FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager for Android
Hello all,
I’m the author of SystemPanel and would like to ask for help from testers to get feedback for a new application, “FX File Explorer”. FX intends to be an uncluttered, everyday-usable file manager for Android. The primary development goal has been to create the same level of usability, intuitiveness, and efficiency as that offered by the file manager on your desktop computer.
Here’s a quick Youtube video I’ve put together for the beta:
When you start FX, you’ll see the “home screen” that presents a list of “catalogs” containing files, media, and network locations:
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You can browse and manage files directly by opening the media card item:
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Local media files can be browsed/indexed by their media type, i.e., photos, music, and videos. When browsing media, the media is logically categorized by its purpose. For example, the audio catalog is browseable by artist, album, all tracks, or playlist. Shown here are the album view and playlist view/editor:
. . .
The images catalog is browseable by “camera roll”, by individual folders which contain images, or by viewing all images at once. This is an image folder view (displayed as thumbnails and as a list):
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FX has the ability to transfer files to/from Windows network shares, FTP sites, SSH servers, via Bluetooth FTP, and to online cloud storage services (Dropbox, SugarSync, and Box). Working with network files does not appear significantly different from working with files stored on your media card. Network bookmarks can be created for quick access to your computers/servers, with (optional) encrypted password storage such that a single “keyring” password is used to access them from your device:
. . .
FX also supports sending files over Bluetooth via OBEX Push...with a twist. You can (*optionally*) have FX send files over WiFi rather than Bluetooth when both sending and receiving phones are using FX and both phones are on the same WiFi network. This can significantly improve the data transfer rate.
. . .
FX also supports browsing with multiple windows. Just tap the Window menu to switch windows or create/destroy them. The "Operations" item shows you all currently running, completed, and failed operations.
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The root module (available as a separate download, free-to-use during beta) adds the ability to manipulate file systems as root, remount file systems as writable, and change permissions and ownership. The root module is purpose-built for Android's modified Linux (e.g., the set ownership dialog allows you to assign ownership to installed applications).
A beta is out now on the Android market, just search for “FX File Explorer”, or click here. As usual for NextApp products, everything is free while in beta. Once it hits 1.0, a full paid version is released and the beta expires to become the Lite version. Both versions will have NO ADS. You can also turn off the paid features in the beta entirely *right now* using the very first option in the settings. The free Lite version is still a full-featured file manager, but without the media and network catalogs.
I would greatly appreciate bug reports, feature suggestions, and generally any recommendation about how to make it better. Minor issues/nitpicking/subtle tweak suggestions are equally appreciated: what annoys you may annoy others as well. The goal here is that this product be as convenient and straightforward to use as a desktop file manager.
I just tried this, excellent UI. I was (am) currently using File Expert (very happy with it), but this looks much better. Have not been able to connect to my PC yet (but haven't tried too hard).
Also, File Expert has a "Favorites" which is real nice for most used folders.
Also, when I "Sort" by date, it sorts from oldest to newest, needs to go from newest to oldest (so newest is at top), doesn't appear to have that option. Will try this for a few days.
edit:
1. Connected to PC, had my Username wrong.
2. Still need to sort by decending date.
3. I can only copy 1 file to the clipboard, should be able to copy multiple.
4. Don't think I need a "Favorites" with the categories you have, but it would be nice (and necessary if you don't fix the sort issue).
5. Need a way to EXIT the app. Can't use Back, and there's no exit button. Have to hit Home and kill the app with a killer of some sort (I use GO Launcher).
Last edited by tcat007; August 23rd, 2011 at 04:29 PM.
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Thanks for the suggestions. Descending sorts are now on the TODO list.
Selecting multiple files is accomplished by swiping horizontally across items and then using the File menu Cut/Copy/Delete items:
The context menu (tap and hold menu) currently only operates on the individual item on which it is pressed. I think this is better behavior...if we have the context menu operate on all items, it might be more confusing if some selected items are present only off the screen.
With regard to exiting the app...the home key is the "exit" key. From what I've seen, most popular Android file managers have the back key close the application and return you to the home screen when pressing it once or twice at the top level. When you press the back button at the top level, they raise a "toast message" indicating that you can "Press the back button again to exit". Most people seem to equate this with doing "File->Quit" in a desktop application, but that's not what's happening.
Each of these popular file managers does in fact close itself and take you to the home screen, but the app is very likely still loaded into memory. They're not doing anything wrong here...this is exactly how Android is supposed to work. The problem is that the Android application lifecycle is different than that of a desktop computer, i.e., Android *wants* to keep as many apps non-running cached/suspended in the background as possible.
The user manual for SystemPanel has some info on how Android works in this regard specifically see: Task Management | android.nextapp.com
I can certainly add a setting to make FX "exit" to the home screen like other file managers, but it won't actually terminate the app. Having an app actually terminate itself is bad design per Android engineers, see Dianne Hackborn's posts here: System.exit - Android Developers | Google Groups
I may wind up adding a "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" item either within the "Files" section or as its own "Favorites" section at the top level. I do want to have a bit more customization on the home screen as well, including the ability to eliminate items that you don't want.
I figured out the swiping thing, but if I swipe 3 files, and I long press on one, I can copy, but it it only copies the one I pressed (with all 3 highlighted). How to copy and paste 3 items at once?
I don't need a separate "exit" button, but it would be nice if the "back" button clicked out of the app (I think most apps do that). If I click HOME and say I forgot to disconnect from my wifi PC connection, I assume that connection is still live with FX running in the background. I'd rather make sure nothing is running in FX when I "quit".
Quote:
Originally Posted by tliebeck
Thanks for the suggestions. Descending sorts are now on the TODO list.
Selecting multiple files is accomplished by swiping horizontally across items and then using the File menu Cut/Copy/Delete items:
I figured out the swiping thing, but if I swipe 3 files, and I long press on one, I can copy, but it it only copies the one I pressed (with all 3 highlighted). How to copy and paste 3 items at once?
I don't need a separate "exit" button, but it would be nice if the "back" button clicked out of the app (I think most apps do that). If I click HOME and say I forgot to disconnect from my wifi PC connection, I assume that connection is still live with FX running in the background. I'd rather make sure nothing is running in FX when I "quit".
To cut/copy/delete multiple selected items, just tap the File menu in the lower left corner. Having the context menu operate on selected items (vs. the item clicked) could be a bit confusing in a scenario where one or more items were selected off screen (while none were selected on screen).
Currently all network connections are closed after 90 seconds of idle time (this will be configurable at some point in the not-too-distant future). "Sessions" remain active for a bit longer (5 minutes at present) and will also be configurable. An active "session" doesn't actually mean any connections are in place, just that FX is remembering login/password info for that server temporarily in case you want to establish a connection.
The Bluetooth push server currently remains active indefinitely until it is manually stopped. I will be adding a default-enabled option to auto-stop after a period of inactivity. The Bluetooth push server does have an icon in the notification area whenever it is running though.
Having windows open (either the active window or otherwise) to a network location will NOT cause connections to remain active. Connections will be re-established once the app is reopened and action is taken within the window.
You can open the "Net Status" window (tap "Windows" menu, then "Operations," then "Net Status") to see the connection manager working.
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Got it, that works. Just a little confusing at first, since the long press context menu is similar (the same?) as the phone "menu" button, but doesn't do the same thing...
How long will the beta be good? I hate to lose the networking option, but also hate to pay $3 for it, when it's free in File Expert (and Astro).
Quote:
Originally Posted by tliebeck
To cut/copy/delete multiple selected items, just tap the File menu in the lower left corner. Having the context menu operate on selected items (vs. the item clicked) could be a bit confusing in a scenario where one or more items were selected off screen (while none were selected on screen).
Got it, that works. Just a little confusing at first, since the long press context menu is similar (the same?) as the phone "menu" button, but doesn't do the same thing...
How long will the beta be good? I hate to lose the networking option, but also hate to pay $3 for it, when it's free in File Expert (and Astro).
They're a little different, but are intentionally quite similar.
If you tap "Tools" and then "About" it will tell you when the current beta release expires. Later betas will continue to extend that deadline.
Just noticed there is no "Share" with Dropbox. Can't live without that. I know I can copy and paste, but that's not as easy as hitting share in the pop up menu... no option to "send to" it either. I'll be using File Expert until this is added. Otherwise it's fantastic!
Just noticed there is no "Share" with Dropbox. Can't live without that. I know I can copy and paste, but that's not as easy as hitting share in the pop up menu... no option to "send to" it either. I'll be using File Expert until this is added. Otherwise it's fantastic!
Thanks! I'm working on adding support for using FX as a file chooser and revamping the send menu. The current version of FX appears to actually have DropBox show up in the send menu if you select "email", which is of course technically a bug. I hope to at least have the file chooser in place for the next release (very soon).
The next release will also have support for double-tapping back to exit and has a revised sort menu to allow descending sorts.
Root support will likely be added at some point, possibly as a separate add-on module. I don't have an exact timeframe on when this can happen, but I'm guessing a lot of folks are going to want root access.
As someone who typically uses a command-line for root operations on any Linux-based system, I do need to do more research to see how people really want to *use* root in an Android file manager. Removing bloatware, remounting filesystems as rw/ro, or permissions changes come to mind of course. I'm sure some folks will simply want to use it mostly for exploration rather than modification.
I'd want to keep the typical Android use-cases straightforward while trying as hard as possible to prevent people from inadvertently destroying their filesystems (e.g., additional warnings, disabling recursive operations by default). Very much open to suggestions here, especially in regard to identifying the most common root tasks.
Hello all, 0.57 is out now. The market seems to lag a little bit lately with
update uploads...make sure your version says 0.57 in Tools->About.
Changes:
Added file chooser for use with third-party applications (e.g., Gmail, DropBox) to select files to attach/upload.
Redesigned “Send” dialog. Added support for applications which *require* sending only one file at a time. DropBox is supported by this feature.
Tapping notifications now launches appropriate task (i.e., tapping the Bluetooth server state displays it, tapping a file operation opens the operations activity).
Fixed bug where opening notification item would reset state of open windows.
Network bookmarks and Bluetooth devices now sorted.
Zip archive operations now report incremental progress.
Added capability to sort folders in descending order (by name/type/size/date).
Configurable behavior of back button on home screen (single-press to exit, double-press to exit, or ignore).
Fixed annoying repeated notification bar updates on Honeycomb devices.
Fixed bug where Bluetooth server item wouldn’t appear in notification bar on some occasions.
Using “Download” button to copy files from remote servers now automatically renames files when conflicts are detected.
Pasting now checks for existing files before attempting to paste any files, displays error dialog immediately if files found.
tcat007, thanks again for all the suggestions. Please let me know if there are any interaction scenarios with DropBox where you find FX not working correctly. It's supported as a File Chooser under DropBox's "upload - any files" option and DropBox should appear in the Send menu.
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Excellent, added features seem to work well. I am rooted, but really don't use explorer to mess with things, I'm sure there are others out there with suggestions. I pretty much just use Titanium and link2SD. Just changed my Dock shortcut from File Expert to FX... full time "testing" now.
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Played with it a little. I like the GUI overall & the speed on HTC DHD.
Suggestions:
1- Tools button- Actually add file management tools to the list. Seems strange that they aren't there & that the button is so dominate for such little function.
2- Add folder size info to ALL folders/files when exploring a folder & at the main view. Bug? View Size in List View doesn't work at all. View date works. Nice if I could see both. I haven't seen this in any app yet. I was at first excited to see the size of my SD card shown but PO'd that no other folder or file sizes were. How else do we make choices about some file management work?
3- PLEASE add Move or Move To as Tools. To Copy, Cut, Paste is a PITA, & not intuitive. I see friends with so many multiple copies of the same file on their systems because of this on their Macs & PC's. It drives me crazy & is a peeve of mine. Ghost App (my fav file app) has the best application of this but it takes a bit of practice to embed in the head the dual pane selection / move to process. Is it because a scrolling drop down list of places to move a file to is too difficult to impliment? Whatever, at least add Move as an option? I won't buy the program without this & a few other such file management commands beyond the basics.
4 - Add Rename to file management tools & if possible Batch Rename !!!!! Really need this for working with image files!
Looks promising. Thanks.
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A few more comments. I really like your image viewer. IMO it has potential to be a seperate App, if more image functions were put with it, if as with image browser app, QuickPic. I don't mean image effects. There is enough of that out there, but image or browser management tools. QP is the best browser IMO, but yours has some nice features, such as view actual size.
What I found odd though, is in the folder list of my main image folder, if I swipe to select a folder, or press Tools, there is ZERO functionality. None in tools, one via a long press on the selected folder, nothing anywhere else that I can find. Is this a bug? Selecting something should allow you to do something with the selection. There should be, IMO, global tools, under TOOLS, & folder specific tools via a long press, such as move, rename, copy, delete, send to, create shortcut & more. Please consider putting a zillion file management tools within "Tools" or rename Tools. Going to read "About", within tools makes no sense to me.
Also, folders "hidden" with QuickPic, are hidden from your app but not from other file explorer apps, such as Ghost. I thought this was a QP specific function, as it doesn't write a .nomedia file to the folder, but is a function within QP & not the folder? But maybe not.
Last edited by Chip_365; August 26th, 2011 at 01:07 PM.
Ok, If I Hide a folder in QuickPic it does write a no media file to the folder. So then the folder doesn't show up in your Media /Images folder. But I can see the hidden folder & it's contents if I explore ths SD card folder system. I also found how to view hidden system files like the actual .nomedia files, under "View" ....
My apologies, as some things are as you intended. We just need to find.or learn them.
I can't seem to make the icons & text view in list view of the Media Images folder access smaller yet? It only seems to make thumbs smaller on grid or gallery view where there is no text. I'll keep playing.
The menu layout is still somewhat being decided. All file management stuff should still remain in the File menu though, "Tools" is currently being used for more generic functionality that does not belong in the File/View menus.
Folder size calculation can be done on demand by clicking "View->Details" or using the context menu to select details on a specific folder. Calculating folder sizes takes a bit of work, and autocalculating (especially for top-level items) require a good expenditure of CPU whether the user cared about it or not. We don't want to conusme CPU cycles (which translate to power/battery life) unless specifically asked.
Cut/Copy are generally the same operations as move/copy. When you select cut or copy, you are simply indicating your desire to move/copy those files somewhere else at some point. Cutting or copying actually doesn't *DO* anything to the files except taking a note of their names/locations within FX. It's only when you tap paste that an operation is actually performed. The nice thing about cut/copy is that you give the user the freedom to continue working exploring until they're ready to choose the destination for the files. As a for-instance, the user might want to create a new network connection, connect to it, and then create a new folder on the that server before moving/copying (pasting) the files to it.
Batch rename is something I'd like to add at some point, but it is a bit of a unique utility so it'll likely be post 1.0.
There will likely be a "rescan media" option coming soon to the tools menu when viewing image folders. There currently is no context menu for them though.
I do want to add some basic crop/resize functionality to the image viewer at some point. Especially useful for those times when you want to take a pic with the camera phone and send them by email; there's no sense sending a giant grainy 8MP image.
0.70 (announcement in a sec) adds support for showing image thumbnails in list views. We still don't show any image thumbnails unless they have been generated by Android, so any hidden folder with a .nomedia item in it likely won't have previews available. This will likely change in the future.
This release requires that you uninstall FX and then reinstall it from the market. I'm very sorry for this unpleasant issue, but there is a bug in Android where the updater doesn't work properly when certain deployment flags are changed. A dialog has been added to the product to detect the effects of this problem, so you'll automatically be prompted if this is necessary (and given a direct link to uninstall it).
There are two major changes in this release:
Context menus (i.e., tap-and-hold menus) now operate on all selected items. If you tap-hold an unselected item, the context menu will operate on that single item (and the selection will be cleared). This was a frequent complaint with 0.70, please let me know how you like the new behavior.
The audio catalog has been overhauled. Playlists can now be reorganized by dragging and dropping individual tracks within them (this still needs some fine tuning, e.g., the scrolling speeds might be a bit too quick). Additionally ringtones/notifications/podcasts/alarms are now separated from music. Album art is displayed in many more places as well (this can be turned off in the settings).
There's a new permission added to the list, android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS ("Write system settings"). This was added to enable you to set the default ringtone/alarm/notification sounds from within the Music/Audio catalog browser.
Thanks again and greatly appreciate feedback and suggestions!
Shame it doesn't let itself be stored on the SD card. I have to choose between File Expert and FX File Explorer because my internal phone memory is limited. FX File Explorer is a beta. File Expert is not. That must determine my choice.
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Shame it doesn't let itself be stored on the SD card. I have to choose between File Expert and FX File Explorer because my internal phone memory is limited. FX File Explorer is a beta. File Expert is not. That must determine my choice.
Hey there, I decided to try FX without the (soon to be) paid features, just to get a different angle; also the fact that I'm using a low-end, smaller screen phone might give you some more varied feedback on the versatily of the app.
Things that I've noticed:
- The speed for such a nice UI is comendable, to say the least. Even in a low-res phone like mine, the icons, the text and the menu look crisp and well defined, without sacrificing efficiency and performance.
- It has the usual stuff, sharing through several apps or mediums (BT, Evernote, Dropbox, Tweetdeck, et. al.); in the case of images, the ability to preview it inside the app is always nice, as is the chance to set it as a wallpaper.
- Selecting a file is really intuitive once you get to it. My old file manager (File Expert) made you click a box to select multiple files; while in high end phones that might be easy, on such a small screen one, it wasn't as comfortable as expected, while by no means a difficult task; also on File Expert, it had a small pop-up tools kinda thing; in such a small screen, it was indeed a feat to be able to tap on the correct icon (my particular phone seems to be wrongly calibrated, since it recognizes taps on the TOP part of any control). Yours on the other hand, considering the size of the icons/thumbnails, it takes advantage of the touchscreen by swiping on top of them to select, and the action icons are big enough to pose no particular problem.
- In the same vein as the last thing, the icons for the actions (and the menu in itself) are incredibly easy to adapt to, and with the introduction of the multiselection context menu, all the better.
- Love the little overlays on top of media-specific folders. These ties in with my final thoughts on the app so far.
Now a few things I would love to see:
- Echoing the request to be able to move the app to SD. I know it's already on your plans, but it's still worth the mention.
- I guess that the ability to change the actual size of the icons/thumbnails would be a nice perk, but by no means a make-it-or-break-it kind of function.
- I normally use FB pictures as contacts images in my phone, but I guess there might be people who would love the chance to set a contact picture from the app itself, just as you can set your homescreen BG.
- Following the context sensitive menu, in my mind making a long tap on an empty space (or a folder) would make a second pop-up menu to appear, with options like paste or such. Sure, the clipboard is up there and it's pretty clear, but if you want to move some files into a folder in the same screen, doing a long tap would get you a pop-up menu to paste the copied selection in there; just an idea.
Final thoughts
The thing I love the most of this particular file manager is that, for us folks who are just migrating to the Android OS and are still weary of rooting or outright messing with the phone, gives us a familiar enviroment to work with; the similarity to any desktop file explorer is uncanny and really newbie-friendly.
Last edited by KaosStorm; September 8th, 2011 at 04:47 PM.
- Echoing the request to be able to move the app to SD. I know it's already on your plans, but it's still worth the mention.
Next version has this enabled. I apologize for not having it previously enabled but it's a bit frustrating from a development perspective. Once it's enabled your app must be built against Froyo (Android 2.2), and if you want backward compatibility with Eclair (2.1), Google's solution is that you "be very careful and test more."
Quote:
- I guess that the ability to change the actual size of the icons/thumbnails would be a nice perk, but by no means a make-it-or-break-it kind of function.
All our icons are actually scalable vector graphics images (SVGs), but Android unfortunately requires us to turn them into PNG bitmaps to deploy them in the application. Still may be able to get such support in place in the future though. I'd love to have pinch-stretch zoom gesture support in file lists. We could do it by adding additional very-large PNG images to the app, but these would probably have to be downloadable and live on the SD card to avoid having a profound effect on the size of the APK download.
Quote:
- I normally use FB pictures as contacts images in my phone, but I guess there might be people who would love the chance to set a contact picture from the app itself, just as you can set your homescreen BG.
I'm a bit afraid of adding the required permissions to do this. As a for-instance, our SystemPanel app has a 4.5+ star review and has more than a half-million downloads. Every couple of weeks someone will post a review of the app claiming that we don't need a given permission and that we must be using it to do something really sinister. Adding any access to contacts would bring these folks out in droves (even though the same folks wouldn't blink at giving an app superuser access).
Quote:
- Following the context sensitive menu, in my mind making a long tap on an empty space (or a folder) would make a second pop-up menu to appear, with options like paste or such. Sure, the clipboard is up there and it's pretty clear, but if you want to move some files into a folder in the same screen, doing a long tap would get you a pop-up menu to paste the copied selection in there; just an idea.
The problem here is that a lot of screens won't have any whitespace. Folks will get attached to this and become frustrated when the no-whitespace condition occurs (i.e., viewing a scrolling list or a grid of files that exactly fills the screen).
Have though about adding a Paste option to the File menu itself but didn't like the redundancy of it, and it *only* works when the clipboard is present.
While the Beta is GREAT, I just went back to File Expert. I turned off the "Full Version" check mark to see what the free version might be like, and almost everything turns off. I don't really care about the separate media sections, but the networking section is a must (free or paid). I may reinstall once this comes off beta, but for now FE does pretty much the same (with networking and root access)... just not nearly as nice of a UI.
While the Beta is GREAT, I just went back to File Expert. I turned off the "Full Version" check mark to see what the free version might be like, and almost everything turns off. I don't really care about the separate media sections, but the networking section is a must (free or paid). I may reinstall once this comes off beta, but for now FE does pretty much the same (with networking and root access)... just not nearly as nice of a UI.
Is something disabled that isn't supposed to be? As stated in the first post, the media catalogs and network functions are not available in the free version. All the file management functions should still be present though. Please let me know if a feature was turned off that should not be.
Is something disabled that isn't supposed to be? As stated in the first post, the media catalogs and network functions are not available in the free version. All the file management functions should still be present though. Please let me know if a feature was turned off that should not be.
That's precisely his point, from what I gather: he says that he particularly doesn't care if the media section is part of the pay app, but he feels that the network one should be present in both versions.
FE has network features and root access in the free version (IIRC) and so he feels that he does not need FX (for now) because, when it goes lives, the free version will offer less than FE except in the UI department.
EDIT: Don't know why I felt the need to clarify what tcat said. Anyway, and to answer just last question, when you enter "free mode" it disables both the features you said would go; so everything's good with that.
Last edited by KaosStorm; September 12th, 2011 at 11:25 PM.
That's precisely his point, from what I gather: he says that he particularly doesn't care if the media section is part of the pay app, but he feels that the network one should be present in both versions.
That was my best estimate as well, I just want to make certain that this is the case and that something else isn't missing. The home screen of the free version will look a bit barren until the ability to add home-screen bookmarks is available. However once you navigate into a file catalog I think it hardly feels like a limited/"Lite" product.
With regard to the more general issue though, the point of FX is not to square off in a price-for-features war against the rest of the Android market.
The point of FX is the user interface. I'm not simply talking about aesthetics, but rather the method in which the user operates the application. FX is not designed to be only used in a pinch when there's no other option. It's designed to be used everyday, to provide a critical-but-missing piece of the operating system that will make it practical and easy to do things you might have previously wanted to instead use a PC to accomplish.
All that said, the tariff for the full version isn't going to be particularly steep (pricing isn't set, but take a look at the cost of our existing apps).
Version 0.73 is now available on the market. New features include:
Added support for FTP-S (implicit encryption) and FTP-ES (explicit encryption).
Added key verification dialog for new SSH connections. A key verification notice is displayed when connecting to a host for the first time, and a key changed warning/error is displayed in the event the key changes.
Added support for hiding system catalogs. Currently this feature is disabled by default but will likely soon be enabled by default (most non-technical users don’t have any interest in seeing non-user-accessible storage space, and technical users will easily be able to re-enable it).
Fixed playlist editing issue where reordering had an initial lag when dragging an item (when album art is enabled).
Fixed bug where passwords were forgotten when editing hosts.
Fixed bug where sleeping device would stop folder size calculations in folder details view.
FX may now be moved to the SD card.
FTP control connections are now kept alive during data transfers.
I've had to put out a 0.74 version to update a minor glitch in the 0.73 release that prevents the Bluetooth server from being started.
The only thing modified in this update is the APK's manifest file. Unfortunately there's a very annoying bug in the Android tools for Eclipse where certain changes will result in it inappropriately changing the names of services provided by an application. As such the Bluetooth server wouldn't start at all in 0.73.
Sorry for the trouble everyone, nothing more annoying than devs that throw multiple releases up in a day.
"Competition" is the name of the game. Don't get me wrong, I really like this app. Just saying the networking feature is important (to me) to have for "free". I really don't mind ads (rather see ads than pay for full features). But then if this has all the bells and whistles for $.99 I'd probably buy it. Just would hate to see things like "root access" as a separate item. I do like the access to tools better on this app than in FE.
You're doing a great job and the UI is very nice, you absolutely deserve income from a paid app or from ads. I was just surprised at what disappeared when unchecking "full version".
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Hey Tod, great to see that you're making what seem like another great app. I hope this is as good as SystemPanel
Quote:
Originally Posted by tliebeck
It's designed to be used everyday, to provide a critical-but-missing piece of the operating system that will make it practical and easy to do things you might have previously wanted to instead use a PC to accomplish.
^--that's me. I hate doing anything on the computer if I can do it on the phone Most of the file manager apps I've tried usually miss one feature or another or it has ADs (and not something I like 100% to buy)
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Hey Tod, great to see that you're making what seem like another great app. I hope this is as good as SystemPanel
^--that's me. I hate doing anything on the computer if I can do it on the phone Most of the file manager apps I've tried usually miss one feature or another or it has ADs (and not something I like 100% to buy)
Thanks!!! Greatly appreciate any feedback you have to offer!
One more thing that I found yesterday, while fixing an issue I had with K9:
When you select a folder to save your attachments to, it loads your file manager/file explorer to locate said folder (or in case you don't have one, you have to enter the route manually). Since I have FX, it said that it didn't recognize any file manager available. I'm gonna try installing another file manager now and see if it recognizes that one.
EDIT
So yeah, I tried a few file managers and here are the results:
File Manager (TouchWiz stock)
FX
File Expert
ES File Manager
Astro File Manager
Out of those files, only ES File Manager got recognized by the app. Maybe you could find why is that and try to work yours into K9? Just a thought.
Last edited by KaosStorm; September 15th, 2011 at 10:28 AM.
The Following User Says Thank You to KaosStorm For This Useful Post:
One more thing that I found yesterday, while fixing an issue I had with K9:
When you select a folder to save your attachments to, it loads your file manager/file explorer to locate said folder (or in case you don't have one, you have to enter the route manually). Since I have FX, it said that it didn't recognize any file manager available. I'm gonna try installing another file manager now and see if it recognizes that one.
EDIT
So yeah, I tried a few file managers and here are the results:
File Manager (TouchWiz stock)
FX
File Expert
ES File Manager
Astro File Manager
Out of those files, only ES File Manager got recognized by the app. Maybe you could find why is that and try to work yours into K9? Just a thought.
Thanks for reporting this, I'll grab K9 and check out what "Intent" it fires and try to add support. FX already has a folder selector, it'll just be a question of making it available to other applications.
I'm not sure if you're still monitoring this thread, but it's worth a shot.
A quick question, is it normal that file explorers in Android don't support overwriting a file? I tried to move some images (wallpapers) from Dropbox to my WP folder, but since it appeared to have some duplicated entries, it gave me an error and refused to continue with the rest of the files.
Is there a way to offer a rewrite/rename/ignore feature in these cases or is that a limitation of the OS?
I'm not sure if you're still monitoring this thread, but it's worth a shot.
A quick question, is it normal that file explorers in Android don't support overwriting a file? I tried to move some images (wallpapers) from Dropbox to my WP folder, but since it appeared to have some duplicated entries, it gave me an error and refused to continue with the rest of the files.
Is there a way to offer a rewrite/rename/ignore feature in these cases or is that a limitation of the OS?
Definitely still monitoring this thread. It certainly is possible to implement the behavior you're requesting, defaulting to halting the operation is just the safest/easiest implementation. With regard to your statemnet that it's not copying the "rest of" the files though...it shouldn't be copying any of the files, i.e., it should be checking first before doing the work...is this not the case?
Just ran some tests and no, it does not move any of the files if it finds a single duplicated entry. I guess I just found the first thing I don't like about your app
Still using it though, because I like it better than any other file manager that I've tested so far; it would be nice if it would let the rest of the files be copied/moved with the exception of the duplicated ones.
Last edited by KaosStorm; September 25th, 2011 at 09:44 PM.
This release adds support for setting background images for use within FX. By default it will use a dimmed version of your home screen background. You can set a custom image to be used only within FX if you'd like, and the contrast dimming level is configurable in the settings as well. You can also use the wallpaper image as your background for icon, list, and thumbnail views if you'd like. Most of the UI elements are translucent, so you'll be able to see the background through them.
Bluetooth support has been overhauled a bit in this release. Our "Bluetooth Wi-fi Accelerator" which sends files over Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth for better performance has been changed around a bit. You can now use it while still retaining your phone's own Bluetooth push server (previously you *had* to use FX's push server). All of this is configurable in the settings.
And non-Wi-Fi-accelerated Bluetooth performance is also significantly improved from the 0.73 release. While 0.73 was seeing 25-28KiB/second, 0.76 has been testing at 80-120KiB/second (depending on the device). The Wi-Fi accelerator is still quicker (300-500KiB/second, on a G network). Would very much be interested if anyone is seeing faster or slower times, and on what devices.
Also visible in the Eee Pad screenshot is the new support for showing connected USB devices in the "Files" panel. Any mounted filesystem that is read/write will now show up there, excluding a few items like temporary system folders. Please let me know if you see anything in there that shouldn't be (or vice-versa).
Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions! Very interested to hear input on these new changes...e.g., do you like/dislike the wallpaper option?
I just got the update... my SDext2 shows up on my root files list, very cool. Can see all my "link2SD" .apks now. Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing, but nice to see what in there!
Not sure if the wallpaper background is necessary, black or selection by color is probably adequate. Even at 30% I had too many light spots making text less readable, I turned off wallpaper (should probably be off by default). Probably not so bad on a tablet.
I see beta is ending Oct. 10th... that's my birthday, do I get free real version?
Actually the wallpaper that popped up on mine was my screen #5. I have 6 screens, #3 is my main "home". I opened the app while on screen #4. So not sure how it picks the wallpaper (I use Multi-Picture Live, with 6 different images).
Actually the wallpaper that popped up on mine was my screen #5. I have 6 screens, #3 is my main "home". I opened the app while on screen #4. So not sure how it picks the wallpaper (I use Multi-Picture Live, with 6 different images).
Wallpaper is retrieved through the standard Android API call (WallpaperManager.getWallpaper() or something like that IIRC). We then scale it to fill the screen (cropping excess).
I've found it tends to look identical to the center screen in portrait orientations (which is what was desired). In landscape orientations the Android home screen (Eclair/Froyo/GB) seems to show the TOP portion of the wallpaper rather than the center. I think Honeycomb corrects this bug. FX displays the center in both landscape and portrait.
Thanks again everyone, 0.80 is now available on the Android Market!
The major improvements in this release are bookmark capabilities and a built-in text editor.
Bookmarks can be added by tapping-and-holding on local folders. For example, open the media card and tap-and-hold on your "Documents" or "Download" folder and then select "Add Bookmark" in the popup menu. A bookmark will be added to the FX home screen. Given that many applications will pollute the root directory of your SDCard/internal storage with configuration folders, creating a few key bookmarks can make navigation much nicer.
Click to enlarge screenshots:
Bookmarks on the FX home screen:
Tapping-and-holding on a bookmark will allow you to edit it, remove it, change its icon, or rearrange the order of bookmarks:
The other big new feature in 0.80 is the text editor. This is of course will be a fairly critical component once the root access module is complete/released. The text editor can be launched from within FX (currently only via "open with" or by disabling the text viewer and setting it as the default text-file viewer).
The text editor is currently fairly simple but its featureset will be expanded over time.
Additionally have updated default preferences to have the background image displayed by default in all the major views. This is still configurable of course, you'll just want to first uncheck the "Always Use Wallpaper" option in the "Appearance" section of the Settings.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to tliebeck For This Useful Post:
Nice! But a quick question: I can't find a 'move' function for files or folders. Am I dumb & blind or has this basic function been left out?
Edit: Never mind -dumb question. I figured out using 'cut' instead of 'move'. Don't like it but get the job done.
A lot of people are initially put off by cut/copy strategy, especially if they've never used it on their desktop PC's. I think this is largely because most people like to simply drag-and-drop.
As far as effort is concerned, it's roughly the same for basic operations:
Cut/Copy:
1.) Select files
2.) Tap Cut or Copy
3.) Navigate to new destination
4.) Tap Clipbaord
5.) Tap Paste
Immediate Move/Copy Strategy:
1.) Select Files
2.) Tap Immediate Move / Immediate Copy Button
3.) Dialog appears showing possible new destinations
4.) Navigate to new destination
5.) Tap Ok
The major reason why FX has gone exclusively with the cut/copy strategy is that the "Navigate to new destination" step sometimes involves creating a new folder, a good amount of browsing, searching (currently not available in released versions of FX, but on its way), or other operations.
Bookmarks is great addition... I was using "Favorites" in File Expert, this is even better. Put them at the top for direct open. Thanks!
There's a "Bookmarks" feature within "Network"... if I long-press Network/Windows/bookmark (a particular connection), it doesn't pop up a "Bookmark" option. That would be nice to have a direct connect bookmark in the Bookmark folder.
FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager for Android
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