Spring-loaded folders

[probonopd]

Spring-loaded folders would greatly improve productivity, especially in conjunction with Spatial Mode.

Apple held patents which since have expired.

• https://patents.google.com/patent/US6061061 (Expired)
• https://patents.google.com/patent/US7712037B2 (Expired)

See below for an implementation that would need to be ported to Filer.

[probonopd]

https://github.com/mate-desktop/caja/pull/110/files contains a patch for Caja. It's not Qt but maybe useful anyway for looking at.

[probonopd]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIRGoOzbp88

KDE Plasma has it, "kinda", apparently not in the Dolphin file manager but in the "pseudo file manager" on the Plasma desktop.

In the Dolphin file manager, there are also references of it, called ExpandableFolders:
https://github.com/KDE/dolphin/search?q=expandableFolders

Reference:
https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=223&t=165329

[probonopd]

This is the basic patch by @ssj-gz that was supposed to enable the feature in Dolphin:

KDE/dolphin@b94777f

Not sure whether we can use anything from that implementation but possibly we can at least learn something.

/**
 * Grants auto expanding functionality to the provided item view.
 * Qt has its own auto expand mechanism, but this works only
 * for QTreeView. Auto expanding of folders is turned on
 * per default.
 *
 * If the provided view is an instance of the class QTreeView, the
 * expanded of the directory is automatically done on hover. Otherwise
 * the enterDir() signal is emitted and the caller needs to ensure that
 * the requested directory is entered.
 *
 * The FolderExpander becomes a child of the provided view.
 */

[louies0623]

#164 (comment)
When using this function, it will be terminated by the right-click menu.

[probonopd]

Blocked by:

• Dragging a document onto the white area of an opened folder window crashes #164 (comment)