XnView Software

XnView: MP 0.84
OS: Windows 10 - 64bit

When sorting thumbnails in the file list of the browser manually, this custom sort is stored in a hidden file ".XnViewSort" in the current folder. In the file list this file .XnViewSort is not listed after activating "Show hidden files & folder".

Effect: Irritating/misleading user interface

To reproduce:
1. Open XnView browser
2. Browse a folder with several images
3. Drag the images and thus create a custom sort order.
4. Select Tools » Settings | Browser » File list | File list and check "Show hidden files & folders"
5. Close settings with "OK" button
Actual behaviour (bug): You will see your image files but not the file .XnViewSort.

Expected behaviour: All hidden files should be displayed.

Notes:

• descript.ion files are also hidden files of XnView and are displayed.
• I consider this as a bug as XnView behaves in an unexpected/inconsistent way. If a user wants to copy the image files and the custom sort he/she cannot use XnView for copying.
• Perhaps there could be a special setting for unhiding .XnViewSort and descript.ion file but that would be a suggestion that has to be discussed.

Reproduced. It appears to be intentionally and specifically ignoring it. I took a JPG file named ".jpg" and renamed it to various iterations of the .XnViewSort name (.XnView, .XnViewSor, .XnViewSorty, etc) and XnView saw all of them until I named it ".XnViewSort."

Also, adding a file name makes it show, and adding the extension to the include filter doesn't work. So it isn't ignoring by extension, but apparently by exact file name + extension.

O.k., thank you, you're right, it's better to show it in this case Issue 1106 is fixed in next version.

I wonder what happens if you copy image files with .XnViewSort into another folder with image files and .XnViewSort.

Looks like this needs a bit more discussion and thoughts.

helmut wrote:I wonder what happens if you copy image files with .XnViewSort into another folder with image files and .XnViewSort.

Nothing in the .XnViewSort, it will be added to the end of list

xnview wrote:

helmut wrote:I wonder what happens if you copy image files with .XnViewSort into another folder with image files and .XnViewSort.

Nothing in the .XnViewSort, it will be added to the end of list

Do I understand right: XnView MP will merge the two .XnViewSorts into one list with all entries of both files?

no, when you copy a file with a .XnViewSort to another folder with .XnViewSort, nothing is written. If you open this folder, the new file will be added to end of the file, and .XnViewSort will be written

xnview wrote:no, when you copy a file with a .XnViewSort to another folder with .XnViewSort, nothing is written. If you open this folder, the new file will be added to end of the file, and .XnViewSort will be written

So if you select image files plus .XnviewSort and copy these to the clipboard and then paste them to another folder, XnView will not overwrite the existing .XnViewSort file. Correct? (Please read my described scenario carefully before answering).

The question is this:

If you start with folder A with image set (A) and .XnViewSort(A) and copy images (A) and .XnViewSort(A) into folder B with image set (B) and .XnViewSort(B), as illustrated:

image set (A) + .XnViewSort (A) -> folder B

which of the following do you get in folder B:

image set (A) + image set (B) + .XnViewSort(A)
image set (A) + image set (B) + .XnViewSort(B)
image set (A) + image set (B) + .XnViewSort(B+A) <- contents of .XnViewSort(A) appended to contents of .XnViewSort(B)

I can't imagine it would be scenario 3, just don't see how that would work. I would think it would do the same thing copying it in Explorer would do, which is to prompt whether to overwrite, not copy .XnViewSort(A) (scenario 2), or copy and rename it (.XnViewSort(A) (2)), or perhaps just overwrite if it's set up that way. But in the end, I suspect the .XnViewSort file in folder B after the copy would have the contents of one or the other (A or B), not both. Correct?

helmut wrote:So if you select image files plus .XnviewSort and copy these to the clipboard and then paste them to another folder, XnView will not overwrite the existing .XnViewSort file. Correct? (Please read my described scenario carefully before answering).

Oh ok, no. In this case the .XnViewSort will be overwritten. But you have the same problem with descript.ion file

This problem is supposed to be fixed in XnView MP 0.85 beta 1. Please check and confirm the bug fix here.

Confirmed fixed, but if it's already set to show hidden files and you manually sort, .XnViewSort doesn't show until a manual refresh. Should I submit a full bug report on that?

vertigo wrote:Confirmed fixed, but if it's already set to show hidden files and you manually sort, .XnViewSort doesn't show until a manual refresh. Should I submit a full bug report on that?

Thank you for retesting. Whenever applying a change in the settings this change should apply immediately. Yes, please create a new, full bug report for 0.85 beta 1. I'm pretty sure that this problem occured before so please add a note in the bug report that this problem was NOT introduced in 0.85 beta 1.