As a PC user, you are probably guilty of collecting files from people and keeping it haphazardly in any folder on your PC and then later lose track of where you kept the files or you are the type that would really like a neatly arranged PC with the mp3s going to the music folder and the movies going to the video folder or the compressed files going to a predefined archive folder but you are too lazy to enforce such a rule(people like me).
If you fall into any of the category above, you must try this software. It allows you to add the notorious folders where you normally drop the files "haphazardly" and to also add folders where you would prefer certain files to be like Music folder for mp3, m4a, ogg or any music format you use. Once you specify the notorious folder and you add a file that is not meant to be there, it automatically whisks it away to the right folder immediately..

This software is free and open-source.
The project is hosted at http://github.com/lordzouga/Relax
project homepage: http://lordzouga.github.com/Relax
it is entirely written in C++. The GUI is written with Qt http://qt-project.org
yes.
What is available on github is a stable version. You can compile and use or you can use the binaries:
for windows: https://github.com/lordzouga/Relax/downloads

It can be used on windows, Mac and Linux.
If you have questions contact me on http://twitter.com/lordzouga or post here

the Git repository is not really stellar. Still fixing it up

I'm guilty of dis offence on various counts...bring on d bins ......

.

errrr

Hmmmmn... Pretty decent project.
Luckily, I am a C++ and a Qt pro...
I would participate and improve on the project if you do not mind... Cause I have same issue...lol.

FEATURES that may IMPROVE this SOFTWARE
++ you do not want to dump all kinds of mp3s in a folder, you may want to separate them at times. Use Regex to further categorize certain titles...
++ there are certain times you would want to manually reogarnize the moved item... A fullscreen manager that displays all properties of the file. And you move it in real time to your desired place... The software should intelligently study the Regex of such properties like, title, publisher, vendor, etc... Then attempt to automatically suggest action...
+++Detailed output of current operation... For geeks

These makes it a little bit more complex... but when its done, its userbase would grow...
....@OP, what do you say??

WhiZTiM: Hmmmmn... Pretty decent project.
Luckily, I am a C++ and a Qt pro...
I would participate and improve on the project if you do not mind... Cause I have same issue...lol.

FEATURES that may IMPROVE this SOFTWARE
++ you do not want to dump all kinds of mp3s in a folder, you may want to separate them at times. Use Regex to further categorize certain titles...
++ there are certain times you would want to manually reogarnize the moved item... A fullscreen manager that displays all properties of the file. And you move it in real time to your desired place... The software should intelligently study the Regex of such properties like, title, publisher, vendor, etc... Then attempt to automatically suggest action...
+++Detailed output of current operation... For geeks

These makes it a little bit more complex... but when its done, its userbase would grow...
....@OP, what do you say??

wow, a believer! How come I haven't noticed you on this forum before??
Before I go on, you have to understand that the main concept of this project is
for the software to be subtle, intruding as little as possible to modify the filesystem by creating little or no extra files or folders. Once there are lots of folder to open to get to a file, the user gets annoyed.
About your first suggestion:
kool. An option should be made available for users to allow the software do that to files of the same class but different extensions.
Second suggestion:
the underlying filesystem does that would like to see your implementation though.
Third suggestion:
yep, that is a needed feature. I already provided a progress bar but I know its grossly inadequate

@lordZOUGA wen wud d binaries be released? I dnt hav access to a c++ compiler nd I need smfin like dis on my pc.....a q....does relax! Go thru sub folders? If yes, wht if I copied a folder (say a game folder) nd inside it there are game arts (jpg) sound (wav) etc...would it take dem away?
Fanks

Nice thread, Nice project

₱®ÌИСΞ:
@lordZOUGA wen wud d binaries be released? I dnt hav access to a c++ compiler nd I need smfin like dis on my pc.....a q....does relax! Go thru sub folders? If yes, wht if I copied a folder (say a game folder) nd inside it there are game arts (jpg) sound (wav) etc...would it take dem away?
Fanks

sorry I couldn't upload the binaries yesterday. I got sidetracked. I would try to upload today. bear with me.
Answer:
no. it doesn't check sub-folders. If you want a folder to be checked, you have to manually add it... That's the least you can do

Javanian: Nice thread, Nice project

okay

lordZOUGA:
wow, a believer! How come I haven't noticed you on this forum before??
Before I go on, you have to understand that the main concept of this project is
for the software to be subtle, intruding as little as possible to modify the filesystem by creating little or no extra files or folders. Once there are lots of folder to open to get to a file, the user gets annoyed.
About your first suggestion:
kool. An option should be made available for users to allow the software do that to files of the same class but different extensions.
Second suggestion:
the underlying filesystem does that would like to see your implementation though.
Third suggestion:
yep, that is a needed feature. I already provided a progress bar but I know its grossly inadequate

. . . Oh yeah... Had on old account here since 4yrs ago. Reregistered this year. And posting? Am a newbie in this section, just decided to google "Nigerian programming forums" ...got here... And yeah, am quite impressed...

I totally understand the project, (hopefully... Cause I am on mobile now).
What I ment in the second suggestion was a statistical recording of some certain MANUAL movements of Files such as moving 3 SINGLE tracks of an Artist "Psquare" to a specific folder. What if there are 10 more rooted in different folders contained in the watch folder...? After we have categorized the mp3s, we should also queue up and list possible further categorization based on the little statistical data we have... for the user to approve when he pops up the GUI at his own time...
......
Its a roadmap suggestion, implementation has to be carefully done to allow it scale in future... I would start taking a look at it next week and hookup with you on github.

I wanted to implement a similar thing on my Linux in Python sometime ago... With the plan of using it with "cron"(schedular)... To have it run or triggered by a change in the watch folder's "modified" attribute.
But I was discouraged by the fact that I was going to need some little more extra WinAPI knowledge to run it as a service in Windows... Arrgh!!
Qt library abstractions make me write codes for Windows.

WhiZTiM:
. . . Oh yeah... Had on old account here since 4yrs ago. Reregistered this year. And posting? Am a newbie in this section, just decided to google "Nigerian programming forums" ...got here... And yeah, am quite impressed...

I totally understand the project, (hopefully... Cause I am on mobile now).
What I ment in the second suggestion was a statistical recording of some certain MANUAL movements of Files such as moving 3 SINGLE tracks of an Artist "Psquare" to a specific folder. What if there are 10 more rooted in different folders contained in the watch folder...? After we have categorized the mp3s, we should also queue up and list possible further categorization based on the little statistical data we have... for the user to approve when he pops up the GUI at his own time...
......
Its a roadmap suggestion, implementation has to be carefully done to allow it scale in future... I would start taking a look at it next week and hookup with you on github.

you mean build a graph with possible files that can also be copied?

WhiZTiM: I wanted to implement a similar thing on my Linux in Python sometime ago... With the plan of using it with "cron"(schedular)... To have it run or triggered by a change in the watch folder's "modified" attribute.
But I was discouraged by the fact that I was going to need some little more extra WinAPI knowledge to run it as a service in Windows... Arrgh!!
Qt library abstractions make me write codes for Windows.

windows can be quite stingy in the cross-platform ecosystem..

lordZOUGA:
you mean build a graph with possible files that can also be copied?

yeah. Something like that... My approach then was simple... If I remember correctly, I wanted to use Python's SQLlite module as my Database storage engine. There are lots of limitations though, the database will be limited to a meagre size, maybe 20MB Max, for perfomance purposes.

The Watch folder would be monitored for manual transactions, ALL the BASIC attributes of each MANUALLY moved file will be stored in a table. But before storage, we count similar occurences of some certain property tags in all rows of the database... Record that somewhere.

If a Certain thresholed or count is reached we can make our suggestion, scan the watch folder recursively and state estimated guess accuracy for each suggestion.

Example:
i have a watch folder I moved stuff to...
The software makes does its basic job...
Later in the day, i go through some of the subfolders...
I move 7 of Psquares songs to a certain folder on my system...
I remember, oh , my software should be able to pick more of those songs....
I crank up the Software interface and see a table of suggested files to be moved to a particular destination sorted primarily by accuracy %...
I may modify some things and...
I Approve the transaction...

(The Table in the example above would have generated columns like title, artist, album, creation date, etc.. Lastly, suggestion accuracy.

..now the further modification I can do is : I can select the Psquare tracks into a group sort them by any column... Decide that oh, He has this new release!! Further select based on that Album title. Then redefine its destination to a new folder I make...And bam! Approve!!

I love this project idea and I think if this project is gonna grow in userbase, we need more features...
Why, i think, especially Nigerians... Due to greediness and economy..
Qt Libraries are large...
We wouldnt like to download a 3MB file for 1 feature.
**Just saying** I don't know if I am mixing up your primary aim here...

WhiZTiM:
yeah. Something like that... My approach then was simple... If I remember correctly, I wanted to use Python's SQLlite module as my Database storage engine. There are lots of limitations though, the database will be limited to a meagre size, maybe 20MB Max, for perfomance purposes.

The Watch folder would be monitored for manual transactions, ALL the BASIC attributes of each MANUALLY moved file will be stored in a table. But before storage, we count similar occurences of some certain property tags in all rows of the database... Record that somewhere.

If a Certain thresholed or count is reached we can make our suggestion, scan the watch folder recursively and state estimated guess accuracy for each suggestion.

Example:
i have a watch folder I moved stuff to...
The software makes does its basic job...
Later in the day, i go through some of the subfolders...
I move 7 of Psquares songs to a certain folder on my system...
I remember, oh , my software should be able to pick more of those songs....
I crank up the Software interface and see a table of suggested files to be moved to a particular destination sorted primarily by accuracy %...
I may modify some things and...
I Approve the transaction...

(The Table in the example above would have generated columns like title, artist, album, creation date, etc.. Lastly, suggestion accuracy.

..now the further modification I can do is : I can select the Psquare tracks into a group sort them by any column... Decide that oh, He has this new release!! Further select based on that Album title. Then redefine its destination to a new folder I make...And bam! Approve!!

so a kind of sort that can make suggestions based on the contents of a file? If that is true then it means that the software will have to know how to serialize all available file types.
It has to know how to locate the album title and the track name of track PSQUARE and other sorts of metadata that accompanies an mp3 file.
And it also must know how to do that for an arbitrary range of file types.
Am having "Daymares" jus thinking about coding that type of software.

windows binaries uploaded.. https://github.com/lordzouga/Relax/downloads follow the instructions in the readme inside on how to use

nice work, will take a look when am less busy and hopefully i will learn from the project.
I use Qt too but with python and i can guess right away that QFileSystemWatcher must be in the mix.

lordZOUGA:
Am having "Daymares" jus thinking about coding that type of software.

hahahaha. That my friend, is the challange of programming!. What I am currently having "daymares" on is a Conditional Permutation Algorithim using a seed value of 1 < k < n!(factorial). Where k is seed value and n is word length. And for words like "hydrothermal" with 12! Possibilites. Very large number. There has to be a methodic process to generate a permutation from the seed value, k, without having to iterate up to k! times.

webdezzi: nice work, will take a look when am less busy and hopefully i will learn from the project.
I use Qt too but with python and i can guess right away that QFileSystemWatcher must be in the mix.

yeah.. I used QFileSystemWatcher. i jus had to use it. looking forward to your joining the project

WhiZTiM:
hahahaha. That my friend, is the challange of programming!. What I am currently having "daymares" on is a Conditional Permutation Algorithim using a seed value of 1 < k < n!(factorial). Where k is seed value and n is word length. And for words like "hydrothermal" with 12! Possibilites. Very large number. There has to be a methodic process to generate a permutation from the seed value, k, without having to iterate up to k! times.

okay. that sounds scary.

will be uploading the linux version next. could not provide an installer for this version or create a ppa. I can only do so much. need developers.

the software has quirks though that I will start fixing soon though..

1) it has to be able to prompt a user for action whenever it encounters files of the same title

2) it provides little or no file copy status

3) users should be able to cancel an ongoing file copy session. the software does not provide button for that

4) even the about page is not done yet(though I was exploring my graphical sense )

will fix the above problems and make it available in the next build

Cool project cos i normally download alot(books/music) and drop everything in the download folder. It would be nice if it could sort by types of file.
As whizTim said, a cron job that drops .mp3, .wav, .mp4 in the music folder and .pdf, .docx, .txt in the documents folder etc.
I don't know c++ but i would be following the project and learn c++ so i can contribute.

Good job man.

A-ZeD:
Cool project cos i normally download alot(books/music) and drop everything in the download folder. It would be nice if it could sort by types of file.
As whizTim said, a cron job that drops .mp3, .wav, .mp4 in the music folder and .pdf, .docx, .txt in the documents folder etc.
I don't know c++ but i would be following the project and learn c++ so i can contribute.

Good job man.

yeah it sorts by type of file

lordZOUGA: windows binaries uploaded.. https://github.com/downloads/lordzouga/Relax/relax_0.1_win_beta.rar follow the instructions in the readme inside on how to use

Nyc...got it...I didn't need 2 read d instructions tho...d interface is very straight forward...gud job

A-ZeD:
Cool project cos i normally download alot(books/music) and drop everything in the download folder. It would be nice if it could sort by types of file.
As whizTim said, a cron job that drops .mp3, .wav, .mp4 in the music folder and .pdf, .docx, .txt in the documents folder etc.
I don't know c++ but i would be following the project and learn c++ so i can contribute.

Good job man.

@lordzuoga I fink he has a point tho...
u cud add a feature dat groups file extensions of similar content as one eg (archives: rar, tar, zip, cab...etc)...wud save a lot of config time cuz users wont hav to manually add each new extension filter...

₱®ÌИСΞ:


Nyc...got it...I didn't need 2 read d instructions tho...d interface is very straight forward...gud job


@lordzuoga I fink he has a point tho...
u cud add a feature dat groups file extensions of similar content as one eg (archives: rar, tar, zip, cab...etc)...wud save a lot of config time cuz users wont hav to manually add each new extension filter...

Thanks man... that was really encouraging.

I get what you mean.. something like default filters that will be presented to users on first run. I was implementing something like that (check mainwindow.h MainWindow::reset()). the plan was to hard code common file types in such a way that it will only be presented to the user on first run of the software or when the user clicks a certain reset button.

Oh ok...I see wht u mean...cool all d same...
waitn for d next release...I'm nt a c++ nor qt person so I'd just stand in d sidelines n contribute...

₱®ÌИСΞ:
Oh ok...I see wht u mean...cool all d same...
waitn for d next release...I'm nt a c++ nor qt person so I'd just stand in d sidelines n contribute...

hey if you really want to contribute... You can start by making a webpage for Relax nothing complex... That is if you do web design

i just ran the binary on my system.

I will like to throw in my views
The interface is very clean and thats one of why i love Qt
very simple and runs with very low footprint.

but trust me, i was lost when i first launched it, i had to click on the help and it provided no help. (i love that graphical presentation "about relax"
I know help will come with newer versions.

next is having an application icon
many inexperienced windows users will take the default windows application icon as a virus.

the interface arrangement will confuse the average user
like have the "browse" button appear directly above the "edit" and "delete" on the "set origin folder" tab will make users know whats going on.
when i selected that folder, I never thought it would be added to the tableview, also no need displaying the path in the lineedit.
just have it in the tableview directly and when they click edit, it shows the filedialog and the selection updates the path in the tableview right away.


for the extension, i was lost as to whether to do a ".jpg" or "jpg" or "*.jpg"
but since i wanted to add more image formats like png and gif, I decided i will add multiple, again i became lost as to whether to separate them with spaces or commas
or if it is even possible to add multiple per line.
so i just gave it a short by doing a "jpg gif"
i got the whitespace stripped off to i concluded it has to be one extension per path.
I think to avoid all these, popular file formats can be added with a generic name such as images, videos etc

another if that it did not run as a service on my system, which i expected of it.
so after hitting "save"(which was tucked away from view, i had to look around for it), i decided to somehow, just close it and expect thing to work magically, but i noticed it left my task manager's processes list. maybe forking a process to do the actual job will fix this.

also, have you ever thought of having an installer?
i used innosetup for my projects, so you extract the app to the program folder which to me is "packaging"


This is a good job my brother and an innovative idea thats not been out there yet, but very much needed.
this is version 0.1 and it still has a long way to go.
how i wish i am this good with C++.