I want to reorganize some folders that contain files which are indexed by DT (in order to access some of the stuff from my Linux machines as well). Is there some straightforward way to change the file locations in DT, in a single operation (not file by file)? Or, alternatively, is there a straightforward way to import previously indexed files?
I assume from your description that the files you want to move are located in various locations and levels within your DT database. If that’s the case, here’s one method to move them. Search for a term that will hit most of the files you want to move. In the search results, multi-select all of the relevant files. Control click/right-click to pop-up the contextual menu. Select “Move to…” from that menu. Iterate as needed until you’ve moved all the files.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for your suggestion. You are right in assuming that the files are scattered around my DT database hierarchy. And that is not something I want to change, so “move to” doesn’t look right to me: it moves the references inside the database, whereas I want to move the physical files.
I found a solution to that problem, a but by accident. I exported my whole database (“Files & Folders”) for making a CD archive, and then I looked a the DEVONtech_storage files that populate all folders. They are XML property list files and store all the supplemental information that DT needs in a quite readable format. So I wrote a short Python script that looks for files with “index=true” and a path in a specific directory and patches that information (remove the “index” key and modify the path). Then I imported everything again and I had the files where I wanted them.
There is one unpleasant sideeffect though: after importing, all former replicates become duplicates. I spent two hours fixing that (there doesn’t seem to be a systematic way to locate duplicates in the database), and I wonder if it might have been faster to move all my files by hand… If there is a trick to get around this I would like to hear about it. Patching the XML files might then become a useful general way to do complex transformations on the database.
One solution could be to use DT Pro’s AppleScript support to move the files. Another will be version 2.0 will be file-based and automatically synchronize the filesystem (e.g. move files, create folders etc.) on demand.
That sounds good - as all the other information I have seen about DT pro except for the date of availability 