayname "filetags filter recursive"
integratethis filetags --parameter="--tagtrees --recursive --tagtrees-handle-no-tag no-tags" --displayname "TagTrees recursive"
integratethis filetags --parameter="--tagtrees --tagtrees-depth 3" --displayname "TagTrees lvl3"

Manual Setup

Use this only if the integratethis method can not be applied:

You do have two independent options to integrate filetags to your Windows Explorer.

The first one integrates it directly into the context menu of a file. This has the advantage, that you can tag a file very quickly. However, the downside is that this only works for a single file and not all marked files.

If you want to tag multiple files at once, you have to integrate filetags using the second method. This does add filetags into your “Sent to” context sub-menu. This allows for multiple file tagging but is one mouse click further away.

You can do both and choose one or the other, depending on how many files you have selected.

Integration into Windows Explorer for single files

Use this only if the integratethis method can not be applied:

Create a registry file add_filetags_to_context_menu.reg and edit it to meet the following template. Please make sure to replace the paths (python, USERNAME) accordingly:

To get the correct path to filetags.exe open cmd.exe (via Win-key and typing “cmd” + ENTER):

invoke where filetags.exe
mark the resulting line and copy it to the clipboard via ENTER

Then write the following lines together with the pasted path into the file add_filetags_to_context_menu.reg so that it looks similar to:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\filetags]
@="filetags (single file)"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\filetags\command]
@="C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python36\\Scripts\\filetags.exe -i \"%1\""

Note that you have to double all backslashes in the path to filetags.exe.

If did install filetags via source code (and not via pip), the line should look similar to:

@="C:\\Python36\\python.exe C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\src\\filetags\\filetags\\__init__.py -i \"%1\""

Execute the registry-file, confirm the warnings (you are modifying your Windows registry after all) and cheer up when you notice “filetags (single file)” in the context menu of your Windows Explorer.

As mentioned above: this method works on single files. So if you select three files and invoke this context menu item, you will get three different filetag-windows to tag one file each. Therefore, you might want to check out the following section for multiple files.

The following python source generates a proper registry file, if you prefer it not to write it manually:

import subprocess
myresult = subprocess.run(["where", "filetags.exe"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
myfiletags = str(myresult.stdout.strip()).replace('\\', '\\')[2:-1]
with open("register_filetags_for_single_files.reg", "w") as out:
    out.write("Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00\n\n")
    out.write("[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\*\\shell\\filetags]\n@=\"filetags\"\n\n")
    out.write("[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\*\\shell\\filetags\\command]\n")
    out.write("@=\"" + myfiletags + " -i \\\"%1\\\"\"\n\n")
print("Successfully written registry file \"register_filetags_for_single_files.reg\".")
print("Please check content before executing.")

Integration into Windows Explorer for single and multiple selected files

Use this only if the integratethis method can not be applied:

The tool integratethis (link) does the following steps for you. Install it via pip3 install integratethis. You can have a look at its options by starting a cmd.exe shell and typing in:

integratethis -h

You might want to use one of the following commands:

integratethis filetags --confirm
integratethis filetags --parameter="--tagtrees --tagtrees-depth 3" --displayname "re-generate TagTrees"

If you want to do it manually, follow the instructions:

Open cmd.exe (via Win-key and typing “cmd” + ENTER)
- Invoke where filetags.exe
  - If you did not use pip to install filetags, locate the python executable via where python instead.
- Mark the resulting line and copy it to the clipboard via ENTER.
Create a new text file named filetags.bat
Edit this new file named filetags.bat, e.g., with Notepad.exe
- Paste the clipboard to the file
- At the end of the line, add ” -i %*”
- The line now should look similar to: C:\[...]\Scripts\filetags.exe -i %*
  - If you did not use pip to install filetags, you have to paste the path to python.exe followed by the path to the filetags/__init__.py file of the source code.
- If you want to confirm the tagging process (and see error messages and so forth), you might want to append as well following line:
```
set /p DUMMY=Hit ENTER to continue ...
        
```
- Save the file and close the editor.

The filetags.bat now contains something like this:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\Scripts\filetags.exe  -i %*

If you did not use pip to install, it looks like this:

C:\Python36\python.exe C:\Users\USERNAME\src\filetags\filetags\__init__.py -i %*

Now create a link to the file filetags.bat
- This can be done using drag and drop in the same folder while holding the Shift and Ctrl keys.
Move the link to the following folder:
- In your user folder, go to the sub-folder AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/SendTo and place the link file here.
- Rename the link file to simply “filetags”.

This way, you got a nice entry in your context sub-menu “Send to” which is also correctly tagging multiple files at once.

Integration into FreeCommander

FreeCommander is a orthodox file manager for Windows. You can add filetags as an favorite command:

Tools → Favorite tools → Favorite tools edit… (S-C-y)
- Create new toolbar (if none is present)
- Icon for “Add new item”
  - Name: filetags
  - Program or folder: <Path to filetags.bar>
- filetags.bat looks like: (please do modify the paths to meet your requirement)
```
C:\Python36\python.exe C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\src\filetags\filetags %*
REM optionally: set /p DUMMY=Hit ENTER to continue...
        
```
  - Start folder: %ActivDir%
  - Parameter: %ActivSel%
  - [X] Enclose each selected item with "
  - Hotkey: select next available one such as Ctrl-1 (it gets overwritten below)
- remember its name such as “Favorite tool 01”
  - OK

So far, we’ve got filetags added as a favorite command which can be accessed via menu or icon toolbar and the selected keyboard shortcut. If you want to assign a different keyboard shortcut than Ctrl-1 like Alt-t you might as well follow following procedure:

Tools → Define keyboard shortcuts…
- Scroll down to the last section “Favorite tools”
- locate the name such as “Favorite tool 01”
- Define your shortcut of choice like Alt-t in the right hand side of the window
  - If your shortcut is taken, you’ll get a notification. Don’t overwrite essential shortcuts you’re using.
- OK

Integration into Dired

Dired is the oldest file manager. It started in 1974 and offers a wide range of efficient functionality. Here, we add filetags to Dired.

(defun my-dired-filetags ()
  "Run \"filetags\" on current or marked files"
  (interactive)
  (let* ((marked-files (f-uniquify (dired-get-marked-files)))) ;; apply to single file or marked files
    (when (my-system-type-is-windows)
      (dired-do-shell-command "wrapper-script-for-filetags.bat *" nil marked-files)
      )
    (when (my-system-type-is-gnu)
      ;; --disable-server → provides a blocking terminal window (instead of a non-blocking one which swallows the revert-buffer afterward)
      (dired-do-shell-command "xfce4-terminal --disable-server --geometry=100x20+330+5 --hide-menubar -x /home/vk/bin/filetags --interactive *" nil marked-files)
      )
    )
  (revert-buffer nil t t) ;; refresh listing of files
  )

I mapped it to M-t in my dired buffers:

(define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "M-t") 'my-dired-filetags)

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Integration of filetags Into Common Tools

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Integration of filetags Into Common Tools

Integrating into Geeqie

Integration into Thunar

Integrarion into Nautilus

Integration into Windows Explorer

Manual Setup

Integration into Windows Explorer for single files

Integration into Windows Explorer for single and multiple selected files

Integration into FreeCommander

Integration into Dired