TOS 7 - Feature request: Embedded tag management system

[marcusvictor]

As far as I have researched, I could not find any posts from other users addressing this topic. However, I believe the file manager could greatly benefit from an embedded tag management system, similar to what is available in Dolphin (KDE/Linux) or Finder (macOS).

It would be highly valuable for TOS to include an integrated system for file organization, management, and search based on tags, allowing users to assign multiple tags to both folders and, especially, files.

In KDE/Linux, tags are managed through a separate database (Baloo). However, in this model, when files are moved to another system, the tags do not follow them, since they are not truly associated with the files themselves.

In contrast, macOS stores tags directly in the extended attributes of files (xattrs), enabling a real and persistent association. As a result, the tags remain attached to the files even when they are moved to another location or compatible volume.

TagSpaces/TagStudio, on the other hand, follows a cross-platform approach by storing tags in auxiliary .json files within the local directory. In this model, as long as the .json file is preserved alongside the original file, the tags remain intact. The main drawback is the visual clutter of directories caused by these auxiliary files.

Therefore, in my opinion, the models that truly provide portable tagging are TagSpaces and macOS, with macOS being superior due to its native, file-level tag association.

From a technical standpoint, file systems such as ext4 and Btrfs already provide native support for xattrs, which would make it feasible to implement a file-level tagging system in Linux/NAS environments as well.

Ideally, the NAS/TOS itself should offer a built-in native tag management system. If this is not feasible in the short term, at least providing official support or integration via Docker, such as TagSpaces, would already represent a significant improvement in file organization and information retrieval.

Best regards.

[MikeZhang]

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