Content Search

[rdromance]

Maybe I've just missed it but is there a way to search for certain content in files? ie. I want to find all files that contains X.

[David Erceg]

It's not possible in the current version. I have it planned for a future release.

[twinsen]

Whenever I want to do content search I use 2xExplorer. I find it works better than the default explorer search.
You can download it here to see how it works:
http://www.netez.com/2xExplorer/

I was always disappointed it wasn't open source, and the project is now dead although you can still download and use it for free. The replacement xplorer² costs money (there is no free "lite" version).

Here is an example search:
Select menu: Tools\Find Files...
Named: "*.cpp,*.h"
Look in: "D:\explorer++_1.2_src\Explorer++\Explorer++"
Include Subfolders (checkbox)

Use text constraints (checkbox)
Find what: "Explorer"
Checkboxes: Search non-text files, Match case

It would be great if a similar dialog was possible in Explorer++. Then I can make the permanent switch from 2xExplorer to Explorer++. The Explorer++ search dialog is fine already, it just needs something like the "Containing text" groupbox. Although I don't mind if you do something more like the default windows explorer, as long as its reliable and there is a "match case" checkbox.

[neminem]

Heh, people have been telling David that sort of thing for a while now. :p

Until he does, though (and, to be fair, from recent checkins it looks like the search dialog is something he's looking at right now, which is good), I do believe I'll be hooking search into a different tool :D. The fact that I will now be calling one UI replacement and then telling it to launch a different one for search amuses me, but oh well.

I did try xplorer² for a little while before I found explorer++; wasn't really that impressed with the feel of it. Explorer++ pretty much does everything I need (now that it supports external context menu hooks, anyway), and the way I expect it to. Except search.

Speaking of, I also noticed that pressing f3 on the desktop launches native OS search, even if you have explorer++ launch instead of explorer for everything else. I mention this because I also noticed Win7 native search has no idea how to search the desktop :D. Not really important, mostly thought it was amusing.

[twinsen]

Thanks for the "hooking search into a different tool" idea.
I tried to use the application toolbar to launch an external tool (grepWin).
Unfortunately the application toolbar does not support parameters with special tags (eg %dir% and %files% for current directory / selected files).
So I did a quick hack just for grepWin.

This allows you to put a "grepWin" Application Button on the Application Toolbar, and
when it is launched, the search path is automatically filled in.

Download
http://members.iinet.net.au/~bertdb/rya ... Win_mod.7z
Uncompress to get the modified explorer++ exe

Download grepWin-X_portable.exe from:
http://code.google.com/p/grepwin/downloads/list
Create a new application button that references that exe.
Name: grepWin
Command: <path to exe>

Now click on the grepWin button instead of Tools\Search and you will get a powerful search content feature

These were the hack code changes, which may help as a starting point to implement proper parameter customization support:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~bertdb/rya ... hanges.txt

[twinsen]

I've now implemented proper parameter support.
See this post for more info:
http://www.explorerplusplus.com/phpBB3/ ... 09&start=0
(one of the examples is for grepWin)