yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Updated test version (Jan 23)

Another 1.3 test release is available. This release should correct the problems with Samsung Multiwindow support. Local file deletion and moving performance has been improved, as media database updates are now placed in a queue and performed after the fact.

This release adds a few networking features as well: R247 adds support for connecting to SSH servers using "keyboard interactive authentication" when password authentication is not available (modern Macs have this issue). Additionally it adds a workaround for an SMB "incorrect password" issue on OS X Mountain Lion. An FTP issue has been corrected with regard to connecting to secure servers with multiple SSL certificates (certificate chains).

THE UPDATED TEST VERSION (r247) is here: http://android.nextapp.com/fx/r247/FX_r247.apk

And again, for your convenience in returning to the released version, here is the APK that is currently available on the Play Store: http://android.nextapp.com/fx/r236/FX_r236.apk (This is exactly the same as what's on the Google Play Store, I'm just trying to make it easy to revert back to stock if the test release causes you trouble).

Thanks again for testing!
[Android Apps and Games] thedicemaster:
menus are now working as they should in multi-window.
[Android Apps and Games] Szczepanik:
Re: [Android 2.1+] FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager

Thanks you! Samsung Multiwindow support just got better - including text wrap - see screen shots.

Cheers

Tom

My Note II to you
[Android Apps and Games] PBnJamz:
Downloaded! Replacing my stock explorer
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
@tliebeck - Sorry to bring this up here but are there any plans in the future to revamp System Monitor - maybe bring its look and feel into line with that of FX?
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
YES (assume you're talking about SystemPanel).

Actually working on a minor update to it at the moment (adding MultiWindow support and some improvements to the package manager).

I do want to significantly expand its capabilities and revamp the UI (and yes, toward FX's) in the longer term. Add more metrics, attempt to offer more insight into battery-drain causes, improve package management, etc.
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
Sorry, SystemPanel - not System Monitor. :p

Great to hear there are some updates on the way. Thanks. :good:
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
Re: [Android 2.1+] FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager

Is there an application specific thread for System Panel?
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Not yet, but I need to make one and post some 2.0 UI mockups in the not-too-distant future. And while we're on the subject, SystemPanel 1.2.0 was released to the Play Store. The Lite version appears to be lagging a bit, as Google Play still shows it on 1.1.2...should be corrected within a few minutes.
[Android Apps and Games] mdalacu:
Re: [Android 2.1+] FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager

Multiwindow is working great on System Panel. A long waited feature. Thanks.
[Android Apps and Games] EP2008:
Re: [Android 2.1+] FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager

Any way you could remove that bar completely or hide it unit the menu button is pressed? I often put system panel in s little window so I can see the ram/cpu usage, but that bar takes up to much space.
[Android Apps and Games] m0d:
Another suggestion to the list:

I am unable to figure out how to copy the path of a file or folder.

I am not sure if it is possible,

It would be great if you can copy the path either directly from the url bar at the top or in details view

​

Edit:

I was actually trying to copy brightness path to test ButtonLED v1.4

Had to type it out in the end, and it turns out that it failed the test: 3- . . . If not, your kernel has some limitation that won't allow them to light up while the screen is off.

Also,

On the latest Beta, comparing hashes seems to be limited to comparing between two files/folders and not directly with a MD5 that is copied to clipboard.

I am comparing the file in FX with an MD5 that I copied to clipboard from the browser and I would like to compare it to make sure that download was not broken.

Can future versions of the compare function also detect MD5 / hashes that were not created by FX to compare with files selected in FX ?
[Android Apps and Games] bruce7373:
Re: [Android 2.1+] FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager

A couple of feature requests :

1) sorting on a per folder basis, as well as globally;

2) the ability to increase the size of thumbnails when icon view is selected.

Thanks.

Sent from my HTC Vivid (ICS)
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
Is there anyway to stop the phone from sleeping/screen going off while FX is open? Occasionally I'll be copying some files which are quite large. As soon as the screen goes off, the transfer speed drops to virtually nothing. Essentially, what should only take about 5 minutes to copy ends up taking much, much longer - unless I keep tapping the screen to keep the phone awake.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
May have to add such a feature. FX is grabbing a "high performance" WiFi lock, but apparently this isn't enough. What kind of device are you using? How much of a drop are you seeing? I'm transferring data on a Galaxy Note 10.1 at the moment and it looks like it's doing the same (transfer rate dropping from 2.5-2.9MiB/sec to < 1.5MiB/sec with screen off. Lame. :) Perhaps we need a "keep screen on for __ minutes during wifi transfers" and/or "keep screen on during wifi transfers when power connected" options (along with a big explanation of why they're offered).
[Android Apps and Games] GermainZ:
Same here, but not only for Wifi transfers.

Just guessing, but judging from the time and percentage difference, it drops from ~2mb/s to a few bytes per second (I was exporting an archive).
[Android Apps and Games] elban:
I think it might depend on the cpu governor, are you using a custom kernel? Could you try a different governor and/or minimum cpu frequency?
[Android Apps and Games] GermainZ:
I'll do that later.

However, I don't think that's the primary cause - after all, a governor is supposed to scale the frequency according to the need.
[Android Apps and Games] elban:
Yes but it might be that the kernel is set to the minimum frequency when the screen is off, and if the min freq is set to, say, 200Mhz, it will slow down the transfers (depending on the computing needed: for example sftp might be slower because it needs to encrypt all the packages using the main cpu, while smb may be faster).

It would be interesting to see the cpu speed while it transfers, and also try different network protocols.
[Android Apps and Games] GermainZ:
I don't think governors take into consideration the state of the screen, and I have no 3rd party apps to do that. I might be wrong, tho. :)

BTW, as I've said, I was extracting an archive (from the SD Card to the SD Card).
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
I'm using a Nexus 4. The transfer speed varies from 1mb/sec upwards depending on whether or not I'm on 3G or Wifi. When the screen goes off, it drops to a couple of kb/s at best. It might as well just pause/stop it's that slow. As soon as I turn the screen on again, the transfer speeds jumps straight back up again within a few seconds.

An option to "keep screen on during file transfers" would be great. I don't think it should be "only if power connected" because most of the time we aren't going to have power available. Or possibly provide provide both the options.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Are you running the 1.3 test release or 1.2 Google Play release?

Programmatically keeping the screen on is likely a solution to this problem. But it's far from preferred.

I'm not currently able to replicate this. For example, I see a 40% screen-off rate drop from 2.5-2.8MiB/se to 1.5MiB/sec on a WiFi Note 10.1. I see no rate drop on a Droid4 on 3G, Nexus 7 on WiFi, or Galaxy Nexus on WiFi.

Can you replicate the behavior with the display off and the phone connected to a computer via USB? I'd suggest doing some ADB-based investigation.

I'd try the following during transfers, with screen on and then off:

adb shell cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq

The above will print the current CPU frequency (not compatible with all devices, but I think it should work on a Nexus 4).

Another thing that might be interesting to see would be to execute "cat /dev/zero > /dev/null" on the device to keep one core "very busy". Then try the transfer and see if it maintains its rate with the screen off.

(Bear in mind it can be tricky to terminate the "cat /dev/zero" process. You'll likely have to use top (or similar) to find it and then do a "kill -9 PID" on it.)
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
I'm using 1.2 Google Play version. :good:

Just did a bit more testing - it seems the issue may be with 3G - but it doesn't do it all the time.

I tested data transfers on the Nexus 4 and 7 over wifi and there was no transfer rate drop at all. It seemed to remain stable regardless of the file type or size.

I switched wifi off and using standard 3G on the Nexus 4 the rate went from about ~1-1.5mb/sec to around 100kb/sec. This only happened once though. I tried another 3-4 times using different files (MP3s, movies, zip file containing about 50mb of pictures), all transferred perfectly fine with no rate drop at all. Frustrating!! :rolleyes:
[Android Apps and Games] GermainZ:
I'm using the play store version. The speed isn't dropping anymore (tried extracting another archive).

The speed drops from ~1mb/s to a few kb/s while the screen is on or off (with no change in speed when comparing the display's state).

If the issue (was) with the governors, then it might be because I flashed a new kernel... Unless the archive contained a large amount of tiny files.

Anyway, thanks for the help. I'll report back if it happens again.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Also bear in mind that archive extraction has a performance bug in 1.2 and prior (if you're copying/pasting files out of a Zip or Rar catalog, rather than doing "Open With" and then using "Archive Extractor"). The 1.3 test builds have this bug fixed. Thanks for reporting in any case.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
A (hopefully) final test release of FX 1.3 is now available. This will (again hopefully) land as the 1.3.0 version very soon provided you don't all beat it up too severely. :)

The big improvement in this test release is network/cloud searching.

FX can now search Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box. It cannot search on SugarSync or SkyDrive. SugarSync indicates that they'll be offerring this feature in their API very soon (a rep emailed me right away after asking on their forum). I don't know on SkyDrive (it's not in the current API, there are forum posts from May 2012 indicating it's not offerred; when it is, it'll be added to FX).

Search capabilities for cloud storage are a bit variable. Google has the neat feature of searching inside documents. Only Dropbox lets you search in a specific directory. Box doesn't provide date/last-modified information in search results. Google Drive and Box won't report the folder path of search results, and obtaining it is would be a one-query-per-file deal (use "Details" if you need to know). This is constrained by their offered APIs.

There's also support for doing recursive network searches on SMB, SSH, and FTP. This works suprisingly well on a local network. And it works unsuprisingly poorly on a remote network (I've added a tip/warning about using it in such an environment, I'm sure it'll tick-off admins and/or cause bans if you do it to FTP sites).

I specifically chose not to offer the recursive search on cloud services. Performance would be poor.

I'll be doing additional testing today and if it's all good 1.3.0 final will be out shortly thereafter.

The NEW R250 test release is available here: http://android.nextapp.com/fx/r250/FX_r250.apk

And again, for your convenience in returning to the released version, here is the APK that is currently available on the Play Store: http://android.nextapp.com/fx/r236/FX_r236.apk (This is exactly the same as what's on the Google Play Store, I'm just trying to make it easy to revert back to stock if the test release causes you trouble).

Greatly appreciate any testing!
[Android Apps and Games] Szczepanik:
Re: [Android 2.1+] FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager

This just gets better on my Samsung Note II Multiwindow I can display FX Text Edit in one window and FX Text Viewer in the other with line numbers and both display accented characters.

Tested cloud search and works well - great job.

Small suggestion: long press on Network Status to disconnect / connect - prompt for WiFi or cellular. I found the "WiFi power" a little confusing at first - maybe change to "WiFi On/Off". Also put similar WiFi toggle in "Connect" button please as that was the logical place for it.

Overall smoothest network / cloud connection I have experienced - much easier than the real offerings!

Future enhancement idea is two way synch between cloud and local storage...

Thank you!

Cheers

Tom

My Note II to you
[Android Apps and Games] Paparasee:
Does this app have the feature wherein I can open two folders on two tabs so that I can copy easily from one tab to the other without copying in one folder then hunting for the 2nd folder, pasting, going back to folder 1 again and so on? Basically I want something that works the way File Expert works. I have started disliking File Expert since the new look version was released and am hunting for something that suits me :)

Thanks.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Yes, just use the "Windows" menu. You can also long press on folders and select "Open in new Window". As of 1.3 (currently in test releases above, not yet in Google Play Store) you can do searches in multiple windows as well.
[Android Apps and Games] elban:
I can confirm that I have no slowdowns on transfers when screen is off. I remember I had some in the past but it may have been with custom roms/kernels.

Now I'm on galaxy nexus stock 4.2, file is 3gb copied over smb, using latest FX test version.
[Android Apps and Games] elban:
feature suggestion: ftp resume support.

thanks :)
[Android Apps and Games] paul c:
Now that would be nice!

Is a "recycle bin" a practical idea?
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Part of the plan...likely going in with general file transfer fault tolerance/resumption.

Yes-and-no. For local files it'd be straightforward. For network and cloud connections, it'd be undesirable or likely at least "different" on each service. For root it would not be a good idea. The fact that it'd work differently for each service makes me think the current implementation (checkbox deletes, with listing of exactly what is being deleted and how big it is) is the best solution.

I should note that FX does try to place items in the trash on Google Drive...but their API ignores the request.
[Android Apps and Games] elban:
I think it should be managed "server-side", because it's much faster and can depend on the storage implementation.

This also means that, when dealing with local files, it should be done by fx itself, because there is no in-OS implementation.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
FX 1.3 Released

FX 1.3 is now available on the Play Store! Thanks again to everyone who helped test this release, your help was greatly appreciated!

Changes include:

Revamped search design and user interface: search is now hosted by the "explorer view" of FX. This allows for multiple search windows,

selcting items in search results, and performing file operations (e.g., cut, copy, delete) on those results.

Added recursive search support for SMB, FTP, and SSH protocols. This feature is generally intended only for local network use due to performance reasons.

Added cloud search support Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box. SugarSync and SkyDrive APIs currently don't support this feature. Search capabilities vary based on the cloud service. Google Drive search includes capability to search inside files.

Added support for Samsung's proprietary "multi-window" extension to Android, available on devices such as Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S3, and Galaxy Note 10.1.

Local file move and deletion performance improved (resultant media database updates are now performed in the background after files have been moved or deleted.

Significantly improved file transfer performance for some devices.

Support for connecting to SSH hosts using keyboard interactive authentication (required by default on modern Mac OS X installations).

Added workaround for bug in Mac OS X (10.8 / Mountain Lion) SMB implementation.

Fixed issues with connecting to FTP-S/FTP-ES servers that have an SSL certificate chain.

Improved performance of loading/rendering APK icons and album art.

Added capability to enable/disable packages in /system from Details view (requires root access).

Added support for copying calculated MD5/SHA1 checksum/hash values to clipboard, and for comparing current hash to value stored on

clipboard (via Details view).

Added refresh button to Details view.
[Android Apps and Games] paul c:
I hadn't got as far as thinking about network/cloud, I was thinking more of local files. In fact, as a minimum, on the SD card - root is more delicate, but maybe that could be managed with two dialog boxes, not just one "are you sure you'd like to restore xxx.mp3 to /aaa/bbb?"

It could even be auto-administrated, so that say 7-day old files were removed - so more basic users wouldn't clog up the bin. Or a subset of file types that could be restored by default (.jpg, .mp3, etc) with well-hidden options to restore other file types..?

That said, the recycle bin as a concept is pretty well understood, even basic users would be deleting & restoring media like photos and videos.
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
I'm keen to test this out when I get home on wifi.

Thanks a lot. :good:
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
This performance improvement will be somewhat hit or miss. For instance, if you're already seeing 2MiB/sec on WiFi it's probably not going to be a significant improvement. The performance increase was due to a flaw in the multithreaded I/O code in previous versions that only actually occurred under certain conditions. Copying files without networking was apparently the most affected by this. Zip extraction seemed to be affected by it almost all the time.
[Android Apps and Games] neim81094:
Re: [Android 2.1+] FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager

I haven't extensively tested it out yet, but it seems that data transfer feels a bit zippier

Sent from my SGH-T999

If I helped please press the thanks button :)
[Android Apps and Games] m0d:
Will you also be adding the ability to compare directly with MD5 that was copied to clipboard? ( Compare a file with hash and not with another file as is the case currently )

This way users can check if a file has been downloaded correctly as many users here in XDA flash new ROMs constantly and the ability to make sure it has been downloaded correctly is helpful.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Yes, will add this to the list. Currently it's only looking for a hash value formatted in its own way.
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
Agree. It does seem a little faster. Just tried copying a few MP3's and a couple of TV shows (around 300mb each) and it didn't seem like I was waiting "forever" for it to complete. I should have tested it using the previous version first before updating. :rolleyes:
[Android Apps and Games] bruce7373:
Re: [Android 2.1+] FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager

Request: is it possible to add a setting to always open FX on the home screen instead of last viewed window? If there is already a way to do this I haven't discovered it. Thanks.

Sent from my HTC Vivid (ICS)
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
FX 1.3.1 has been sent to the Play Store, and should be available within the hour.

The reason for this release is to fix a force close scenario that can occur when using the new search system to search local files on the device.

Additionally this release adds a fix to the FX File Chooser suggested by the developer of Aqua Mail. The File Chooser wasn't providing file metadata to the target app as is required. This fix should help FX File Chooser work with more applications.
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
Not sure if this has been asked before but is there any reason why thumbnails might not show when browsing images over the network?

Thanks. :)
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
On SMB/FTP/SSH shares? FX won't generate them. I don't know of a means to generate thumbnails over SMB/FTP/SSH short of downloading the file and generating one. Even if you can do 2MiB/second, hitting a directory of photos from a good camera is going to take several seconds per thumbnail. The cloud services provide pre-generated thumbnails.
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
SMB. Was trying to browse photos on my NAS and no thumbnails were appearing. When I tried viewing them all on Dropbox (via FX), thumbnails were showing. That all makes sense now.

Thanks. :good:
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
Possibly some good news for you @tliebeck - https://www.dropbox.com/developers/blog/26

;)
[Android Apps and Games] iXNyNe:
Re: [Android 2.1+] FX File Explorer: a "desktop-class" file/media manager

I was just about to post that :)
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
I'm currently working on a creating another video, this time about general root file management. I started a thread here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=37721665 . Any topic suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am trying to keep it fairly short though (10-15 minutes).

Also, as indicated in that thread, I'm adding support for running scripts as root. Hope to have a test release of 1.3.2 with this capability up in the within the next several days.
[Android Apps and Games] GermainZ:
Are you implementing a terminal emulator to do that, or opening the scripts with the default terminal emulator on the device?

In either case, would it be possible to add an "Open terminal here" option (not necessarily in this release)?
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Not planning on implementing a terminal emulator. Script execution capability will not be interactive, at least in the initial version. Plan is to be able to set input parameters and display stdout/stderr/exit code (and copy to clipboard).

Regarding "open terminal here"...I'd personally *love* to have such a feature. It looks like Jack Palevich's Terminal Emulator (i.e. the most commonly used one) does support some Intents that might facilitate this. Such a feature would have to be proprietary to each brand of terminal emulator supported though. One critical question is whether it can be configured to leave the session open after a script is executed (this would give us "open terminal here" with a simple script of "cd /to/desired/path"). I need to try the samples from the jackpal terminal. And of course this would also open up the ability for the user to select a "run in terminal" option for general script execution.

Here are their docs:

https://github.com/jackpal/Android-...ng-Android-Terminal-Emulator-from-another-App

Additionally I'd need to add a permission to FX, likely would only add it to the root module and have it "forward" intents to the terminal emulator.

Thanks for the suggestion!
[Android Apps and Games] peterbonge:
Any updates about this?

A better image viewer would be great.

Larger thumbnails would be greater.

Caching viewed pictures is a must. Without this cloud thumbnails are not making much sense.

Since 20. December we have cloud thumbnails, but using them doesn't make much fun. Every time I click on the thumbnails the pictures are re-loaded from the web. Even if I switch back and forth the pictures are re-loaded. And with a slow connection this is really a pain.

I'm sorry if this sounds ungrateful, but after getting cloud thumbnails I had expected to see some more enhancements in this area.