OpenRefine provides a powerful feature for generating detailed file information from selected directories in your local system. This functionality allows users to create projects containing comprehensive file metadata.
Features included in this extension:
- Start an OpenRefine project by loading details of files from one or more folders on your local system.
- File details included are file name, extension, size in KB, creation date, last modification date, permissions, SHA-256 checksum, author and file path
It works with OpenRefine 3.8.x and later versions of OpenRefine.
Download the .zip file of the latest release of this extension. Unzip this file and place the unzipped folder in your OpenRefine extensions folder. Read more about installing extensions in OpenRefine's user manual.
When this extension is installed correctly, you will now see the additional option 'Files from local directory' when starting a new project in OpenRefine.
After installing this extension, click the 'Files from local directory' option to start a new project in OpenRefine. Use the "Select a drive or folder" dropdown to select the top level drive or folder to get directory details.
The system presents a hierarchical directory browser that allows you to:
- Expand/collapse directories using arrow indicators
- Select multiple directories simultaneously using checkboxes
- View the complete directory structure under the selected root drive/folder
- Navigate through system directories including user folders, system folders, and mounted volumes
Once directories are selected, Click Next. In the project preview screen (Configure parsing options), you can view the details of the files in the selected folder(s).
The following information is included for each file:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| fileName | Name of the file with extension |
| fileSize(KB) | Size of the file in kilobytes |
| fileExtension | The file's extension type |
| lastModifiedTime | Last modification timestamp |
| creationTime | File creation timestamp |
| author | Owner/creator of the file |
| filePath | Complete path to the file location |
| filePermissions | Read/write/execute permissions |
| sha256 | SHA-256 hash of the file |
- The project name is automatically generated based on selected folders
- Format: `folder-details_[folder1]_[folder2]_and_more
- Upto 2 selected folders are concatenated in the name
- Users can modify the generated name before creation
- Additional tags can be added for better organization
Run
mvn package
This creates a zip file in the target folder, which can then be installed in OpenRefine.
To avoid having to unzip the extension in the corresponding directory every time you want to test it, you can also use another set up: simply create a symbolic link from your extensions folder in OpenRefine to the local copy of this repository. With this setup, you do not need to run mvn package when making changes to the extension, but you will still to compile it with mvn compile if you are making changes to Java files, and restart OpenRefine if you make changes to any files.
- Make sure you are on the
masterbranch and it is up to date (git pull) - Open
pom.xmland set the version to the desired version number, such as<version>0.1.0</version> - Commit and push those changes to master
- Add a corresponding git tag, with
git tag -a v0.1.0 -m "Version 0.1.0"(when working from GitHub Desktop, you can follow this process and manually add thev0.1.0tag with the descriptionVersion 0.1.0) - Push the tag to GitHub:
git push --tags(in GitHub Desktop, just push again) - Create a new release on GitHub at https://github.com/OpenRefine/FilesExtension/releases/new, providing a release title (such as "Files extension 0.1.0") and a description of the features in this release.
- Open
pom.xmland set the version to the expected next version number, followed by-SNAPSHOT. For instance, if you just released 0.1.0, you could set<version>0.1.1-SNAPSHOT</version> - Commit and push those changes.