Colors and favorites

A folder color paints the folder icon so it stands out in a long tree. A favorite pins a folder to a block above the tree, so you reach it without expanding anything. Colors are shared by the whole site. Favorites belong to each user.

When you need this

• A blog team. You give Editorial one color and Brand another, so new authors find them at a glance.
• An agency with a folder per client. Each account manager stars the folders of their own clients. The lists of other users do not change.
• A store that uploads product photos every day. You star the folder of the current season and reach it in one click.

How to set a folder color

You need the Full access level. In Plathix Free that is the administrator.

1. Right-click a folder, or click its ⋮ button.
2. Choose Color. The swatch on the right is empty with a plus sign when the folder has no color.
3. Click the swatch. The browser’s own color dialog opens.
4. Pick a color. It is saved at once, there is no save button.

Plathix has no palette of its own. Any hex color works. For a folder without a color the dialog starts at #2271b1, but nothing is saved until you pick. There is no “remove color” option. You can change a color, not clear it.

What the color changes:

• The folder icon: the outline takes the chosen color, the fill a light version of it. The name is not colored.
• The icon in the tree, in the Favorites block, in folder search results and on the folder tile in Trash.
• Subfolders do not inherit the color. New folders have no color.
• The color is stored with the folder, so every user sees the same color.

How to add a folder to favorites

You need the Upload access level or higher: administrator, editor or author in Plathix Free. Editors and authors see only Add to favorites in the folder menu.

1. Open the folder menu.
2. Choose Add to favorites.

The folder stays where it is in the tree and gets a star after its name. Next time the menu item reads Remove from favorites. Choose it to remove the star. The folder does not move.

There is no success message. If saving fails, the change is undone and you see “Failed to save favorites.” System rows cannot be favorites.

How to use the Favorites block

1. Find the block between the system rows and your folders. Its header shows Favorites and the number of favorites.
2. Click a row to open that folder. The path to it expands in the tree.
3. Click the header to collapse or expand the block. Your browser keeps this state.
4. To move files into a favorite folder, drop them on its row, the same as on a tree row.

Each row shows the colored icon, the name and the file count, without the path. The rows have no ⋮ button. Use the folder menu in the main tree.

Rows appear in the order you added them. You cannot reorder them. Search folders filters the block too. With no favorites the block is hidden.

Favorites are stored per user. Another user does not see yours. On a multisite network each site has its own list.

On a tree with more than 200 folders, a favorite deep in the tree may appear in the block only after its branch has loaded. Expand the branch, search for the folder or click Expand/collapse all.

Example

Suppose the admin of a site with the Blog & Content tree wants the brand assets one click away for everyone, and an editor wants her own shortcut. Brand holds Logos, with logo.png, and Icons.

1. The admin right-clicks Brand, chooses Color, clicks the swatch and picks orange. The Brand icon would turn orange for every user.
2. The admin opens the Brand menu again and chooses Add to favorites. A star would appear after Brand. The Favorites block would appear with Brand, and the header would show 1.
3. The editor logs in. She would see the orange Brand icon, but no Favorites block, because her own list is empty.
4. She opens the menu of Editorial › Featured Images and chooses Add to favorites. Her block would show Featured Images only.

Result: both users would see the same colors. Each would see only their own favorites, and the admin’s block would still show Brand.

What we tested

Limits

• Plathix keeps up to 500 favorites per user. If you change favorites a lot in a short time, the change is undone and you see “Failed to save favorites.” Wait about a minute and try again.
• Every change in the color dialog is saved at once and counts as a folder change, like a rename or a move. If you make a lot of folder changes in a short time, you see “You are changing folders too quickly. Please wait about a minute and try again.” and the color returns to the last saved one.
• Plathix Home shows one number, “Fav. folders”, for all users together. Only administrators see Home. The number includes favorite folders that are in Trash.
• In the media picker you see colors and stars, and administrators get Color in the folder menu. The Favorites block and Add to favorites are not there.
• Imports from other folder plugins bring neither colors nor favorites. A preset ZIP from Plathix → Tools includes the colors and the favorites of the user who exported it. When the preset is applied, the colors are set and the favorites go to the user who applies it.
• What happens to the color and the favorite when the folder changes:
  • Rename or move the folder: both are kept.
  • Move the folder to Trash: the color is kept and shown on the Trash tile; the favorite is hidden while the folder is in Trash.
  • Restore from Trash: both come back.
  • Delete permanently: both are removed, the favorite for every user.
  • Deactivate Plathix: both are kept.
  • Danger Zone data wipe: both are removed.

In short

Administrators set a folder color from the folder menu with the browser’s color dialog. Everyone sees the same color, and it cannot be cleared, only changed. Any user with upload access stars folders with Add to favorites. The Favorites block above the tree shows that user’s own favorites in the order they were added. Colors and favorites survive rename, move, Trash and restore.