Support for Tags

[thetek43]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I really like the Tag feature in the Apple Finder. It would improve my workflow quite a bit, and the default Windows Explorer doesn't have it. Image below:

Describe the solution you'd like

• The ability to add Tags to files (and folders) with custom names and custom colors
• Tag list should appear on the sidebar below the drives
• Adding/Removing Tags via right click -> last row of the menu -> circles with colors. When a tag is selected, it should appear with a checkmark.
• Tag color in front of file name

Describe alternatives you've considered
There's not many good alternatives to tags... E.g., I could make a Tag for ToDo so that I don't have to write everything in a text file which is pretty annoying.

Additional context
Image from the Mac Finder:

[jaigak]

But how would we store it? We could store the tags in local settings however the user will lose the tags when the app is reinstalled. We can use roaming settings however that only works for Microsoft account and not local accounts. A better alternative would be to embed the tag in the file's metadata however that may cause some incompatibility with other apps. In macOS, the tag is stored by the file system not by finder. We can't do that since NTFS doesn't support tags. If you really want tags in Windows, give feedback to Microsoft.

[thetek43]

By roaming, you probably mean %appdata%, right? Afaik, this is available to local users as well - idk. If not just use a C:/Program Files/Files UWP/Data/ folder or something like that.
It was an idea, I don't know how your app works in the background, so sorry if it is not possible. Would be amazing tho :)

[jaigak]

In Windows 10, there’s a feature that syncs the roaming folder to the cloud. It’s intended for apps that need to sync data between Windows devices. We don’t really need to use it since the files and folders are probably local however the roaming folder can also be used to restore data if the app has been reinstalled since we can download the data from the cloud. Users probably want the tags to stay even if the app is reinstalled and I don’t really know a good way to do that. Using Program Files might be a better option however, what if the user reinstalled Windows? Also, all of these methods for storing tags aren’t portable. Imagine a file on a USB Thumb Drive. When I apply a tag using Files UWP on my current PC, Files UWP will show the tag on this PC only. If I plug the drive on another PC, the tag won’t be shown since the list of tags in this PC doesn’t contain that file. The only way for this to portable across devices is to embed the data in the file itself however, I don’t know how that would work. It's not impossible however we need to do a lot of work since Windows doesn't natively support tags. I really like your idea though.

[thetek43]

Just looked it up, Windows actually supports tags - they are kind of crappy tho. Check this out: https://www.howtogeek.com/344543/how-to-tag-any-windows-file-for-easy-organization/
Maybe that can be used, but I'm not certain. (Hopefully yes!)

[jaigak]

Thanks for that link. Do you want to store tags as colors or strings? If you want to store colors like macOS, we could store them as a string and interpret it as a color and show it on the screen. Using this method will also be portable and will work even with File Explorer (as a string, I guess!)

[thetek43]

I would rather say strings for easier use with win explorer. Then you could set a color in the settings of FilesUWP. By default, just a random color, which can then be changed.

[jaigak]

@duke7553 Could you assign me to this issue?

[lukeblevins]

@Jaiganeshkumaran I'm thinking we DO NOT want to keep a temporary file with JSON for the flags.

Rationale: It is far more efficient to use the BasicProperties.SavePropertiesAsync() method to associate a color value with the filesystem property of the storage items themselves. This won't persist across reinstalls of Windows, but MIGHT stay around if Files (UWP) is reinstalled. I still have to research this part.

Side note: This is already built-in to Windows for use in Outlook, we just have to create a UI for it

[thetek43]

You could also set the tags to "identifier#RRGGBB with RGB being the color set in the settings.

[jaigak]

@duke7553 Most file properties do persist as long as you have the file in an NTFS volume.