Filter files as you type

[mherrmann]

Say you have

• apple/
• banana.txt
• bananajuice.txt

When you type p, only apple/ should remain in the list of files and p should be highlighted. When you then press ESC, all files should be visible again. When you then type banana, only banana.txt and bananajuice.txt should be visible. Pressing Enter opens the currently selected file. Pressing Backspace deletes the last character from the current filter (eg. banana -> banan). If no filtering is currently taking place (eg. because the user pressed ESC), then Backspace should go up in the directory hierarchy.

This feature is closely related to #40 .

[mherrmann]

@kszcode kindly published a plugin that implements functionality very similar to this one: https://github.com/kszcode/FuzzySearchFilesInCurrentFolder

[mherrmann]

@rogenaro, you asked for a way (setting/hotkey) to toggle between exact and fuzzy matching (/regex). What exactly do you mean by "exact" and "fuzzy" matching?

[rogenaro]

@mherrmann by fuzzy, I meant that we could type nn to match both banana.txt and bananajuice.txt, skipping characters in the filename as long as they exist in the same order typed in our query.

I misused the term "exact", I actually meant subsequent.
In some cases, it would be useful to match only the filenames without skipping, so we would have to type nan to match the same files, while nn would not match them, but would match annotation.txt, for example.

In regex we would just type a regular expression and match the results ( /^banana*\.txt$/ to get all txt files starting with banana, for example )

Depending on the contents of the directory, switching between those modes can be useful and time-saving

[mherrmann]

@rogenaro I see, thanks for the clarification :-)

[mherrmann]

Implemented in fman 1.3.1. 🎉

[oskretc]

👏👏👏
This bring fman from a really nice experiment to super file browser. Kudos on adding this feature.

one thing, maybe add a visual distinctive to the panel to indicate that files are being filtered.

[mherrmann]

Thanks! I'm happy to hear you like it. Regarding your suggestion, please file a new issue if you feel it's important. Makes it easier for me to keep track.

[mherrmann]

I created the new issue for visual feedback that files are being filtered now: #511.