Through experimentation I found out that DTP not only changes file names of files it owns, i.e. imported files (see the forum thread Search for filename of imported files?), but even files it just indexes, i.e. it does not own!
I love the indexing feature of DTP, because it is so versatile, but the this behaviour is very unexpected and potentially dangerous, so very good to keep in mind when you index parts of your file system.
For example if you index documentation in HTML format on your system, and by accident you change in DTP a title of one of the documents, you change the underlying file name of the HTML file and with this you break links from other html files to this file in the external documentation! - I have learned this the hard way…
I’m not sure why this is unexpected.
If you import, you are copying the file, leaving an original isolated.
If you index, you are pointing at the exact file, with no copying involved, so changing a value of that file - whether contents or its name - will affect the only instance of that file there is.
This is entirely logical.
Well, with indexed items I was expecting that they are not touched. I think indexing is the process of looking at something external and creating something new from it (e.g. an index) and not changing the original information. But that’s maybe just me…
I expect so-I don’t ever recall anyone mentioning before that they were surprised by this behavior. What I do see here occasionally is that users expect DEVONthink to have [b]more[/b] control over indexed documents e.g. acting as a substitute for the Finder.
There are actually two applications of the term “indexing”.
An index is in the database containing metadata and content about files, imported or indexed.
“Indexing files” as you’re discussing could as easily be called “linking”.
But this behavior is completely logical. You are dealing with the original file. If you only have one copy and you modify it, the original is changed.
Fair enough. This is the model DTP offers, so we have to go with it. DTP is a cool tool and when we know about this particular way of handling external files we can easily deal with it. 