Importing an entire folder structure

I’d like to import into Tropy an entire folder structure with a great many subfolders and an even greater number of files, and I thought it would be a good idea to do this using lists and sublists.
However, as I understand it, importing an entire folder structure is not yet possible. Still, some work has already been done (Import from folder · Issue #440 · tropy/tropy · GitHub), and there is the idea of a plugin that could be used for this very purpose (Auto-create nested lists from folder structure on harddrive).
Nonetheless, importing all my folders and subfolders as lists and sublists in Tropy, together with all my files, seems to be something for the future. Will it be the near future or a rather distant one?

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Yes, we’ve thought about this scenario a few times and it’s unlikely that we can build this into Tropy itself. So the idea was to add enough flexibility that would allow for a plugin achieve this if someone would want to work on such a plugin.

My main issue with this is that it’s difficult to argue why implementing a plugin that handles just the import is worth it, because the import only happens once. In most cases where such specific folder structures exist, the more difficult aspect will be to keep the folders and lists (and their contents) in-sync going forward. I feel that the request for importing the folder structure, most of the time, is really a request for a kind of file-browser. That is to say, you tell Tropy the root folder of your project data and then you’ll see the file tree in the sidebar instead of lists; and the tree is kept in-sync with the file system. I feel like this would be the better approach.

That said, how many folders do you have?

All in all, it’s about 10.000 tif files, dispersed in 128 folders and 50 subfolders.

To view those files, I have been using two pieces of software: Multi-Page Tiff Editor and, as a back-up, XNView MP. Both of them come with some kind of file-browser. Considering this, what you say about the particular wishes and needs of users with a pre-existing folder structure seems to me rather revealing.

However, all those 128 folders are part of an older research project. Thus, there will be no new files coming in. Yet, I will certainly be consulting all my files from time to time and, incidentally, marking them and moving them around and taking some notes on them, something that one could surely replicate to the outside folder structure in one way or another.

Compared to the software I use now, Tropy seems to be much more adapted to what is needed in academia. The question, therefore, is: can Tropy continue to do all its magic even with a file system that is not fully integrated?

Reading your answer and trying to read between the lines, I get the impression that your aim is to create an adaptive user interface with different faces for different user scenarios. At least, for the more pertinent ones, like for those users that come to Tropy with a ready-made folder structure.