"Project panel" for a random folder

[itzikiap]

The project panel gives a lot of functionality to the file management. Adding of library assets, seeing the compiled classes in a SWF, etc. But it's root is restricted to the project file's folder.
The files panel can show every folder's content, but doesn't have all the added functionality, except "add to trusted folder". And doesn't have the tree structure.

My proposal is to allow creating a temporary "Project Panel" but without the project, to any arbitrary folder.

Or, a different approach, add a node in the main project panel, like the "References" node, to be a "folders" node, that will just open different folders in a tree structure.
And add the ability to "Add to library" or "Link in project" inside the Files tab.

[elsassph]

I would like very much to support folders as implicit projects.

The problem is that such project would be tied to a target language (AS2, AS3, Haxe or no language), so if we choose to default to "no language" you wouldn't have any configuration/building support for AS or Haxe. Otherwise we would have to ask the user to choose a project type which may be annoying.

[itzikiap]

I was thinking not as an arbitraryproject for any folder, but rather an extention of the currently opened project. This way, the build target will be of the project, and the use of the new "project like" panel will be to manage resources, libraries, assets and class paths for the currently opened project (or solution), whitch are usually not in the project's folder.
This could be just another node in the reference section of the project panel, and not a completely different panel.

[gene-pavlovsky]

@itzikiap sounds interesting, can I ask what use cases do you have in mind for this feature?

[itzikiap]

For example, in the project I'm working on, the destination folder is outside of the project. So all the exported SWFs, and the assets and everything is in a different project.
While it is possible to just open an explorer window and navigate there (which is what I do), the project panel gives some more functionality, like inspecting the content of a SWF, which sometimes be very helpful.

[gene-pavlovsky]

I see, that makes sense. Maybe the upcoming solutions feature will include what you want.
For now, it would be convenient if it were possible to create a reference to a particular path (similar to a classpath reference), basically just for display purposes. Problem could be avoiding circular references (e.g. if your path reference to your deployment dir includes your project as a subdir, the reference probably shouldn't list the project dir as a child).