columns

object:Map 

If the ScriptColumn.multicol value is set to True when the column is added, then this property provides a Map that lets you return the values of one or more columns at once.

You may want to use this method if your script returns multiple columns that all share common calculations (e.g. reading the contents of a folder). That way, you can avoid repeating potentially time consuming operations when you're called for the second and subsequent columns.

The Map contains one member element for each of your columns. Each member element has group, group_type, sort, type, userdata, and value properties which are equivalent to the ones described below.

For example, you might set the value of a column called MyColumn like this:

scriptColData.columns("MyColumn").value = "My Column Value";

You should check if a column exists in the map before populating data for it. In some situations, Opus will only request a some of the columns your add-in supports, not all of them.

If you do not fill in data for a column which Opus still needs, Opus will call your method again to request it, with its name in the col property (but still in multi-column mode). You can take advantage of this if calculating one piece of data yields values for some of your columns but not all of them. You do not need to populate every column if the data is not available, but you should at least populate the col column.

As a consequence of the above, when using multi-column mode you should always set some kind of value for any column you have spent time calculating, even if the result of the calculation is that nothing should be shown in the column. If nothing should be shown, set the value to an empty string (this is fine even if the column normally displays numbers or another type of data). If you don't set any value at all, Opus will assume you haven't calculated that column yet and may call your script again to ask for it, which could cause you to waste time re-calculating it when you already know it is blank.

group_type

string

If the group is set via the group property, group_type lets you control the formatting of the group title using the same keywords as the type field (e.g. you can supply a number and have the group title formatted as a file size by setting group_type="size").

Note that if the ScriptColumn.multicol value is set to True when the column is added then this property will be found inside the columns Map.

sort

variant

Lets you control the sort order of your column by providing a sort key that can be different to the value. If provided, and the list is sorted by your column, Opus will use the value of this field to position this item rather than the value value.

Note that if the ScriptColumn.multicol value is set to True when the column is added then this property will be found inside the columns Map.

type

string

Lets you override the default type of the column (set via ScriptColumn.type when the column was added) on a per-file/folder basis.

If not specified, and no default was specified either, then columns default to plain text.

Note that if the ScriptColumn.multicol value is set to True when the column is added then this property will be found inside the columns Map.

Acceptable values are:

number:

The column displays integer numbers.

double:

The column displays floating point (fractional) numbers.

size:

The column displays file sizes (automatically displays bytes, KB, MB, etc.).

zip:

The column displays file sizes (uses the settings for Zip file sizes).

graph:

The column displays a bar graph (expects a value from 0 to 100).

igraph:

The column displays an inverted bar graph.

percent:

The column displays a percentage.

date:

The column displays a date.

time:

The column displays a time.

datetime:

The column displays both a date and a time.

stars:

The column displays stars (similar to the built-in Rating column). The value should be in the form "x" or "x/y".

For date, time and datetime columns, you can also specify utc to have the values automatically converted from UTC to local time (e.g. datetime,utc).

For number and double columns, you can also specify signed to have the values treated as signed rather than unsigned (e.g. number,signed).

The options above are a subset of those you can specify via ScriptColumn.type, since not all options make sense on a per-file/folder basis.

Note that if you mix different types within the one column then the results you get when sorting by this column, or searching on your column using the Advanced Find function, may be hard to predict.

userdata

variant

This returns the value associated with this column via ScriptColumn.userdata (if any) when the column was added.

Note that if the ScriptColumn.multicol value is set to True when the column is added then this property will be found inside the columns Map.