File addresses and Preview

When DataMind Oda points at a file, it names the file with a file address: the file's location together with the chat that may read it. File links and the side panel's Preview work through these addresses, both when the panel opens a file as a preview and when it works out which file a link or a tab means. You will not normally see an address in full. This page covers what an address carries, how its path is written, and why some addresses cannot be opened.

What an address carries

An address has two parts:

• A chat. When Oda turns a file into a link, it writes the chat the link came from together with the file's location. That chat is what allows the file to be read.
• A location. The file's path, relative to the chat's workspace folder when the file sits inside it, and the full path when it sits elsewhere or Oda cannot place it inside the folder.

Oda always writes a chat into an address when it builds one, so every link it makes belongs to a chat. An address is not the file's path on your computer: when Oda shows you a file, you see its name and its path, not the address. The workspace folder a chat works in is covered in Add, rename or delete a workspace.

The two kinds of address

An absolute address still names the file's location, but carries no chat behind it, so it does not become a preview. It stays a piece of text with a place in it. Oda does not fill in a chat to make an absolute address work, not even the chat you have open.

A link belongs to its chat

• Opening uses the link's chat. When you open a file from a link, Oda reads it through the chat the link carries.
• Each chat keeps its own previews. The same file reached from two chats has a tab in each (Preview files in the side panel).
• You meet addresses through their effects: links in replies, the Files tree in the panel, and preview tabs (The side panel).

If a link will not open, Links and files in chat covers what the chat shows and what to try next. To hand a file to your own computer instead, see Open files and folders in other apps.

How the path is written

• Relative inside, full outside. A file inside the chat's workspace folder is named by its path within that folder. Anywhere else the full path is kept, and only a path that really sits inside the folder is named relative to it.
• Kept as written. A full path keeps its leading slash, a drive letter stays as written, for example C:, and a network share keeps its leading double slash.
• One separator style. Separators are written as / throughout the address.

How an address is read

• Exactly, or not at all. Only a complete, well-formed address is read. One missing its chat or its path, or carrying a part that does not decode, is not an address at all: Oda does not guess what it meant, and nothing opens from it.
• The first ? or # ends the file's name. Anything after it is extra that the address carries, not part of the name. A name that contains either character is written in an encoded form, so the link still points at the file.
• Decoded once. The address's parts are decoded a single time when it is read.
• Dot parts never move you. Reading never follows .. up a folder. A .. stays as written, and an encoded .. is just text once decoded.
• Read as text, never from the disk. Working out which file an address names, for display or for matching, uses the address's text alone. Oda does not look at the disk and does not tidy the path along the way, so an address reads the same whether or not the file is still there; opening it is what can fail.

Questions, answered

Which addresses can the Preview open?

An address for a chat, read through the chat it carries. An absolute address cannot be opened: nothing authorises the read, so it does not become a preview, and Oda does not borrow the chat you have open to make it work. Preview files in the side panel covers the preview itself.

Is a file address the same as the file's path on my computer?

No. An address is Oda's own name for one file in a chat: it carries the file's location and the chat the link belongs to. When Oda shows you a file, you see its name and its path, not the address.

Whose access does an address use?

The chat it carries. A link names the chat it came from, and Oda reads the file through that chat; Oda does not fall back to the chat you have open, so an address with no chat cannot be opened, even when the chat you have open could read the same file itself.

Why can the same file have more than one address?

Because an address carries its chat. Each chat names a file it points at in its own right, so the same file reached from two chats has two addresses, and each chat keeps its own preview of it.

What stays as written in an address?

A full path keeps its leading slash, a drive letter stays as written, and a network share keeps its leading double slash. Separators are written as / throughout the address.

How is a file outside the chat's folder named?

It is still named in an address for that chat; its path inside the address is the full path, kept as written, not a path relative to the chat's folder. Only a file that really sits inside the folder is named relative to it.

My file's name contains # or ?. Will the link still point at it?

Yes. Those characters are written in an encoded form, so the link still points at the file. The first ? or # in an address is only where the file's name ends; anything after it is extra that the address carries.

Does .. move up a folder when an address is read?

No. Oda reads an address as text and never follows dot parts: a .. stays as written and never moves up a folder, and an encoded .. is just text once decoded.

What happens to a damaged address?

If an address is missing its chat or its path, or a part of it does not decode, Oda does not treat it as an address at all. Nothing opens from it, and Oda does not guess the file you meant.

Does reading an address check that the file exists?

No. Reading uses the address's text alone and never looks at the disk, so an address reads the same whether or not the file is still there. If the file has gone, opening it is what fails; Links and files in chat covers the message the chat shows.