Provide startup option for new tab in (in)active panel

[jbosma]

I want to integrate FreeCommander with the "Open in System Explorer" option in Eclipse. You can give Eclipse a command to run when you right-click on a folder in the Eclipse project manager. Eclipse supplies the folder name by replacing "${selected_resource_loc}" with the path to the Eclipse folder that was clicked on. (This will always be a folder path. Eclipse runs a different command if you click on a file name, as opposed to a folder name.)

What I'd like to do is to use the supplied path to open in a new tab in the inactive panel of FreeCommander, re-using an existing FreeCommander instance if it exists.

The command: freecommander /C /T "${selected_resource_loc}" seems like the command that ought to work, but it does not. It will start an instance of FreeCommander if there is not one running. But, already-running or not, FreeCommander does not open the supplied path in any panel. The documentation in the FreeCommander help file for this option gives an example specifying two path names, but I only want to create one new tab.

The command: freecommander /C "${selected_resource_loc}" overwrites the current tab in the active panel instead of opening a new tab.

The command: freecommander /T "${selected_resource_loc}" opens a new tab but also always runs a new instance of FreeCommander.

The command: freecommander /C /T /L="${selected_resource_loc}" opens a new tab in the current instance, but always in the left panel. This is the closest to what I'd like to achieve but I wish there were a way to make the new tab open in the inactive (or active) panel, instead of always left or right.

I would like to request a new feature to re-use the existing instance of FreeCommander and open a new tab from a single path argument. Perhaps /C /T <path> could sense that only a single path is supplied, and open it in a new tab in the inactive panel. If you wanted to use the active panel it could be something like /C /T /A <path>. It would also be fine to use /C /T /A <path> and /C /T /I <path>, where the presence of the addtional option /A or /I would cause /T to expect just one path instead of two. Another way might be to extend the /T option to accept /T, TA, /TI. The first would be the current functionality, expecting two paths; the second would expect a single path to open in a new tab in the active panel, etc. These are just some suggestions; I'm sure there are other ways as well.

Thanks, I hope you will consider this suggestion!

[Marek]

The command: freecommander /C /T /L="${selected_resource_loc}" opens a new tab in the current instance, but always in the left panel.

The proper command should be

freecommander /C /T /Z /L="${selected_resource_loc}"

The /Z parameter interprets panels as active/inactive and not as left/right.
Active panel: /L=...
Inactive panel: /R=...

Unfortunately I have found a bug in the current version, the /Z parameter does not work properly.
It is fixed for the 938 release.

[jbosma]

Wonderful! That is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. I did not realize that the /Z option was effective for /L and /R. Perhaps the help file could be slightly clearer on this point. It documents the /Z option as "source/target instead of left/right." I didn't know what "source/target" meant. (I checked this in the most recent English help file FreeCommander.chm recently downloaded. I don't find a version number in the help file, but the copyright dates are 2004 - 2025 and the Properties -> Details tab shows size 12.0 MB, creation 2021-04-27 9:48 PM, modified 2025-02-27 9:14 PM. If the stamps apply the local time zone, that would be US EST for me, so the CET time stamps would be 6 hours later.)