FileSearchPath::findChildFiles depth

General JUCE discussion
#1

A small feature request on FileSearchPath::findChildFiles recursivly. It would be cool to have a search depth limit option for findChildFiles just in case users set search directory like C:.

#2

I am not very sure if itā€™s possible, but a optional for setting the maximum files required could come in handy.

#3

Surely the smart thing to do would be to ask the user if they really mean ā€œc:ā€, and if so, search the whole thing?

Just use a DirectoryIterator and stop asking it for files when youā€™ve got enough.

I really donā€™t like either of these ideas - it feels wrong to put artificial limits on a file search, either in terms of depth or file count. If youā€™re searching for files, then presumably you donā€™t know what files are there, so how can you know what the limits are before youā€™ve searched?

#4

Iā€™m exploring searching for a file starting from C:\ and iā€™m wondering if there is a way to perform the recursive search on a separate thread, so it doesnā€™t appear that my app has frozen.

calling

File f("/"); 
FileSearchPath path(f.getFullPathName() ); 
Array<File> resultFiles;
path.findChildFiles(resultFiles, TypeOfFileToFind::findFiles, true, "someName");

takes a really long time, as it is scanning the ENTIRE drive.

iā€™m not sure if running it on its own thread would work either, as there really isnā€™t a place to pause execution, is there? Perhaps iā€™m mistaken about how threads work internally.

#5

Check out the DirectoryContentsList class which uses a separate Thread for searching

Rail

#6

gotcha. Seems handy, but it doesnā€™t do recursive searching:

void DirectoryContentsList::refresh()
{
    clear();

    if (root.isDirectory())
    {
        fileFindHandle = new DirectoryIterator (root, false, "*", fileTypeFlags);
        shouldStop = false;
        thread.addTimeSliceClient (this);
    }
}

I need to do recursive searching, so that ā€˜falseā€™ in the DirectoryIterator constructor needs to be trueā€¦ any ideas?

#7

Just use your own thread, with a DirectoryIterator. You can stop iterating any time you like.

#8

I was suggesting you check out the class to see how itā€™s implemented in JUCE to see how you can make your own class.

Rail

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