20040928: IDV opening network directory

>From: "Fingerhut, William A" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Lyndon State College
>Keywords: 200409281718.i8SHIhHP016414 IDV files

Hi Bill-
>> Okay.  But do any of those show the files or directories that start 
>> with . by default (see below) ?
>
>Yes. I set explorer to show hidden files.

Okay, that explains it.

>I am so used to viewing hidden files that I forgot that everyone 
>does not do this as I do. Okay, it makes sense.
>
>But, by default, the IDV saves favorite bundles in .metapps, 
>which is a hidden directory under Linux. This is the
>crux of my problem. It seems strange to hide a users favorite
>bundles -- they are not system info or config info. A user might 
>want to share them with others ? Is this the best place ?

We'll ponder on this.  The idea was that if you wanted to share
your favorites with a class, you'd select the ones you wanted,
move them to a public place and set up an xml file like:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/content/software/idv/current/resources/bundles.xml

which would contain the pointers to the bundle files.  That
way you could create sets of favorites that might overlap.

>Good point. It is best not to show hidden files.

I don't see any way to have an option in the FileChooser to show
hidden files by the click of a button.  I'll talk to Jeff about
this.

>So, if I assume that the IDV does not want to hide favorite bundles, 
>then they should be in another directory ?

You could move them elsewhere (or maybe a subset).

>Also, a link to .metapps that does not begin with a .  works. 
>This might be a solution that keeps all IDV files in the same, one place
>and maintains security ?

Another thing you might try is modifying the runIDV.bat script
on Windows to pass in a userpath option that points to H:/metapps/DefaultIdv
That way, you would be using a common directory whether you are
running on Linux or on Windows.  Your runIDV.bat would look like:

jre\bin\java -Xmx512m -jar idv.jar -userpath h:\.metapps\DefaultIdv %*

>You get to make all sorts of tough decisions !

Or yet another way to skin the cat.

It would be good to get a few use cases on how you would be sharing
the favorites.  Do you create a whole set and then want to share
them, or do you pick and choose.  If you could write down a few
scenarios, it would help us with the design.  I've cc'd Jeff on
this.

Thanks.

Don
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