1 - I hope this works, my users will love to drag and drop files to docs and mail (easily).

2 - That's a nice sidebar plugin!

Unfortunately, I often get error messages like:
Windows - kein Datenträger (no volume)

Exception Processing Message c0000013 Parameters 75b0bf7c 4 75b0bf7c 75b0bf7c

[Abbrechen] [Wiederholen] [Weiter]
(Cancel, Try Again, Continue)

Looks like a Windows XP error message. It is displayed when the file navigator is first opened, when a file from a Notes document is dropped into the panel and when I collapse all the folders of a drive.

I have an A:\ and D:\ drive without volume and several (valid) subst drives on my machine.

3 - I like this but I have the following observations:

1. Expanding the drive trees on first access is very slow - ideally this needs to be speeded up

2. Collapsing the drive trees is agonisingly slow and displays the hourglass throughout rendering rest of client inoperable until the collapse has happened - ideally this needs to be speeded up and/or not 'locking' up the client

3. If the volume labels could also be displayed that would be great.

regards

ian

4 - @Ian: I think we're up against One of Those Things. Expanding the drive tree before the user is asking for it is not a good idea as it could take ages. Imagine a file server being down... Even asking for the info before UI interaction is Not Done. Imagine some of the drives or folders being CD-ROM drives or other shares on a file server on the other side of the world. Don't lock up until the users have done something to warrant it, it makes them cranky.

5 - @Morten - I get that but I'm not saying expanding it before user asks for it. I'm suggesting it be speeded up when the user asks for it - even the c: drive was very slow (for me). COLLAPSING takes ages, locks up the client and nearly made ME cranky which is unusual because I am patient and understanding

6 - And to re-emphasis: I really like this. I'm being a bit critical and asking for more because I see real utility in it and know my users will to but I feel it needs to be quicker before it would catch on.

7 - Ditto on Ian's comment. This is a *really* useful plugin and I would distribute it to users today except that expanding and collapsing of objects is way too slow - and the entire client is locked up while you wait. Much slower than expanding the same objects in Windows Explorer. I hope there is something that can be done to optimize it.

8 - Everyone, I've asked Lei XL Xiao and Jian Kang to respond but it seems they are out. Stay tuned.

9 - Locking the client should be avoidable by moving the file system access out of the UI thread and displaying something like "Loading content..." while a background thread accesses the file system.

I really hope they can fix the issues. The plugin is a really good idea.

10 - Very, very good idea. This is one of those sidebar apps that a lot of people will use all the time.

My dream app for the sidebar: Have file system like this but the contents are stored in a Notes database. A poor-man's document management system if you will.

I'd pay good money for that to be integrated into the XPage discussion template.

11 - Hi all. Thanks for all your attention and suggession.

1.The plugin is a little slow. When one folder collapse, the whole tree will refresh. I think maybe this refresh could be removed. Do you think remove this will affect your usage? Otherwise, I will try to change some algorithm to improve the speed. Btw, I don't do too much test about the plugin, but on my work machine and test machine, it is not too slow, just about 1-4 seconds when refresh. But maybe my files are not too much or the capability of my computer is well.
2.The volume labels could be displayed, and I will improve this later.
3.I am not sure whether we could avoid the entire client locked up while the file tree is refresh. I will do investigate and give response here later.
@Karsten Lehmann: About your Windows XP error message, I am not sure now. I will do investigate and give response here later.
@Jamie Jenkins: thanks for your idea, we will consider it.

12 - @11 - Nice work and thank you for your response. It is much appreciated.

To answer your questions: I do not think removing the refresh would be an issue. As an oblique example, I was having network issues at work recently and it was not until I tried to expand a network drive that the unavailability of the network became apparent. It was annoying not having the network there on demand but I didn't mind being ignorant of the fact in the interim.

I have about 15 network drives available to me at work and each of these is on a large SAN so there can be quite a lot of files and directories in all. Maybe that contributes to the slowness I perceived.

For comparison purposes I have 2gB RAM on a 1.79 GHz Dual core Windows/Intel desktop.


Thanks again

13 - I like to spend as much time in the Notes environment as possible. Now I don't have to open Windows Explorer very much.

Great work. Thank you.