Add Tablacus Explorer support

[lededev]

Description

Support Tablacus Explorer file manager

Summary

QuickSwitch currently integrates with several popular file managers (Explorer, Total Commander, XYplorer, etc.). It would be fantastic to add support for [Tablacus Explorer](https://tablacus.github.io/), a lightweight, highly customizable tabbed file manager.

I’m happy to contribute this enhancement.

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Motivation

• Tablacus Explorer is fully extensible via plugins and scripts.
• A recent PR I submitted to Tablacus Explorer’s default plugin adds a simple API to retrieve the current tab’s path.
• With that API exposed, QuickSwitch can detect Tablacus Explorer windows and switch to their active folder just like other supported managers.

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Proposed Implementation

1. Detect Tablacus Explorer process

   • Add GroupAdd, ManagerClasses, ahk_class TablacusExplorer to QuickSwitch’s detection logic.

2. Query current folder

   • Use the plugin export title bar full path to retrieve the active tab’s path.
   • If the plugin isn’t up-to-date, users can manually modify anddons/titlebar/script.js to add this support.

3. Integrate into QuickSwitch workflow

   • Map the path to QuickSwitch’s existing “quick switch” routine.
   • Show the path on the menu.

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Next Steps

• I can draft a PR for QuickSwitch that implements the above detection and switching logic.
• Let me know if there are any preferred coding patterns or interfaces in QuickSwitch I should follow.
• If you’d like to review the Tablacus Explorer plugin change, see:
  Add option for title bar show full path tablacus/TablacusExplorerAddons#397

Looking forward to your feedback!

Code

Line number

No response

[JoyHak]

Hey, that's interesting idea!

I can draft a PR for QuickSwitch that implements the above detection and switching logic.

Please make a sketch version of the code (you can even use AHK v2) that gets all the paths of the open tabs as a string or array. I usually use SendMessage to send data and get result in the Clipboard, but for Dopus I use text reading from all specific interface elements.

Maybe the plugin is not needed, I will check later. Ideally, QuickSwitch should get all the tabs from the Tablacus Explorer.

Let me know if there are any preferred coding patterns or interfaces in QuickSwitch I should follow.

I will complete the sketch code if necessary. You can write it in any form.

[lededev]

Tablacus Explorer is highly customizable. My Tablacus Explorer has four workspaces, each with three to four panels, and each panel has about ten tabs. This totals over 100 tabs in total. It's not a good idea to read them all out.

[JoyHak]

If you're using Tabclacus only, you can limit visible tabs in QuickSwitch menu in the settings (9 by default). They may be sorted if QuickSwitch recieves tabs in most recent order. Active tab may be displayed as first.

[lededev]

This patch reads the active tab's path. While it's functional, I've developed a C++ version of the file dialog path switcher and plan to port it to Rust. This is necessary because some programs on my system prevent me from running AutoHotkey.

diff --git a/Lib/ManagerClasses.ahk b/Lib/ManagerClasses.ahk
index 414a5e9..47a7646 100644
--- a/Lib/ManagerClasses.ahk
+++ b/Lib/ManagerClasses.ahk
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ GroupAdd, ManagerClasses, ahk_class TTOTAL_CMD
 GroupAdd, ManagerClasses, ahk_class CabinetWClass
 GroupAdd, ManagerClasses, ahk_class ThunderRT6FormDC
 GroupAdd, ManagerClasses, ahk_class dopus.lister
+GroupAdd, ManagerClasses, ahk_class TablacusExplorer
 
 CabinetWClass(ByRef winId, ByRef paths, _activeTabOnly := false, _showLockedTabs := false) {
     ; Analyzes open Explorer windows (tabs) and looks for non-virtual paths
@@ -188,3 +189,20 @@ Dopus(ByRef winId, ByRef paths, _activeTabOnly := false, _showLockedTabs := fals
     paths.push(_paths*)
     return _count
 }
+
+;─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+;
+TablacusExplorer(ByRef winId, ByRef paths, _activeTabOnly := false, _showLockedTabs := false) {
+;─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+    ; Gets the path from the window title.
+    ; The path is the part before " - Tablacus"
+    WinGetTitle, _title, % "ahk_id " winId
+    _path := RegExReplace(_title, " - Tablacus Explorer$")
+
+    if (_path && FileExist(_path)) {
+        paths.push([_path, "Explorer.ico", 1, ""])
+        return 1
+    }
+
+    return 0
+}

[JoyHak]

That's active tab only. Please provide a sketch with all tabs from at least one panel. Currently I don't understand how to get them.

[JoyHak]

Is it possible to write an addon that accepts messages from SendMessage (e.g. WM_NOTIFY) and places a string like path1|path2... in the clipboard?

[JoyHak]

I can't data directly from UI like in Directory Opus so I need some kind of API to request tabs...

[lededev]

Tablacus Explorer is built on a VC++ framework that hosts a JavaScript engine and exposes a set of JS APIs. All visual elements and controls—including tab enumeration—are implemented as JavaScript plugins, so you can retrieve every tab via JS.

For inter-process communication, you don’t need to use the clipboard. Since it’s open source, you can choose any IPC mechanism you prefer to exchange data without polluting the clipboard. Simply write a small JavaScript plugin to expose the tab information you need.

That said, my only requirement is the path of the currently active tab. My switcher runs headlessly and must not steal focus from the file dialog — Such as trigger it with numbers, letters, or the ESC key—so collecting all tab paths isn’t necessary for my use case.

[lededev]

Here’s a screenshot of my customized Tablacus Explorer interface:

[JoyHak]

Are there any locked tabs in TE? They are pinned and the their path cannot be changed.

[lededev]

Are there any locked tabs in TE? They are pinned and the their path cannot be changed.

Yes—you can see locked tabs in my screenshot: they’re the ones without a close button on the right.

To conserve horizontal space, I’ve hidden the lock icon. Because these tabs are locked, changing their path opens a new tab with the updated location, which you can close like any regular tab (unless you lock it as well).