Hi Guys,

First of all thank you for your nice utilities. Great tools!

However, I think that we can improve them a little bit further.

One of the most obvious improvements would be the possibility to search in the database for entire folder(s).

Let's take an usage case:

Let's suppose that we have an entire catalog of our pictures (or any other media) located on "F:\Pics"

At certain moment in time we find on "D:\Oldies" a folder named "Best Photos of 2012" (or let's say that a fellow photographer gives us a folder called with that name).

The problem which arises is to find which photos from "Best Photos of 2012" are already in archive.

Since "F:\Pics" is already indexed, the process could be very fast and straightforward: Scan the folder "Best Photos of 2012" take from there the file names and the file sizes and search each file in the catalog, adding up the results to the output grid like you do already in the multiple file mode (the mode in which one enters the file names separated by ';').

Also, upon this, a very neat and useful feature would be to optionally output another grid at the end of the search in a modeless window with the source file names on a column and on another column with the status ("Found/Not Found"). This feature is useful both in the proposed directory mode and, also, in the multiple file mode (ie the input argument is a string list separated by ';') which you have already.

Of course, the best would be if this modeless window will have the basic file operations (copy, move, delete) and also the grid will support sorting (thing which is easy if you save the data in an in-memory dataset - I remember that JCL/JVCL provides one).

GUI considerations:

In order to distinguish between directory mode and (multiple) file mode I would suggest to have a toggle button (which will act as a checkbox) like the one for 'Regular Expressions': When the 'Fld' button is lit (blue) then the input line is a source directory mask, if not (the button is gray) it will work in the actual normal mode.

Ok, if you want to be truly geek, you can support the ';' also in directory mode giving the possibility to search for multiple source directories in a single shoot. For example entering in directory mode the following argument "c:\misc\*;e:\downloaded_card\*;d:\MyCD\*' will search in the above three folders will take all the names and sizes for each file and will search one by one in the catalog. Pretty neat.

If you need any assistance in further describing the problem, possible solutions and even some coding, don't hesitate to drop me a line.

All the best regards,

John Thomas