How do I arrange Plug Ins and Filter order?

[Scooter B]

First off thanks to the developer of Ifranview and others who help with the board.

I have accumulated a few filters by now and find it difficult to remember where to navigate for the specific filter I am using.

Is there a way to go into the program and alphabetize the list?

There are probably three scrolling pages to sort through in the plugin window for 8bf filters.

I have all my plug ins and filters saved to a seperate file under "C : programs/plug ins and filters".

Should I alpabetize the list of plugins within "C : programs/plug ins and filters" or will that make a difference?

Thanks

[Sam_Zen]

Welcome !

1. Normally, plugins for a program are placed in a submap called 'plugins' of the map where the program is.
So in this case "..whatever/IrfanView/plugins/"

2. No need to talk about 'plugins and filters'. These kind of filters are plugins.
Some filters are integrated in IrfanView, (those of Ctrl+E), others can be added as a plugin.

3. There are two kind of 8bf filters, older types (Filter Factory) ("K") and newer types (Adobe) ("Ctrl+K").
Navigation can be a bit awkward. So it's better to make a split with submaps for both types anyway.

4. The "Add Filter" dialog starts the same with both shortcuts. At the root of C:\.
Difference : "K" does it every time. ""Ctrl+K" remembers the path to the latest added plugin.

[matera]

When IrfanView loads the 8bf filters, whatever has been added most recently always goes to the top. They are never in any sensible order, except that the FilterFactory ones (the K-only dialog) are kept in groups. The Adobe (non-FF) filters can be reorganized by editing the 8BF_Filters.ini file. I have perfected a method using Excel and a text editor. It is still tedious, but better than having one's favorites at the bottom or all mixed with those little used. I haven't tried editing the FilterFactory INI's (FFactory1.ini,
FFactory2.ini) yet.

I really should make a how-to page on my site. Then I won't have to type so much

MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF 8BF_Filters.ini FIRST!

Open 8BF_Filters.ini in a text editor. Copy the whole list of filters from the INI and paste it into a new text editor or Word window. Then:

1. Use search and replace to substitute Tab spaces for the = sign between the numbers (Flt0000=) and the rest of the line.

2. Copy and paste the altered list into Excel (or whatever spreadsheet app you use). The tabs insure that there will be two separate columns. This is what makes it easy!

3. Rearrange the items in the filter column to your heart's content. Don't mess with the numbers yet. Add spacers etc., always ending the line with two pipe characters -- ||
Example:

Flt0011=~~~~~~AFH~~~~~~||
Flt0012=Blot~smudge...|E:\plugins\Adobe\afh\blot-smudge.8bf|
Flt0013=Color~blur...|E:\plugins\Adobe\afh\color-blur.8bf|

4. Extend the numbers column to cover any additions -- select three or more cells at the end and pull down at the lower-right corner to automatically continue the numeric series.

5. Copy/paste all back into editor and replace the tabs with = (The reason for not leaving the equal signs in during the spreadsheet phase is that spreadsheets think that they mean something )

6. Copy/paste back into 8BF_Filters.ini. Change the Count=nnn under [Filters] to reflect the actual number of lines if you added anything. Save it. Open IV and try it out.

[Sam_Zen]

Very nice. Although I think, if there aren't that many items, the job could be done with an ascii-editor as well.

Nice trick with the spacer !
I had one 'Eyecandy' filter on the list, added the 'Cybia' group to it, and inserted the spacer :



(Adding a 'Cybia' spacer on top would mean making it "Flt0000=.." with all subsequent nr-editing.)

Peculiar here : The alphabetic order is there, but reversed !

Notes :

A. I think the main trouble here is caused by the construction of the ini-file itself.
It has stayed the same since way back , and has remained quite primitive, compared with the e.g. IV ini-file.
It should have subgroups instead of one global "filters" group.
Which, as a group item, is nonsense anyway, because the whole ini-file is about filters.
So "[filters]" should be replaced by a groupname (or name of the subdir),
Then "Count=16" with the number of items in that group.
Then "Flt0000=.." etc upto "Flt0015=.."
Then the next "[group]" starting from zero again.

B. Another tool to arrange things, could be to alter the effect order in the dialog by moving items up or down in the list.
Via a button like in the panorama dialog, or with dragging.

C. I always was irritated by the unnecessary triple dots at the end of an effectname in the dialog.
So I was editing the ini anyway and removed the three dots in every line.
It doesn't seem to make any difference in the display and functioning of the dialog.

D. As matera states, the Filter Factory list is another story.
A strange construction with 2 ini-files.
These ini-files use the construction I just proposed at 'A' in a certain way but with a different scripting.
This in favor of the GUI of the FF-dialog displaying 2 frames :
A grouplist and a effectlist of a selected group.

E. I really don't understand this double ini-file construction.
FF1 ends up with group 4, while FF2 starts with group 3.
Both related DLL-files, generating these ini-files in conjunction with IrfanView, are made by Irfan.
So my request to him would be to reconsider these constructions.

[Mij]

Peculiar here : The alphabetic order is there, but reversed !

Yes that is annoying the way the list is always compiled in reverse alphabetic order of the filenames.

Matera's method is interesting but only useful if you have just one long list of filters that you use all the time. I have subfolders of different filter groups. That means swapping the groups in and out as they are needed. I suppose I could just rename the files by adding a number to the front, highest at the top, lowest at the bottom.

If you do persuade Irfan to make some changes to the dll perhaps he could include a feature to save the position of the 8bf dialog in the INI. The first thing I always do with the 8bf dialog is to drag it up towards top left so that the actual filter dialogs then open in a more sensible position.

[Sam_Zen]

I too have my filters organized in subfolders. I don't like very long lists.
Of course one could add pre-numbers to get the right order, but that's tedious too, and ugly.
You're very right about the posistion of the dialog.

[matera]

My filters are in a zillion subfolders. The folder structure has little effect on their order except that it keeps duplicates from being added! I always put new filters in a new folder. But every time I add filters, they sit on top of the INI list and I have to edit it again. Hence the use of Excel, where I can easily deal with the separate columns.

[Sam_Zen]

Diggin' further :
0. (in general) One should add a warning to beginners when advicing to edit the .INI file.

1. Replacing the original one by the modified INI should be done when IV is not active.

2. I did a test by just toggling two numbers in the list, like :
Flt0003=
Flt0002=
This worked ! So I changed the complete order. I guess it's against the INI-rules, but nevertheless.

3. In the Filter Factory dialog the alphabetic order of the Filters is ok. But not of the Filter Groups.
But I have to investigate yet what's happening exactly with those two INI-files.
Especially because they keep their data of the latest used filters, even after removing all groups in the dialog.

4. Since 4.25 I've noticed that the Adobe dialog no longer is able to add FF types in the list, like before.
(info for recognition : FF type 8bf files have bytesize 57344, while Adobe types can be anything else)
So there's a final schism between the two, needing the two shortcuts for approach each category.

In that case, I would recommend to Irfan to swap the two shortcuts, because FF is a less used format.
A single 'K' to get the majority of available filters would be quite convenient.

[Scooter B]

Thanks Matera for the detailed instructions and everone chipping in.

Unfortunately everything under "everyone else" quickly goes way over my head in computer jargon.

Initially for simplicity I coppied all my plugins [including filter plugins ] into one single file under C:Programs and redirected all my software capable of employing them to this single file. Some online tutorial I read somewhere early on described filters and plugins as two seperate catagories of add ons but your explanation saves me the trouble of figuring that one out.

Some 8BF ended up being listed under seperate subfolders and some did not but not on purpose. The ones that do appear within subfolders in my C:Programs\Plugins\.... directory are subfoldered by the manufacture or website they came from.

When I go to access 8BF filters within Ifranview however none of the subfolder headings appear in the dropdown as shown in Matera's example.

After adding 30-40 8BF filters I have three or four pages of filters to scroll through and discovered some duplicates which I uninstalled to make the "haystack" a little smaller.

I just reloaded my OS and doing all the updates, redownloads, reinstall, restart adnauseum. Next on the list is adding a second internal HD so all my programs are on one internal HD and all my documents, pictures, music etc are on a second internal HD.

I will print out Matera's step by step to review and I will be pretty happy with a reverse alphabetical order compared to my previous haphazard order. I started with a simple Downloaded Digital Imagaing and Photo Editing File then added a subfile for Plugins which included 8BF and several other formats but these were all mixed together and I could not tell by the name of downloads which ones were 8BF or not with out opening/exploring another subfolder.

The other option would be to compile a Zipped folder of all currently available free 8BF filters before installing any of them and let my folder of zipped files alphabetize them automatically. Then I can install them in reverse alphabetical order with the most recent added being the beginning of the alphabetical order.

FWIW Current related software;
Ifranview - fast load up and image opening with great features. Preferred viewer.
Canon EOS Software; Zoom Browzer, DPP, Image Styler, Raw Image editing - can be slow to load and open images, somewhat confusing on what program to start with and use for what with some overlap of features.
PSPX10 - Exremely slow to load but lots of powerful features if I can ever figure out how to work with layers.
Photoscape - Somewhat unique with user friendly features.
GIMP - Have not gotten to far into figuring this one out, still over my head a bit.

I have downloaded and used about 10 others with various results but Ifran view is the one for quick access, review and yet still retains powerful editing features.

[matera]

Beware -- The Filter Factory 8bfs and the adobe 8bfs should be kept apart. Also, some 8bf files have more than one filter in them, so you get arbitrary groups anyway.

Get into that GIMP, it ruuuuules.