XnView Software

Excluded feature is nice, but what about "included"? If someone wants to include 10 directories, he must exclude the rest - all other folders on the same disk and all other disks - including all the letters for flash disks, external hard drives, cell phones, etc.

may get complicated to do tho.
you'd want someone to come up with a complete plan on how it'll work 1st

I know what you mean. Perhaps a single list with option to include/exclude for each item, then higher item would have a higher priority.

For example:

[exluded] D:\Pictures\Testing
[exluded] D:\Pictures\Temp
[included] D:\Pictures

In this case all pictures in D:\Pictures\ folder wold be included except those two folders (Testing, Temp).

One more option would be needed then to include, or exclude the rest (paths not in the list).

Any suggestions are welcome.

A better and easy solution for me is the possibility to use a White or a Black list:

The white list:
[exclude] All Directories (& the related subfolders) = IMPLICIT AS DEFAULT
[exept] D:\Pictures\Testing\ & the related subfolders
[exept] D:\Photo\2009_06_25\ & the related subfolders
[exept]...
...

The black list:
[include] All Directories (& the related subfolders) = IMPLICIT AS DEFAULT
[exept] D:\Pictures\Testing\ & the related subfolders
[exept] D:\Photo\2009_06_25\ & the related subfolders
[exept]...
...

It would be a 3-level system, I think it would be just more complicated and confusing with unclear priority...

In your example the folder "D:\Photo\2009_06_25\ & the related subfolders" will be included, or excluded? How to know which item has a higher priority?

How many options you'd need with your system to achieve this:

[exclude] D:\Pictures\Test*
[include] D:\Pictures*
[exclude] All other paths

* means - including all subfolders, of course

With the system I have suggested I'd need just 3 options, each with a single two-state button (exclude/include) with a clear priority - higher item position, higher priority.

Don't know if there is a better / clearer way, but the suggestions are still welcome (and also response to existing suggestions ).

Hello Dreamer,
No, it's a one level system "[exept]" .
This is very clear, You can use the White list OR the Black list (but of course, not the both in the same time), it's an easy and a fast way to configure a customized list in all cases (and you do not need to fix a priority status level).

Dreamer wrote:...In your example the folder "D:\Photo\2009_06_25\ & the related subfolders" will be included, or excluded?...

It depends if you use the Black or the White list.
You have to make a choose of the kind of the desired management (Black or White).
(Included into the White list, Excluded into the Black list)
If you would like to be restrictive, it's easier to use the White list (only few items to add), and if not, you can use the Black list (only few items to exclude).

Dreamer wrote:...How many options you'd need with your system to achieve this:
[exclude] D:\Pictures\Test*
[include] D:\Pictures*
[exclude] All other paths
* means - including all subfolders, of course

In your simple, you only have one item to add into your white list (the exclude "all other path" is implicit):
[include] D:\Pictures (& the related subfolders)
But you have to move to an other location (by hand) your D:\Pictures\Test* directories, and/or you can also reorganize your directories in a more appropriate manner.

PS: your suggestion is very interesting and more accurate, but also more complicated to develop & to use, because the users also have to manage a priority status level for each folders.

FYI: the MP version already has a Black list management functionality (with this "Exclude" Tab option), but doesn't have yet the White list management functionality ...

I have suggested a white list (included) as another option to black list (excluded) in the first post, but the first reply was:

may get complicated to do tho.

I still think your system is not 1-level. Another example:

[include] D:\Pictures\A\B*
[exclude] D:\Pictures\A*
[include] D:\Pictures*
[exclude] All other paths

Now try to explain how to achieve this with the black / white list.

It's a "two" X 1-level system.

In this second simple, it's the same thing, you only have one item to add into your white list too (the exclude "all other path" is implicit):
[include] D:\Pictures\Allow-cache\

But you have first to reorganize your directories in a more appropriate manner :
a named directory: D:\Pictures\Allow-cache\*
and a named directory: D:\Pictures\Denied-cache\*

Do not forget: the MP 0.12 version already has a Black list management functionality (with this "Excluded" Tab option), but doesn't have yet the White list management functionality ... ...and the white list is not more complicated to do than the black list .

An other option, but more complicated here:
http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?p=66700#66700

oops66 wrote:In this second simple, it's the same thing, you only have one item to add into your white list too (the exclude "all other path" is implicit):
[include] D:\Pictures\Allow-cache\

But you have first to reorganize your directories in a more appropriate manner :
a named directory: D:\Pictures\Allow-cache\*
and a named directory: D:\Pictures\Denied-cache\*

OK, but what if I don't want, or can't reorganize my directories? Then white/black list feature would be useless, or at least incomplete. I could reorganize my directories, but what about other (thousands?) users? I think the best possible way should be find...

Dreamer wrote:...OK, but what if I don't want, or can't reorganize my directories? Then white/black list feature would be useless, or at least incomplete...

Not at all, this is also possible, but you will have a lot of items into your white OR black list, that's it (if you do not use the recursive option by default for the related sub-folders).
But, in my opinion, It's easier to reorganize one time, a thousand of directories (and mostly sub-directories - by cut/paste), than to manage several times few hundreds of combinations of priority levels.
A lot of goods softwares use this basic White&Black list functionality with success since a long time.
And personally, I will be happy to have this missing White list into a next MP version.

oops66 wrote:Not at all, this is also possible, but you will have a lot of items into your white OR black list, that's it

"lot of items" might be hundreds, or even more - for several paths, so yes, it is possible - theoretically, but practically it's imposible / unusable.

oops66 wrote:But, in my opinion, It's easier to reorganize one time, a thousand of directories (and mostly sub-directories - by cut/paste), than to manage several times few hundreds of combinations of priority levels.
A lot of goods softwares use this basic White&Black list functionality with success since a long time.

It's not so easy. With a good include/exclude feature only adding few items in correct order would be needed.

Reorganizing thousand of directories might be not so easy. Lot of other programs (backup, download, FTP) - and options in these programs - favourites, categories, rating... (not just in XnView) might be depending on these directories (paths) - and it might be not easy to re-configure it in these programs, because sometimes it's possible only manually and users would not reconfigure thousand of paths manually, they would either not change their program(s) and reconfigure the new, if they like the old one, just because of XnView.

I know, lot of programs are using this simple white/black list system, but I couldn't use these programs, I had to search for another program for backup just because of this 'weakness', for example and I just don't want to happen the same with the XnView users (old or new potential MP users).

oops66 wrote:Do not forget: the MP 0.12 version already has a Black list management functionality (with this "Excluded" Tab option), but doesn't have yet the White list management functionality ...
...and the white list is not more complicated to do than the black list .

I know this, as I said, I have suggested the same (white/black list) in the first post, but when obelisk has replied, I realized that it would be incomplete, unclear and confusing.

In the case, this is also possible to implement my old suggestion here (harder to do than a black&white list, but powerful) :
http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?p=66700#66700

Thanks, Pierre!