Cannot search for hidden files, or toggle the hidden-attribute

[leifel]

My image database contains a number of hidden files (files that have their hidden-attribute set on file system).

They are hidden for reasons outside IMatch - a tool I have written use the hidden-flag to decide which images to skip from copying to external public storage.

I maintain which files are marked with this hidden-flag. It would have been nice if I could do this directly in IMatch, but I find no way to search or filter to show only "hidden files". However, there is a an option to filter on the file attribute "read only". So my question is; How can I filter to show only files with the hidden-flag set?

It would also be nice if IMatch was able to mark such hidden files with some kind of overlay icon so we could easily distinguish them. And a command like "Toggle Hidden" would be extremely useful for my workflow (like the corresponding command "Additional Functions->Toggle Read-only"). Any chance we can see this in IMatch in the future?

[Mario]

IMatch by default does not import hidden or system files, for obvious reasons.

I understand that you do a quite unusual thing, using the file system hidden attribute to "flag" your files for whatever purpose.

I doubt that many IMatch users will ever do something similar (or even configure IMatch to explicitly include hidden files into their databases).
The hidden attribute is usually something only applied to operating system files and similar important files, where accidental direct user interaction may cause severe problems.

IMatch has a special treatment for read-only files, because many camera models allow users to mark files in-camera as read-only, and this transfers to the read-only file system attribute after download.
A read-only flag can trigger IMatch to apply a specific metadata template when indexing files, which is frequently used to automatically apply specific metadata templates to add high ratings, a special "keeper" label and other metadata. An easy way to mark files in-camera and then let IMatch treat them in special ways. Efficient.

IMatch though has no special features related to files having the file system hidden/system attribute set. Usually these are never imported into databases.
IMatch does not keep track of these file system attributes, so there are no filters or search options for this.
I don't recall support for this was ever requested.

[leifel]

OK, thanks for the reply. I assume you will not spend any more time on this by now.

[Mario]

I assume you will not spend any more time on this by now.

Correct.

Feel free to add a feature request in the feature request board.
This allows other users to see your request, to reply and to +1 to show that they also need this.
If there is a sufficient number of users who would benefit from this, I will consider adding this.