FileTools - Manual

FileTools 6.3.xxx

Read this section carefully!

WARNING: Please note that this program is intended only for people with a high level of expertise in computer management. It is possible to completely ruin your personal computer in a few seconds if you, for example by mistake rename important system files - which will completely and irreversibly destroy the operating system - and thus your computer.

So DO NOT USE FILETOOLS unless you are an expert in computer maintenance and operating systems. Using FileTools is entirely your own risk and respon-sibility. If you fuck up your computer, don't expect any help from the author of this program. If you don't know what you are doing then: DON'T DO IT !!!

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THIS WARNING IS NOT THE USUAL DISCLAIMER, BUT A SERIOUS WARNING TO PEOPLE WITHOUT A PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND OPERATING SYSTEMS !!

Introduction to FileTools

FileTools 6.3.xxx is a collection of utilities for managing files on your hard disc. The collection of routines includes trivial functions to: batch-edit file and folder names, print file and folder lists, change file dates etc.

In addition, the collection contains a fairly comprehensive facility for writing and editing image legends for use with the all-round JavaScript, JaS, for running slideshows on homepages. The JaS JavaScript was created and generously made available free of charge by Robert Nyman.

Finally FileTools includes a quite elaborate section for handling image files comprising functions for isolation of specific groups of image files (with identical names, sizes etc.) using Exif data and for renaming the isolated image files (with an undo option).

The background for the latter set of functions is the inability to specify the format of image file names created by the three Panasonic cameras (DMC FZ20, FZ50, FZ150) I have owned over the years (the all use a capital P followed by a 7-digit number starting with 1000000). The result is that the about 30.000 pictures in my collection contain a large number of different image with identical file names.

To add further complications to the problem, other camera makes (Canon, Konica, Nikon, Olympus) also uses a leading P for their output image files. All together this makes moving and copying image file a risky business...

The "identical P-name problem" is illustrated by this and the following screenshot:

Of the 29.000 image files in the root picture folder, 22.466 have file names starting with a P. Of these, all pictures taken with my old Panasonic DMC FZ20 camera have been selected for renaming by replacing the P-prefix with FZ20_ as follows: P1023456.jpg -> FZ20_1023456.jpg

Description of the Compare function

The main form of the Compare function. The criteria for selecting images from the root folder include: Identical and Processed file names (i.e., file names only differing by the very rightmost characters of the file title) and Identical Length or Length not considered. The list may be sorted by the full path of the image file names without considering the full path.

The form contains a search option and options for displaying selected files in the list as thumbnails:
Either files found by a search within the listed files (blue), flies contained in the main list (green) or files in the selected ROOT-subfolder (yellow).

Leaving all checkboxes unchecked retrieves the complete ROOT file list either sorted or unsorted. If the list is created through a compare operation a red "PAIRS !" label is shown - else the label is: "FILES !".

Example 1:
In the compare form shown above, a complete, sorted file list has been created. The search string: "1020083" retrieves five files with their full path, all including the search string. As the image files in this example have been renamed by replacing the leading P with FZ20_ for pictures taken by my old Panasonic camera, with FZ50_ for files taken with the second Panasonic camera. Pictures taken with the new Panasonic camera still have their original leading P in the filename.

This search result illustrates the problem with duplicate filenames: Without renaming my image collection would have included 4 identical filenames for 4 different images! The 5th file (FZ20_1020083-1.jpg) has been auto-renamed by Picasa but is the same image as image FZ20_1020083.jpg

Example 2:
Setting a checkmark in Identical Names and one in Different Length and clicking Scan Files retrieves a list of duplicates in your picture collection. Double clicking the top member of a pair displays the image pair in a separate form with selected Exif data.

In this example, the identical filenames IMG_2959.jpg represents two different images! To avoid overwriting one with the other thus loosing one of the images, it would be a good idea to rename the image files.

Description of the SlideShow editor

The main form for managing image legends with the JaS JavaScript

This part of the manual deals with the facilities for editing and managing image legends for JaS slideshows. The main form is shown below and consists of navigation options allowing you to open the content of the folder containing the files necessary for running a JaS slideshow: a php file which is the file to link to from other pages of your website and a js-file which includes the JavaScript code with a "legend block" containing the text to be associated with each image. Finally the slideshow folder contains the image files to be displayed in the slideshow.

The right part of the main form contains two list boxes: The left list box lists all image files in the folder and the right list box the file names of image files extracted from the legend-block of the js-file. Double-clicking a file name in either of the two list boxes retrieves the selected image. For the image files extracted from the js-file, the displayed image also includes the legend associated with the image.

Adding new image files to the screenshow

An example of the image legend editor in action: All the image files extracted from the JavaScript are displayed on the screen. One of the top-row thumbnails has been clicked and the image is displayed in the form for editing the legend. The image can be reduced - without saving any changes - to a thumbnail again simply by clicking the image.

The Insert menu of the main form

The Functions menu of the main form

The Preferences form

Thumbnails of images extracted from the JavaScript

The three command buttons labeled: Clear, File Thumbnails and Java Thumbnails controls the display of image files as thumbnails for the selected image(s) in either of the two list boxes - or closes all the displayed thumbnails.

Editing image legends

Clicking a thumbnail enlarges the image. If the thumbnail is from an extracted JavaScript image including a legend, the enlarged image includes a text field below the image which contains the current legend for the image.

In the text field you can edit the legend, add links and apply different font attributes. You can inspect the legend as HTML by clicking the Webbrowser command button (see next paragraph) or run the slideshow by clicking the Run Slideshow command button. When you are satisfied, click the Accept & Close command button to save the changes.

The legend for the image can be formatted as html (in a separate form) as shown below to enable you to test links and font attributes during editing the legend.

Editing the php file of the slideshow

This form displays some of the php-file parameters such as: Page Title, Page Sub-Title, Copyright Information, CSS File Name, JS File Name, Character Set and Back Option Status.

The first three parameters can be edited by the user. The number of thumbnail columns (CSS File Title) in the slideshow can be set by the user with the aid of the drop-down list. The same is the case for the background color and the color of subtitle and copyright information. The legend text above the image is always white with strong yellow links.

The rest of the parameters are listed for you information only and can only be modified manually by editing the php file in a text editor.

In addition the form includes a function to: Remove Temporary System Files which clears the slideshow folder of the backup and temporary files created during editing image legends and the php-file. Every time you save changes to the slideshow, the old files is retained as a safety precaution. This implies that a large number of backup copies of edited files accumulate in the slideshow folder. Clicking the Remove Temporary System Files command button deletes all safety copies in the folder.

The second option: Accept Changes and Close command button implements the changes you have made to the slideshow by making the specified corrections to the php and JavaScript files in the slideshow folder and modifying the css files and the background color jpg file controlling background color of the all the individual slideshows in your slideshows folder.

This method for making changes to the layout of your slideshows has the advantage that all your slideshows will have the same text colors and background color gradient, whereas the number of thumbnail columns, subtitle and the copyright information will be different for the individual slideshows in your slideshows folder.

The standard css-files, background color files are installed during setup and are located in the css folder of the program folder. The css files can be edited with any text editor before they are used to replace the current css files in your slideshow folder.

A slideshow generated by File Tools

The same slideshow with a black background

A detailed 'Step-By-Step' instruction

If you want to include a JaS slideshow in your website proceed as follows:

A. Preconditions

Note that this description specifically applies to webservers running php. Without support for php, the slideshow will not work. It can, however, quite easily be modified to run without php support, but this modification you will have to carry out yourself
Also be aware that FileTools is a Windows (XP and 7) program, which will not run on a Mac pc
If you have an Apache server with a php 5 interpreter running on your pc, it is possible to test run the slideshow on you pc to check that everything is working as expected.
If you do not have an Apache server with php installed on your pc, you can find information on how to install these components in a number of places on the internet. A fairly good link is this: How to install and configure php5 to run with Apache on Windows
If you have no experience with Apache and/or php you may find the installation and configuration a bit complicated. But remember that you are not the only/the first person trying to this. You will find extensive help if you search the internet

B. Getting ready

Create a folder named "slideshows"" in the root of your website
Create a subfolder named "_css"" in "slideshows"
Create a folder named "slideshow_01" in the "slideshow" folder
Copy the jas.php and the jas.js files from the program folder to the "slideshow_01" folder
Prepare the image files for example in Photoshop and adjust the image sizes to max 720px x 540px
Copy all the images you want to include in the slideshow to the "slideshow_01" folder

C. Edit the jas.php and the legend block in jas.js

In FileTools navigate to the slideshows/slideshow_01 folder
Right-click the listbox to the right and Import Image Legends From JavaScript

at this point, the default JavaScript does not contain any image files. The left list box on the other hand contains all the image files you copied to the slideshow_01 folder

Right-click the right list box and Import Image Legends From JavaScript
To view the images you copied to the slideshow_01 folder, highlight all files in the right list box and click the File Thumbnails command button
To add an image to the slideshow, double-click the image file (one-by-one) and click the blue Add This Image To JavaScript command button

Proceed until you have added all the images you want to include in your slideshow. When you are done, it is a good idea to save the project: Click

to save the two JaS system files. Then you are ready to begin writing legends to the images in your slideshow

D. Writing legends to the images

Start by selecting all the files in the right list box and click the: Java Thumbnails command button
Then click the thumbnails one-by-one to enlarge the each image and to expose the text field for writing/editing the image legend
When you are done with this, remember to save the project again (see the comment above)
If you wish to change the position of a particular image in the slideshow, then close the thumbnail display, highlight the file you wish to shift in the right list box and use the up/down command buttons to move the image file up or down

Now you only have to edit the php file to complete the process. The default name of the php file is:

but the file can have any name you choose as long as it has the extension:

E. Editing the PHP file

To edit the php file simply click the menu item: PHP-File
The form for editing the php file allows you to enter Title, SubTitle and Copyright Information for the slideshow. In addition you can how many thumbnail columns you want to have in the slideshow. You select this parameter from the drop-down list at the bottom of the form. The options are from one to six columns
It is a good idea to leave the file name of the js files (jas_1-col.css, jas_2-col.css, jas_3-col.css, jas_4-col.css, jas_5-col.css, jas_6-col.css) as they are
Remember to save the changes to the php file before closing the form. If you click the Cancel command button, the form is closed without storing the changes
To be sure that everything is saved, save the entire project again (see the comment above)

F. Running the slideshow

You are now ready to run a test of your slideshow: click the Run Slideshow with Saved Data command button to launch the slideshow
Note that the document root setting in the Apache configuration file httpd.conf should match the path of you new slideshow. For example if your Apache document root is: C:/WEB_DESIGN the url to your new slideshow should look like this: http://localserver:443/mywebsite/slideshows/slideshow_01/jas.php
To link to the slideshow from other pages on your website, the link should have this form: ../slideshows/slideshow_01/jas.php
If you don't like the bluish-grey background gradient, you can create a new gradient file: background_gradient.gif, 1 pixel wide and 2048 pixels high. The gradient file is located in the css folder - and should remain there.

The FileTools program is free-ware and can be downloaded here: FileTools 6.3.xxx setup file