Ant Commander Concepts

Actions
Actions are actions that can be performed on files or on the user interface. The menu (at the top), the toolbars (under the menu) and the status bar (at the bottom) are composed of the so called "Actions".
The possible actions incuded in Ant Commander have been splitted in categories on the
main page.
You can also add and manage Actions by execting Configure Actions.

Panels
Panels are the panels show in the center of the application. The panels can be dispose in Split (side by side) or in Tabs (on under the other). It's also possible to create a panel in a new window.
You have a lot of different kind of panels, the most common will be the
Directory Tree, Directory Table and the Text Editor. For the complete list of panels go here. More panels are also available using external plug-ins.

Plug-ins
Plug-ins (or external plug-ins) are program that can be downloaded and installed from Internet. A plug-in will most of the time allow you to have access to another file system, to have a new kind of panel or to install a new look and feel. Plug-ins have been written by third parties (that is why there is no documentation on external plug-ins) and are subject to a license.

File Systems
A File System correspond to a set of directories and files that could be access by the same way. The most used file systems are the Local File (Hard disk, CD-ROM, ...), Zip (directories and files included in a Zip file) or FTP.
Some file systems in Ant Commander require an external plug-in.
The location of a file or a directory to one of the file system is called a URL or a Location.

Bookmarks
Bookmarks correspond to the favorites directories of files that you've added to the "Bookmark".
There are 3 kinds of bookmark:
  • Global Bookmark (or Bookmark): It's a bookmark shared and visible for every kind of panels.
  • Plug-in Bookmark (for example Applet Bookmark): It's a bookmark only applicable to the type of the panel. If the selected panel is not of the correct type, a new panel that will match the plug-in type will be created.
  • TextField Bookmark: This allows to store an entered text in one of the many dialogue of Ant Commander. To access it right click the in the text field.

History
The History will allow you to go back (or forward) to a visited directory or file. Histories are per panel.
Note that if a file or a directory has been visited less that 2 seconds, it won't be stored in the history.
There is also TextField History that keep the previous values of the text entered in one of the many dialogue of Ant Commander.To access it right click the in the text field.

Properties
Different object can have properties in Ant Commander:

Look and Feel
A Look and Feel is like Winamp skins, it allows to give to the application another look. Java includes already a few looks, you can download and install more look and feels by using external plug-ins.

Java
Java (or JRE) is a program that is used to run Ant Commander. For more information, please visit www.java.com.

Ant
Ant is java utility that allow to interpret script files (or build files) that describe the file manipulations. The script files used by Ant Commander are location in the tasks directory. A script file can contain several target. Each target can contain multiple tasks. For more information, visit ant.apache.org.