I occasionally find myself wondering, "Did I work on this project today?" The simple thing would be to look at the modification date of the folder containing the project. However, that doesn't get updated when a file is modified, only if one is added or deleted.
So this application will update a folder's modification date to reflect the most recently modified file within it (or in any nested folders in it). Just drag 'n' drop the folder (or folders) you want onto TouchFolder, and presto! (If it's taking too long, type command-period to stop.)
It will run in the background, although since it has no windows the only way to bring it back to the foreground is via the application menu. (Or just wait for it to finish, and it will quit as usual.)
Double-clicking on the application itself brings up a preferences dialog box. The choices you have are:
-- Update all enclosed folders --
When checked, all folders contained in the dropped folder will also be updated according to their contents (just as if you had dropped each one individually on TouchFolder). If unchecked, only the folder dropped will be changed.
-- Allow backdating of folder(s) --
Check this to allow folder dates to be changed to an earlier date. If unchecked, folder modification dates will never be made earlier. Note that checking this option may cause problems with some backup utilities.
-- Backdate creation date if needed --
If backdating is enabled, checking this box will prevent the creation date of a folder from being later than the modification date. That is, if the modification date needs to be set earlier than the creation date, the creation date will also be backdated to the same time. If unchecked (or if backdating is turned off), the creation dates will be left alone.
-- Consider dates of folders too --
If this is unchecked, only the modification dates of files will be used to set the date(s) of the folders. If it is checked, folder dates will also be used. If backdating is on, this option is irrelevant. That is, the date of a folder will be set (according to the folder's contents) before it is considered for setting dates higher up in the hierarchy.
-- Show changes immediately --
This will also set the modification date of the parent folder of the one that was dropped (it will be set to the current time). This will force the lazy finder to display the updated dates of all the folders that changed. Of course, it will also give the parent folder a date that isn't necessarily consistent with all the ones you just carefully modified. A conflict that demands your choice.
Examples
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It gets a bit confusing to think about the combinations of options that are available, so how about an example of what TouchFolder will do? Here is a set of folders that John wants to clean up. The names of the folders and files are given below the icons, and the modification times are inside (for simplicity, they all have the same date, just different times). Note that the file names are conveniently the same as the modification times.
Now imagine dropping the "Music" folder on TouchFolder. Let's look at the results given various combinations of settings. First, if "Update all enclosed folders" is off, only the "Music" folder will be modified, though the time it is set to will be as shown below. Second, if "Show changes immediately" is on, "Cage's HD" will have its modification date set to the current time.
So let us consider what happens for all four possible combinations of "Consider folder dates too" and "Allow backdating" settings. In the drawings below, the folders whose dates get modified are shown in heavy outline. Also, in each case we are starting from the same initial configuration, NOT from the results of the previous example.
First, with both options turned off, note that only file dates propagate upward, so for example the folder "8.00" is set to 8:02, rather than 8:20. If we check the "Consider folder dates too" box, we instead would get the following result:
Simple, eh? Now let's see what happens when we turn on backdating. First, without considering folder dates...
Note that the folder "8.20" has had its date set backward to 3:15, because the most recently modified file in it has that date. Also note that the "7.00" folder was not modified, because it contains no files, only folders. Finally, with both options checked, we would get the following result:
The only difference here is that the "7.00" folder is backdated, since the date of the folder inside it is considered. Also note that, even though the "8.00" folder contained a folder with an 8:20 modification time, that folder gets backdated to 3:15 before the "8.00" folder looks at it. Thus the latest date it sees is on the file "8.02".
Copyright
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This is free, but not public domain. I retain all copyright, except that which the U.S. Government owns. Redistribute it as you wish, but only intact and with all documentation. I would distribute source code, but much of it is copied from THINK Reference 2.0, and my reading of the license agreement is that I can distribute only object code. (Though Tom Emerson has been known to post snippets he wrote which are in TR 2.0.)
Known features:
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— Alias handling —
If you drop an alias on TouchFolder, the original item will be scanned and updated correctly (the AE Manager resolves them for me!). However, any aliases in the hierarchy being scanned are treated as regular files, and the modification date used is the date of the alias itself, not the target. Maybe in the next version....
— Locked folders —
It is possible, with ResEdit, to "lock" a folder, which I assume sets the isLocked bit in the fInfo.flags field. This "locked" state is ignored by TouchFolder (and, apparently, the File Manager). The Finder isn't particularly impressed by it either. I actually have no idea what that bit does, other than prevent you from changing the folder's name from within ResEdit (though not from the Finder!)
— Maximum depth —
TouchFolder will give up (with a warning) if you give it a folder hierarchy more than about 29 levels deep. I've never seen folders nested so deep, except for certain types of FoldersFromHell, where when you open a folder you see the same one inside, on to infinity. In which case TouchFolder will just exit without doing anything.
— Interrupt is "stop", not "cancel" —
When you interrupt it with command-period, it does not undo any changes that it might have made. It's only smart enough to tell you whether it changed anything, but not what folders it changed.
Modification history…
2.0.0 August 8, 1993 (Combining the results of 6 beta versions... Thanks, guys.)
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• Added preferences dialog.
• Added animated cursor.
• Added background capability and command-period abort.
• Changed the icons slightly.
• Added stack size check before each recursion. Normal 24K stack will handle ~30 levels.
• Changed documentation to TeachText, with pictures, the hard way. (I guess that's pretty much the only way. Oh well.)
• Fixed bug that would backdate to Jan 1, 1904 if folder was empty.
• Fixed vRefNum handling so other volumes are done correctly.
• Ignores dates of invisible files (Custom icons, for example, are stored as invisible files).
• Added a "Credits" box to go with the About box.
• Added help window.
1.0.0 July 3, 1993
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First release. No options, but really simple to use.
