Creating a Scriptable File Property
A Scriptable File Property allows you to display custom information about a file in the file list using a script. You can add this property as a column in the file manager, where the script runs on each file to gather and display information.
To create a Scriptable File Property, follow these steps:
- Create a script that retrieves the desired file information.
- Define a Scriptable Column in the file list to display the script output.
1. Creating a File Property Script
A file property script must follow a specific format to work as a Scriptable File Property. Here is a simple example of a script that retrieves the file extension of the current file:
@var $ext = PathGetFileExtPart($_FILEPROP_FILEPATH); @var $_FILEPROP_DISPLAYNAME = $ext;
This script uses two key variables:
- $_FILEPROP_FILEPATH: The full path of the file for which the system requests information.
- $_FILEPROP_DISPLAYNAME: The variable where the script stores the result to be displayed in the file list column.
Both of these variables are predefined, but you can customize their names when setting up the Scriptable Column (default names will be preselected).
Debugging the Script
To debug the script with the file in focus, you can add the following code, which assigns the path of the selected file to $_FILEPROP_FILEPATH if it's not already defined:
if(IsVariableDefined("$_FILEPROP_FILEPATH") == 0)
{
@gvar $_FILEPROP_FILEPATH = GetTargetFocusPath();
}
The full script will then be:
if(IsVariableDefined("$_FILEPROP_FILEPATH") == 0)
{
@gvar $_FILEPROP_FILEPATH = GetTargetFocusPath();
}
@var $ext = PathGetFileExtPart($_FILEPROP_FILEPATH);
@var $_FILEPROP_DISPLAYNAME = $ext;
Once the script runs, the value stored in $_FILEPROP_DISPLAYNAME will be shown in the column in the file list (if the scriptable file property is applied).
Note:
Running scripts as file properties can be risky. Since the script runs for each file in the list, incorrect or intensive scripts can cause performance issues.
To prevent errors, the script must be explicitly allowed to run as a file property.
You can enable this by selecting "Allow script to be used as a file property" in the User Defined Commands window or by adding #options (AllowAsFileProp) at the top of the script.
2. Creating a Scriptable Column
After creating the script, you can display its output in a column by defining a new Scriptable Column:
- Right click on the column header in the file list and select "Customize column..."
- In the Available Columns list, click the button to the left to add a new ScriptColumn.
- A list of existing script columns will appear. Click New to add a new script column.
- From the drop-down list, select the file property script you want to use. If the script isn't listed, make sure you will enabled the "AllowAsFileProp" option as explained earlier.
- If you've customized the input/output variable names in the script, update them here.
- Set a name for the column (this is the label that will appear in the file list).
- Click Save.
The new column should now be available, and you can add it to the file list as needed.
Things to Consider
When using a scriptable file property as a column in the file list, the script will run once for each file. If the script involves heavy processing, this can impact performance, especially with large file lists. Ensure that the script is optimized for efficiency.