Re: Affordable "file database"?

I'm describing a functionality commonly found in document management
systems. And something that Apple could have implemented easily with
Spotlight and the extended attributes of the MacOS X filesystem if they
had switched their brain on. :-(

As it turns out, Spotlight and Finder already mostly do what you
describe:

Tag files: add your search data to the "Spotlight Comments" of the files
you want to search (Get Info in the Finder).

"Spotlight Comments" is only _one_ attribute.

What I need are _multiple_ _arbitrary_ attributes with _arbitrary_ names.

And the possibility to define the type and allowable value range each
attribute. Such as e.g. an enumeration of strings to select from to prevent
free-text entry.

I think the OP means allowing the user to define new *types* of file
system metadata. Apple has opened up file type designations with the new
Uniform Type Identifier scheme, but doesn't yet allow what the OP is
looking for. As Matt suggested, it would probably require a redo of the
file system, which is something we haven't seen since Mac OS 8.1,
although there's been buzz (or wishful thinking) that something along
this line is one of Leopard's secret features.

Tiger's filesystem _does_ have support for (arbitrary user-defined) extended
attributes, it's only that Apple "forgot" to actually implement :

1. a GUI for it , probably consisting of:
a. a system-wide control panel to define the attributes
b. additional entry fields in the "save as..." dialog box
c. additional columns in the multi-column listview
2. indexing of these attributes in Spotlight.

Looks much less complex to me than the load of useless visual gadgetry that
has been introduced with each new release of MacOS X.

BTW: BeOS had these features already quite a "few" years ago...

Sincerely,

Wolfgang Keller

--
My email-address is correct.
Do NOT remove ".nospam" to reply.

.

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