File addresses and the side-panel Preview

When DataMind Oda points at a file, it writes a file address for it: the name that carries the file's location together with the chat that may read it. The side panel works through these addresses when it 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 one holds, how it is written and read, and why some addresses cannot be opened. The preview itself is covered on Preview files in Oda, and following a link in a reply on Links and files in chat.

A file and its chat

An address holds two things:

• A file. The file's location: a path relative to the chat's folder for a file inside it, or the full path for a file anywhere else.
• A chat. The chat that authorises reading the file. When Oda turns a file into a link, it writes the chat together with the path.

The two kinds of address

The side panel opens addresses that carry a chat: a link from a reply is read through the chat the link carries. An absolute address cannot be read, so it does not become a preview. Oda does not fill in a chat to make one work, not even the chat you have open.

How the path is written

• Inside the chat's folder, the path is relative to it. A file outside the folder, or one Oda cannot place inside it, keeps its full path, still inside the same address.
• Kept as written. A full path keeps its leading slash, a drive letter stays as written (C:), and a network share keeps its leading double slash.
• One separator. Separators are written as / throughout the address.

How an address is read

• Read exactly, or not at all. Only a complete, well-formed address is read. One that is missing its chat or its file part, or that carries a part which 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 the link 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: it 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, is done on the address's text alone. Oda does not look at the disk to resolve an address, and it does not tidy the path along the way. One consequence: an address reads the same whether or not the file is still there, so only opening it can fail, and the chat reports that failure when it does.

In the side panel

• A preview opens an address through the chat the address carries. Each chat keeps its own previews, so the same file open in two chats has a tab in each (Preview files in Oda).
• An absolute address does not become a preview. It stays a piece of text with a place in it.
• You meet addresses through their effects: links in replies, the Files tree in the panel, and preview tabs (The side panel, Browse workspace files).

Questions, answered

Which addresses can the side-panel Preview open?

An address that carries a chat, read through that chat. 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 Oda covers the preview itself.

What stays as written in a file 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 does Oda read a file address?

Exactly, and once: a complete address is cut at its first ? or #, its parts are decoded a single time, and dot parts like .. are never followed. An address missing its chat or its file part, or carrying a part that does not decode, is not an address at all.

Does Oda check the disk when it reads a file address?

No. Working out which file an address names, for display or for matching, uses the address's text alone, so reading never touches the disk. An address reads the same whether or not the file is still there; only opening it can fail.

What happens when the file behind an address is gone?

The address still reads the same, because reading never checks the disk. Opening it is what fails, and the chat then shows that the file could not be opened (Links and files in chat).

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.

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

It still travels 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.