ontologist

Hey everybody, I'm not sure whether this is a small error on my part or something more major. This is my first forum post, so bear with me!

I'm trying to get a folder object to read the contents of a folder and dump them into a umenu (as advertised in the folder.maxhelp file); however, even the help file can't send the list of folder contents unless there are quotes around the folder path, a la:

            "box" :             {

                "maxclass" : "newobj",

                "text" : "folder "./Cycling '74/max-help"",

                "fontsize" : 11.595187,

                "numoutlets" : 2,

                "outlettype" : [ "", "int" ],

                "fontname" : "Arial",

                "id" : "obj-18",

                "patching_rect" : [ 90.0, 267.0, 163.0, 20.0 ],

                "numinlets" : 1

You'll notice that the object puts quotes around the file path. I want folder to do this path:

                "text" : "folder ./ONTOarchive/movA",

                "id" : "obj-14",

                "patching_rect" : [ 104.0, 392.0, 153.0, 20.0 ],

And when I try to add the quotes back in (as that seems to be the only way to get folder to respond at all) Max automatically deletes them!! wtf? I have discovered that this is true for all objects and messages.

Can someone let me in on how to accurately use folder and/or what is up with the quote system?

{
	"boxes" : [ 		{
			"box" : 			{
				"maxclass" : "newobj",
				"text" : "folder "./Cycling '74/max-help"",
				"fontsize" : 11.595187,
				"numoutlets" : 2,
				"outlettype" : [ "", "int" ],
				"fontname" : "Arial",
				"id" : "obj-18",
				"patching_rect" : [ 90.0, 267.0, 163.0, 20.0 ],
				"numinlets" : 1
			}

{
	"boxes" : [ 		{
			"box" : 			{
				"maxclass" : "newobj",
				"text" : "folder ./ONTOarchive/movA",
				"fontsize" : 11.595187,
				"numoutlets" : 2,
				"outlettype" : [ "", "int" ],
				"fontname" : "Arial",
				"id" : "obj-14",
				"patching_rect" : [ 104.0, 392.0, 153.0, 20.0 ],
				"numinlets" : 1
			}

folder-object-and-quotes

SO since posting I've figured out the quote situation (it deals with spaces in folder names), but the issue still exists: folder doesn't respond to anything except in the help file. Max documentation doesn't help. Here's my (ridiculously simple) patch:

                "maxclass" : "button",

                "numinlets" : 1,

                "numoutlets" : 1,

                "id" : "obj-10",

                "outlettype" : [ "bang" ],

                "patching_rect" : [ 182.0, 116.0, 20.0, 20.0 ]

                "maxclass" : "umenu",

                "fontsize" : 12.0,

                "items" : [ ],

                "numoutlets" : 3,

                "id" : "obj-6",

                "outlettype" : [ "int", "", "" ],

                "types" : [ ],

                "patching_rect" : [ 182.0, 175.0, 100.0, 20.0 ]

                "id" : "obj-1",

                "patching_rect" : [ 182.0, 147.0, 158.0, 20.0 ]

            "patchline" :             {

                "source" : [ "obj-10", 0 ],

                "destination" : [ "obj-1", 0 ],

                "hidden" : 0,

                "midpoints" : [ ]

                "source" : [ "obj-1", 0 ],

                "destination" : [ "obj-6", 0 ],

And the Max Window confirms that the folder does indeed exist. But no information is pushed to the umenu when it is banged. Why?

{
	"boxes" : [ 		{
			"box" : 			{
				"maxclass" : "button",
				"numinlets" : 1,
				"numoutlets" : 1,
				"id" : "obj-10",
				"outlettype" : [ "bang" ],
				"patching_rect" : [ 182.0, 116.0, 20.0, 20.0 ]
			}

		}
, 		{
			"box" : 			{
				"maxclass" : "umenu",
				"fontsize" : 12.0,
				"items" : [  ],
				"numinlets" : 1,
				"numoutlets" : 3,
				"fontname" : "Arial",
				"id" : "obj-6",
				"outlettype" : [ "int", "", "" ],
				"types" : [  ],
				"patching_rect" : [ 182.0, 175.0, 100.0, 20.0 ]
			}

		}
, 		{
			"box" : 			{
				"maxclass" : "newobj",
				"text" : "folder ./ONTOarchive/movA",
				"fontsize" : 12.0,
				"numinlets" : 1,
				"numoutlets" : 2,
				"fontname" : "Arial",
				"id" : "obj-1",
				"outlettype" : [ "", "int" ],
				"patching_rect" : [ 182.0, 147.0, 158.0, 20.0 ]
			}

		}
 ],
	"lines" : [ 		{
			"patchline" : 			{
				"source" : [ "obj-10", 0 ],
				"destination" : [ "obj-1", 0 ],
				"hidden" : 0,
				"midpoints" : [  ]
			}

		}
, 		{
			"patchline" : 			{
				"source" : [ "obj-1", 0 ],
				"destination" : [ "obj-6", 0 ],
				"hidden" : 0,
				"midpoints" : [  ]
			}

And the Max Window confirms that the folder does indeed exist. But no information is pushed to the umenu when it is banged. Why?


Can't be sure this is your issue but at a guess.....

folder only looks for cetain types of files (those you ask it to look for) - by default those are text files and max binary files (patches).

If you want it to look for something else you'll need to send it a types message. The help file and reference have more details.

BTW - there is a better (prefered) way to post max 5 patches to the forum which makes them smaller using the "copy compressed" method. There is more detail here:

https://cycling74.com/forums/index.php?t=msg&th=38828&start=0&rid=4015&S=4297eec5ca18e10343bd5eef586ebd23

I was worried that this was the case, I'll figure it out.

And thanks for the info about Copy Compressed, I feel more savvy already!

folder object and quotes