See excluded folders in the overview

[Gabe]

Hello folks,

Maybe I am missing something, so before making a "feature request" I will ask the hive mind for help.

Every time I try to be smart with my filters, I realize that the overview panel reacts to any filters I apply. This effectively means I have no easy way to apply filters via the GUI. Instead, I have to use a file explorer window and add the filter lines manually.

I understand why the overview pane works this way, it just catches me off guard every time I tinker with it.

So, the question is this: am I missing an obvious way to interact with the GUI and see which folders and files are currently included/excluded by a filter?

Thanks!

[xCSxXenon]

If you need to see it, why would you be excluding it?

Or are you referring to temporary exclusions from right-clicking files in the comparison results?

[Gabe]

Or are you referring to temporary exclusions from right-clicking files in the comparison results?

Ah, this kind of helps. I never noticed that feature. Thanks!

It only gets half the job done, though, because it only shows things that are excluded within my included folders.
If I use the "include" feature to cherry-pick what I want to sync, I don't seem to have a way to see what has been excluded. E.g.:
1. I decide to sync my boot drive C:
2. I only want to include the "Users" and "Windows" folders, and I do so by applying an "include" filter
3. Doing so, I lose visibility over all the other folders in the root level of C:

[xCSxXenon]

Why do you care about seeing the folders that you are excluding?

[Gabe]

Hi!

I care because if I don't see them, I cannot manage them. Let's say that after having created the filter I described above, I add a folder to C: called "data", and I want to include it into the sync job. I can only do so by either editing this filter manually, or resetting the filter altogether and redoing the selection from scratch via the UI.

Other possible scenario: an old sync job that one hardly touches. If one wants to quickly understanding what the job is tasked to do, the UI doesn't offer a way to do so. Instead, one has to open the filter settings and look at the text there.

Cheers!

[xCSxXenon]

Gotcha
Change it to include everything and then exclude as necessary

[Gabe]

That sounds like the most sensible workaround. But it comes at a price: any new folder created needs to be excluded, or it will sync.

I think I'll try to write a feature request.

Thanks a lot for the help, though

[Zenju]

There are two features that can help:

1. "Show filtered or exluded files" view filter button at the bottom.
2. If filtered before comparison: "cut" filter config, compare again, "paste" filter config (right-click on filter button).

(3.) TODO: checkbox tree selection as filter input help: viewtopic.php?t=8928#p32105

[Gabe]

Hi Zenju,

Sorry for the late reply, I got sucked up into lots of holiday-related stuff.

The checkbox to handle filter input sounds like a nice idea, but also a pretty complex one. It might be easier to have the "Show filtered or excluded files" feature show every file/folder that the filtering rules are excluding. Right now, the feature only exposes files that have been explicitly excluded.

Just to make sure I am explaining myself clearly: if you look at the screenshot below, you can see that I am only syncing two of the folders from my boot (c:/) drive. I think all the other folders inside c:/ should be shown in the overview when checking the checkbox.

[Zenju]

Hm, for include filter handling it could indeed be beneficial if FFS still listed the folders, even if marked as excluded.

What are the potential drawbacks?
What about excluded files? Show them, too?
File list getting too messy?
Usage patterns that rely on excluded files not in the list?

[Gabe]

What are the potential drawbacks?
What about excluded files? Show them, too?
File list getting too messy?
Usage patterns that rely on excluded files not in the list?

These are all interesting questions, but I fear they can only be answered after trying the new feature.

My core remark is mostly conceptual: if a file/folder is being excluded from the sync job by a filter rule (include or exclude logic), I think it should appear when the user clicks on "show exclude folder".

If you are willing to work on this at any point, I would be happy to help to test the solution.

Anyway, thanks for the back and forth so far, and thanks for all the work you put into the tool.