Dynamic Folder Loading

[apsada]

There is one major problem I’m having with this extension. While it’s beautiful and easy to use, there is one section on our site where we have over 41,000 files total stuffed into a lot of folders. Users will, of course, not need to see all these files at once and will be going for a particular folder or two. As far as I can tell, the extension loads the entire directory tree into memory (or tries, ha) which is a problem rather unnecessary. Is there a mode I’m missing, or a possibility in the near future, of having subfolders loaded on the fly?

[Michael Gilkes]

@apsada. Thanks for posting. Actually, I have had this request from several persons just this week alone. I will have to schedule this feature for the next major release. Currently, I am in the middle of updating Advanced Folder Listing to make it compatible with Joomla 3. After that, I have to update Easy Flash Uploader, and only then will I be able to work on Easy Folder Listing Pro again.

[ppamin]

Any progress on this feature? I think the dynamic loading would definitely decrease processing time and memory_limit errors.

[nforde]

Any update on this, or are there any simple workarounds? We need a fast resolution for our clients.

I think these limitations should be made very clear on the sales material. There are document repositories that allow many thousands of files without any glitch, so people will assume that is the same for Easy Folder Listing Pro (like we did).

For the record, here is our page that’s having javascript timeout warnings – http://www.vendorconnect.com.au/update

Thanks.

[Michael Gilkes]

@nforde. Thanks for your input. Easy Folder Listing Pro was never designed or marketed to be a document repository. I don’t know where in the description is gives that impression. I tried my best to state clearly and specifically what the plugin does in its product page.

The truth is that the plugin does not have any specific limitations. There is no specific number of files that I can specify to say it can’t list. This is why I have the FAQ section which explains why it is not recommended to listing thousands of files. I do not think that the product description or FAQ misleads anyone into thinking that you can list thousands of files on a page without any performance penalty. In addition, I do not think that there is anything in the product description or FAQ that suggest that the plugin acts as a document repository. I have had emails from persons asking about listing many files before purchase, and I have guided them accordingly. This question is also specifically addressed on the site. So, I really don’t understand why persons would assume that it works like a repository.

Dynamic loading was never a feature that the plugin had. I also never marketed it to contain this feature. And again, it is not a document repository. If I designed it to be a document repository, then I would have specifically stated this. It is used to list files in a folder and its subfolders. Even in terms of the way the plugin displays files in a webpage, if you didn’t have a plugin to do that, and you had to do it manually, you would never attempt to list thousands of files in that way. It is just not practical, and provides an awful user experience. If I were to develop a document repository, I would design it to be totally different to the way Easy Folder Listing Pro works. I would not make it list the files in a list or table, but rather provide a search interface for find files you are looking for, and show the result as a paginated table, that doesn’t permit listing all the files on a single web page. Once you are trying to display all of that metadata on one page, you will have the timeouts and performance issues that you see, because web technologies were never designed to do that.

Over time, the plugin has evolved to include new features, which were all suggested by its users. I specifically do not include all the requested features because it would change the original purpose of the plugin, and increase its complexity to the point where maintaining it will be difficult.

Currently, the plugin does what it describes in its product description. I hope to release a minor update soon, but that won’t include dynamic loading.

[nforde]

Ok, thanks for the fast reply. I guess we’ll need to go with another solution for now, but we’d be interested in your product again if it ever allows for more folders and files without this timeout issue.

[Michael Gilkes]

@nforde. May I ask you some questions: “If you could find the perfect document repository product, how would you expect it to work, look and operate? What main features would it have?”

Thanks.

[nforde]

Sorry, but I haven’t got the time to give that enough thought for a proper answer.

However I definitely think that any obvious shortcomings would have to be removed and that includes javascript timeout warnings.

We’ve now reverted to this method, which works fine for this number of files, and doesn’t have any javascript warnings – http://www.vendorconnect.com.au/downloads/

Another benefit of this method is that people can bookmark a particular folder so they don’t need to start at the root folder each time.

[Michael Gilkes]

@nforde. Thanks for replying. It’s good that you were able to find a method that suits your needs. Best Regards.

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