filebrowser-electron

ONLY VERY MINIMALLY FUNCTIONAL

This aims to be a cross-platform and enhanced substitute for the desktop file browser.

Install

npm i filebrowser-electron
cd filebrowser-electron && npm install && npm start

Features

File Operations

• Create: Create new folders and text files
• Delete: Delete files and folders with confirmation
• Rename: Rename files and folders in place
• Copy/Move:
  • Drag-and-drop files/folders (hold Option/Alt key to copy instead of move)
  • Drag-and-drop files/folders onto bash (.sh) or JavaScript (.js, .cjs, .mjs) files to execute them with the dropped item as an argument
  • Keyboard shortcuts: Cmd+C to copy, Cmd+X to cut, Cmd+V to paste
  • Context menu: Right-click on files/folders for Cut, Copy, and Paste options
  • Replace confirmation: When pasting to a location with an existing file/folder of the same name, you'll be prompted to replace or cancel

Undo/Redo

• Cmd+Z: Undo the last file operation (create, delete, rename, move, or copy)
• Cmd+Shift+Z: Redo a previously undone operation
• Maintains up to 50 operations in the undo history
• Works across all operation types including:
  • Folder/file creation
  • File/folder deletion (with automatic backup)
  • Rename operations
  • Move/copy operations

Views

• Icon View: Grid-based layout with file icons
• Three Column View: Miller columns browser for hierarchical navigation

Sticky Notes

• Create global and local (folder-specific) sticky notes
• Edit, collapse/expand, and delete notes
• Notes persist across sessions

Create your own Mac Quick Action

1. Open Automator
2. Create a new Quick Action
3. Set "Workflow receives current" to "files or folders"
4. Find the action "Run Shell Script" and drag it into the Quick Action
5. Change "Pass input" to "as arguments"
6. Paste the following, adapting the filebrowser-electron path to your own

for f in "$@"
do
	open -a "/Users/brett/filebrowser/out/filebrowser-electron-darwin-arm64/filebrowser-electron.app" --args --path "$f"
done

1. Save (e.g., as "Open in Filebrowser")
2. Go to the Finder, choose a folder or file, and right-click it and select "Quick Actions" and your name created in the previous step.

Invoking with arguments during development

1. Invoke like such: npm run start -- --path /Users/brett

To-dos

1. List view/Gallery view

2. Ideally would allow separate windows and tabs, with menu bar

   1. At such point, ensure key commands (e.g., copy/cut/paste attached to icon table) work globally instead of only when the element (table) is focused

3. More Editing Metadata/File

4. Demo with file handler web apps (may need to restore webappfind if Chrome apps are now deprecated)

5. Build/set icon: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31529772/how-to-set-app-icon-for-electron-atom-shell-app

6. Proper publishing: https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/tutorial/tutorial-publishing-updating

7. Make extensible

8. Design in such a way that privileged APIs could work if WebExtensions allowed overriding browser's file:/// browser (not only for directories, but also to allow injecting a button to allow editing browsed files as well)

Misc. to-dos

1. Allow "Show package contents" context menu for apps