Rules should target "protected" folders + subdirectories

[Bertklq1]

Problem description

Cannot select downloads folder

1. Add ability to exclude all lthe folders/selected folders
2. 2. How to add files based on extension?

Reproduction steps

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Expected behavior

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Screenshots and logs

No response

Additional context

No response

[GlassedSilver]

Not OP, but you cannot select the Downloads folder to access it. (only subfolders of it)

Android version 11 restricted accessing Downloads and many other different places.

The culprit is the Storage Access Framework.

If you ask me an app like this needs to request (at least optionally) the All Files special permission to be really useful. That way you get to work with most data directories that aren't sandboxed app data.

https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/manage-all-files

[BURG3R5]

@Bertklq1: To target all files with a certain extension, say .ext, use (.*)\.ext as the pattern and $1.ext as the template. Please refer to the wiki for best practices and other examples.

@GlassedSilver: You're correct about the permission issue. I'll look into optionally requesting broader permissions.

[BURG3R5]

1. Add ability to exclude all lthe folders/selected folders

Sub-folders aren't monitored, currently. Only the files directly within the selected folder are used. Do you want to be able to target files within all/some sub-folders of the selected folder?

[BURG3R5]

Maybe I'll add an "Advanced controls" toggle that will both permit sub-folder monitoring and request all-files access.

[GlassedSilver]

1. Add ability to exclude all lthe folders/selected folders

Sub-folders aren't monitored, currently. Only the files directly within the selected folder are used. Do you want to be able to target files within all/some sub-folders of the selected folder?

again not OP, but if there was a checkbox to enable recursive scanning and another to control whether the the folder structure is respected in the target directory as well, that would be great. (and optionally to create the directory if it doesn't exist at the target location)

[BURG3R5]

@Bertklq1 @GlassedSilver Regarding sub-folders: I'm thinking that the current regex pattern & template inputs can be utilized for sub-folders too, by simply treating forward-slashes as path-joiners.

Take the following tree for instance:

/storage/emulated/0/
├─ Android/
├─ DCIM/
├─ Documents/
├─ Download/
├─ Movies/
├─ Music/
├─ Pictures/
│  ├─ Screenshot_1.png                🎯
│  ├─ Instagram/
│  │  ├─ IMG_12345678_123456_123.png  🎯
│  ├─ Reddit/
│  │  ├─ LiminalSpace-1qwer2t.png     🎯
│  │  ├─ Sizz-1qwe2rt.png             🎯
│  ├─ Tumblr/
│  │  ├─ Tumblr_l_1234567890.png
├─ Recordings/
├─ Ringtones/

By setting the following inputs...

• Source: /storage/emulated/0/Pictures/
• File name pattern: (Instagram|Reddit)*(\/)*(.*)\.png

...PNG files located in Pictures, or in the Instagram and Reddit sub-folders will be targeted (as indicated by 🎯). Plus, users have full flexibility as to the final folder structure. For instance,

• Destination: /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/
• File name template:
  • $1_$3.png (to collapse nested folders)
  • $1$2$3.png (to maintain nesting)

Does this feel like it'll resolve your use-case?

PS: I admit the flow is a bit complicated for now, but UI to simplify regex pattern/template creation can be added after the main feature is complete.

[GlassedSilver]

Looks promising. I'll probably wait for the UI to ripe before I become an avid user if the feature, but I wouldn't mind helping test this one using regex by hand. 👍

[BURG3R5]

Alright. I've finally implemented a simpler (yet more flexible) subfolder scanning system in v1.2.0.

Instead of selecting which subfolders to watch/ignore, a single "Scan subfolders" checkbox is provided. This will handle the most general case, as well as new subfolders being created/generated after rule creation. The only thing that this doesn't address is selectivity (à la gitignore), but right now that can be achieved by simply using separate rules for each subfolder.

Also included in this release is a "Recreate source folder-structure in destination" checkbox, and a special ${folder} variable to be used in the template.