File Manager

You can access the File Manager by clicking the "File Manager" ribbon at the top. It lets you manage all the files to be compiled into your application and behaves like Windows Explorer.

You have a global view of what will be inside your application. The Folder tree displays the different subfolders available, as if you were using an FTP program to manage files on a server.

To view the contents of a folder, simply select it in the Folder tree and its contents will be listed. Note that ExeOutput for PHP can take some seconds to load the entire file list when displayed for the first time, especially if the subfolder contains a large number of files.

The index page is indicated by a small house icon (as seen on the screenshot). Excluded files are marked with a red cross.

Selecting the "All Files (real paths)" node in the Folder tree will list all files to be compiled with their full path. Selecting the "All Files (virtual paths)" node will list all files with their virtual path, i.e., the path that follows the server or domain name in a URL.

About Virtual Paths¶

Virtual paths are paths that follow the server or domain name in a URL. We use virtual paths in applications because they function like servers: to access a compiled file, you need to use its URL. For instance, if you have this URL: ghe://heserver/images/picture1.gif

• ghe://heserver/ or http://heserver/ are references to the custom internal protocol and namespaces used by ExeOutput for PHP to display files in the custom browser.
• images is the virtual path.
• picture1.gif is the filename.

Note that ExeOutput for PHP automatically manages virtual paths itself (see below); all features related to virtual paths are designed only for advanced users.

Adding Virtual Folders¶

To add blank virtual folders to your application, click Add and then Add Virtual Folder. You will be prompted to enter its name, and it is then created as a child of the selected folder (if no folder is available or selected, it will be created as a child of the application root). You can then move files to this folder using drag/drop operations.

Managing Files¶

All source files are generally added automatically when ExeOutput for PHP creates your project. However, you can add new files, folders, or source wildcards to your list manually at any time; or better yet, let ExeOutput for PHP perform this task itself thanks to the powerful Source File List Update option.

You can manage your files using the button bar below or the mouse's context menu (right-click on the file list):

Adding Files¶

To add files to the list, press the Add button and select an option: you may add single or multiple files, entire folders, virtual folders and custom wild cards. Just select the appropriate action when you have just clicked the Add button:

• Add Files

• Add Folder

• Add Source Wildcard

• Add Virtual Folder

For example, selecting "Add Wildcard" will open this window:

You can enter a path and specify which files should be added using a mask. In the situation shown on the screenshot, only .html files from "C:\my documents\heexample" will be added. Alternatively, you might add entire folders, including their subfolders or not, using the "Add Folder" command.

Or you may rather add entire folders (including their sub-folders or not) using the "Add Folder" command.

When added files are not in the source folder or one of its children, you need to specify the application path (called virtual path) which should be used to access these files once they are compiled into the application. ExeOutput for PHP lets you determine these "virtual" directories thanks to the following window (which is automatically shown when adding files):

The real paths appear on the left; on the right, you can determine the related virtual path (a.k.a application path). By default, ExeOutput for PHP tries to find the best virtual paths, but you can change this yourself: just select one or more files, then click "Modify Path". You will be prompted to enter the new virtual path and confirm your changes.

Once you have clicked OK, ExeOutput for PHP adds them to the application's file list, and this is the result:

You can see that the virtual paths "moreinfo" and "headers" appear as children of the application root, although the files that were added do not belong to the source folder.

Drag/drop operations¶

ExeOutput for PHP supports drag/drop operations:

• From Windows Explorer and other shell windows. Select all the files in the explorer, drag them onto the manager's file list, and they are automatically added. You can launch Windows Explorer by clicking the Explorer button. You may be prompted to enter the virtual path for the dropped files as explained above.
• In the File Manager itself: you can move files from one virtual folder to another, thus changing their virtual paths as you wish. Highlight the file(s) you want to move in the list, then drag and drop them onto the destination folder in the Folder Tree. Note that real paths are not modified (source files are not physically moved).

Removing Files¶

To remove one or more files from the list, select them and press the Remove button. You can select multiple files by pressing Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click. You may also use the Select All menu command from the context menu.

Finally, the Clear button lets you remove the entire folder currently selected in the Folder Tree. This includes all files and subfolders which are children of that selected folder. This operation cannot be undone, so be careful! It is also useful to remove empty folders.

Notes:

• You cannot remove the index page from the application.
• You cannot clear the application root: use the Remove operation instead.
• Removing files does not delete files from your hard disk. This only "removes" files from the application.

Sorting Files¶

ExeOutput for PHP displays information about each file: filename (or file path/virtual path), file type, size... If you need to sort your files according to a specific criterion (for example, file types), just click the associated column. You may also resize the different columns.

Source File List Update Operation¶

Generally, source files need to be updated: you can add new files to the source folder, update existing ones, or even remove non-used ones. In other words, the contents of the source folder may vary, and consequently, the file list kept by ExeOutput for PHP may be outdated.

You can therefore use the File List Update action. This action forces ExeOutput for PHP to scan the source folder (and its subfolders) and to detect all changes that occurred. It then compares results and determines the appropriate actions to take:

• If new files are found (not in the file lists), they are added. You can optionally be prompted to specify the new virtual paths (see the Environment Options).
• If some source files are newer, ExeOutput for PHP updates its file lists.
• If some source files are not found (you could have deleted them), they are removed from the file lists. You can also be prompted to confirm the operation (see the Environment Options).

You consequently do not need to manage the file lists manually.

There are several ways to cause a File List update:

• Click the Update button in the File Manager.
• Configure automatic File List updates using the Environment Options (when a project is loaded, compiled; or enable source folder monitoring...).

You can manually indicate which subfolders should be excluded from the File List update by clicking "Exclude Folders" and adding full paths to the folders you want to exclude to the dedicated list. You can also exclude some files from being added to the file list based on their extension: go to the Environment Options.

Note: File List Update only takes account of files in the source folder (or subfolders)! If you have files from other folders, the operation will ignore them.

Editing Files¶

Select a file in the list and click the Edit button.

• If the selected file is a PHP or HTML compatible page, then the internal PHP/HTML editor will be displayed.
• Otherwise, the program registered with the file will be opened to edit it (this is exactly as if you were double-clicking the file in Windows Explorer).

More information about the internal PHP/HTML editor

Setting Folder, File, and PHP/HTML Page Properties¶

You can configure some options regarding compression, security for the source files (and even entire folders). Select a folder or file in the list and click the Properties button (or double-click it). The file properties editor will then be displayed.

More information about the file properties.

Using the Context Menu¶

All of the previous commands are also available from the context menu: click the list with the mouse's right button to display it. It contains additional commands not directly available such as "Select All" or "File Information". The last command gives you global information about the application files of the selected folder (total size, number of files...). Finally, the "Shell Properties" command will display the "Properties" dialog available in Windows Explorer (lets you access the properties of the selected file).