Alright, I’ve looked around a lot to see if there was already a post about this for a while, so hopefully this is a fresh proposal. Hah. :'>
WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND?
Currently, when inserting files into a Space, it creates a file copy of what you’re inserting into the file storage. If you’re adding files already stored locally on your device, by adding those files into your space, you’re making unnecessary duplicates of said files, which can obviously add up to a lot of excess, wasted memory on your device.
This could be avoided if there were an optional feature for linking files and/or folders from your local device into AnyType Spaces so that you’re not duplicating files.
HOW COULD IT BE DONE?
These linked files and/or folders could be inserted directly into a page through drag n’ drop or, alternatively, a slash command which would open your device’s file navigation to manually pick your files or folders out from.
In terms of where one could see any of these synced files being linked into a Space, there could be a separate tab for anything “locally synced” in a Space’s file management.
Below are two mockup examples I put together of how this could be visually implemented into AnyType.
REAL WORLD USE CASES
An AnyType user wishes to make a visual database of family members and associated memories, using relations to help tie everything together. However, they also wish to include images and videos which they already have the files for. As of now, if they choose to include these, they’d be duplicating every single image and video on their local device into their Space, which their device may not even be able to handle the size of depending how many files there are.
Having the option of linking pre-existing files and/or folders into a Space without duplicating them would be a great solution to such a problem.
RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVES
Deleting the original sources of the files after they’ve been inserted into a Space in order to save on storage. This idea is a little spooky, though, even though it would work. If one already has the files outside of a space organized in folders, though, it would be pretty disheartening to get deleted that, and it would likely lead to a lot of work having to be re-done.
ADDITIONAL CONTEXT
My current predicament is that I’m organizing a database of artists and friends I want to commission art from eventually, and I already have a lot of artwork examples from them stored on my PC. I want to include a lot of these pieces in my space to visually aid the individual artist pages I’ve created, but in doing so, I’d be duplicating all the files and my computer will strain on storage space in doing so. I’m likely going to refrain from adding the artwork into my Space due to this, as much as I’d like to include it.
Also, I think these Any Requests tie into this as well, at least a little. Renaming a linked file in Anytype causing the raw file to be renamed on your device, for example.
