Working with Folders and Files

Once you have created a project, you must populate it with folders and files. The procedures in this section show you how to:

Note You can also specify deployment settings for a folder. These procedures are covered in Chapter 11, "Deploying Projects".

Working with folders

When you add a folder to a project, you must decide where that folder will fall within the project tree. You can add a folder to the project root or you can add a folder to an existing folder. When you add a folder to an existing folder, the new folder is defined as the "child" and the existing folder is the "parent." Understanding parent/child relationships between folders will become more important when you specify the deployment properties for the project. For now, you just need to know that they exist.

There are some limitations to where you can add virtual folders. Virtual folders can only be added to the project root or to another virtual folder. You cannot add a virtual folder to a manual-inclusive or auto-inclusive folder. You can, however, add manual-inclusive or auto-inclusive folders to virtual folders.

Note To add a virtual folder:
  1. Right-click on the parent for the new virtual folder (either the project root or another virtual folder) and choose Add Folder from the menu to see the Add a Project Folder dialog box.

  2. Enter a folder name in the Folder Name box.
  3. Click Virtual Folder and click OK.

    The folder is added to your project.

Note Remember, you should use virtual folders when you have a number of files in different locations and you want a "container" to hold them all.

Note To add a manual-inclusive folder:
  1. Right-click on the parent for the new manual-inclusive folder (either the project root or any other folder) and choose Add Folder from the menu to see the Add a Project Folder dialog box.
  2. Enter a folder name in the Folder Name box.
  3. Click Physical Folder.
  4. Enter the path for the directory to be referenced in the Directory Path box or click the Browse button to locate the directory using the Select Directory dialog box.

  5. Click OK.

    The folder is added to your project. In order to populate the folder with files, you will have to add them manually.

Note When you create a physical folder of either type, you are in essence creating a reference to a directory that already exists on your computer.

Note To add an auto-inclusive folder:
  1. Right-click on the parent for the new auto-inclusive folder (either the project root or any other folder) and choose Add Folder from the menu to see the Add a Project Folder dialog box.
  2. Enter a folder name in the Folder Name box.
  3. Click Physical Folder.
  4. Enter the path for the directory to be referenced in the Directory Path box or click the Browse button to locate the directory using the Select Directory dialog box.
  5. Click Auto Include Files Using Filter and choose a filter from the drop-down menu (a filter limits the files that will be included based on the extension types that you specify). Alternatively, you can manually enter file extensions separated by semi-colons.
  6. Click OK. You see the Include Files in New Folder dialog box.
  7. To include all files inside the referenced directory, click Add all files to this folder. To include any subfolders inside the referenced directory, click Add all subfolders to this folder.
  8. Click OK.

    The folder is added to your project and is populated according to the options you set in steps 5 and 7.

Note When you create a physical folder of either type, you are in essence creating a reference to a directory that already exists on your computer.

Note To edit a folder:
  1. Right-click the folder and choose Properties from the menu to see the Edit a Folder Properties dialog box.

  2. Change any properties and click OK.
Note To remove a folder:
  1. Right-click the folder and choose Remove Folder from the menu.

    You are asked to confirm that you want to remove the folder.

  2. Click Yes.

    The folder is removed from the Project display.

Note Removing a folder from a project has no affect on the actual files in the mapped directory. You are only removing the reference to that folder in the .apf file.

Note To open all documents in a folder:
  1. Right-click the project and choose Open All Documents in Folder from the menu.

    All of the text-based files in the folder are opened in the Editor window, with a tab for each file.

    You are asked how to deal with any files that are not text-based. You have three options:

Working with files

Now that you have an understanding of how to work with project folders, you can begin to work with files. The methods for working with a file can vary slightly, depending on the type of folder that contains the file.

Note The Project Files list that is displayed in the bottom pane of the Projects tab can be treated very similarly to the file list that is displayed as part of the Universal Files tab. In other words, you can drag and drop files or open files for editing from this list.

Files in manual-inclusive or virtual folders

The process for adding and deleting files is the same for both virtual and manual-inclusive folders. You cannot add files to or remove files from an auto-inclusive folder with these methods.

Note To add files to a manual- inclusive or virtual folder:
  1. Right-click the folder and choose Add Files to Folder from the menu to see the Add Files to Folder dialog box.

  2. Locate and select the files you want to add to your project folder. You can select more than one file for adding by using the Shift and CTRL keys.
  3. Click Open to add the files to the folder.
Note To remove files from a manual- inclusive or virtual folder:
  1. Select the folder in the project tree.

    The files contained in the selected folder are displayed in the File list.

  2. Right-click the file you want to remove in the File list and choose Remove From Project from the menu.

    You are asked to confirm that you want to remove the file.

  3. Click Yes.
  4. The file is removed from the list.
Note Removing a file from a project has no affect on the actual file in the mapped directory. You are only removing the reference to that file in the .apf file.

Files in auto-inclusive folders

You control the files that are included in an auto-inclusive folder by specifying the files types that are allowed. You can change the file types at any time to alter the included files.

Note To change the types of files allowed in an auto-inclusive folder:
  1. Right-click the auto-inclusive folder and choose Properties from the menu to see the Edit Folder Properties dialog box.
  2. Change the Include Files Using Filter list to contain the extensions for the file types you want included in the folder. You can change the extensions by using the drop-down list or by manually entering the extensions, separated by colons.
  3. Click OK.

    The list of included files is filtered according to the extensions you specified.