QPhotoRec: Improve File Format Window

[jonasfroeller]

The file format selection window is minimalistic and annoying to navigate.
These two features would make it so much better:

• Add a search bar for quickly finding desired file extensions.
• Include an option to select all video formats, image formats...

[Tarek-Hasan]

I mentioned no 2 issue of yours almost two years ago in #121, but no response. This simple feature would improve usability of the app.

[guschin108]

Hello. I've added this functionality.

PR: #198

[Tarek-Hasan]

Hi @guschin108
Thanks for the search function. Can you please also add features to categorize file systems into groups, as mentioned in #121?

For example

RecoveRx by Transcend is just an alternative GUI of TestDisk. Source code released under MS-PL license. By simply adding a method to categorizing file formats under similar types, you can improve the app's usability significantly, similar to RecoveRX.

[guschin108]

Hi @Tarek-Hasan

I have reviewed the RecoveRx source code.

RecoveRx Grouping Table:

    • Picture: bmp, crw, dsc, gif, jpg, orf, png, raf, raw, rw2, tif
    • Video: asf, m2ts, mkv, mov, mpg, riff, swf, TiVo, ts, wtv
    • Document: cwk, doc, docx, pdf, psb, psd, tx?
    • Others: aif, fcp, iso, itu, mid, mp3, ogg, ra, rm

The "Others" category primarily contains audio-related formats. Additionally, there is no category specifically for archives.

The downside of categorization in UI code is that since there may be several different UIs, each one may group formats differently.

From an architectural standpoint, the correct solution is to define the category within the TestDisk core.
Each format is described by the file_hint_t structure. If a category field (e.g., file_category_e category) is added to it, every UI will be able to group them consistently and unambiguously. This is quite a non-trivial task.

I attempted to integrate these categories into the existing interface.

The new categories don't fit well with the current UI and logic. The controls become unintuitive and complex.

Example:

1. Click 'Reset' (Сбросить) (since many formats are enabled by default).
2. Select a category
3. Click 'Select visible'

The user then has to repeat steps 2 and 3 if they need to add another category. This process is not intuitive for the user.

[Tarek-Hasan]

Hi @guschin108,
My bad, RecoveRx doesn't cover all supported files by TestDisk. Sorry for wasting your time. You can send me the up-to-date list of the file types extracted from TestDisk source. I will categorize them for you. I'll divide file systems into groups, like

- Archive (7z, zip, rar, etc)
- Audio (mid, mp3, ogg, etc)
- Documents (doc, ppt, pdf, etc)
- Graphics (cad, gltf, blend, svg, etc)
- Pictures (bmp, jpg, png, etc)
- Video (avi, mp4, mkv, etc)
- Others (uncategorized)

I think following UI style will be better

[guschin108]

Hi @Tarek-Hasan

List of pairs (extension + description)

custom Own custom signatures
1cd Russian Finance 1C:Enterprise 8
3dm Rhino / openNURBS
3ds 3d Studio
7z 7zip archive file
DB 
a Unix Archive/Debian package
abr Adobe Brush
acb Adobe Color Book
accdb Access Data Base
ace ACE archive
ab MAC Address Book
ado Adobe Duotone Options
afdesign afdesign
ahn Ahnenblatt
aif Audio Interchange File Format
all Cubase Song file: .all
als Ableton Live Sets
amd AlphaCAM (amd/amt/atd/att)
amr Adaptive Multi-Rate
apa APA Style Helper
ape Monkey's Audio compressed format
apple AppleSingle/AppleDouble
ari ARRI Raw Video
arj ARJ archive
asf ASF, WMA, WMV: Advanced Streaming Format used for Audio/Video
asl Adobe Layer Style
asm Pro/ENGINEER Assembly
atd Agelong Tree Database/Abs0luteDatabase
au Sun/NeXT audio data
axp Pinnacle Studio
axx AxCrypt
bac Bacula backup
bdm AVHCD index
db Berkeley DB (Little Endian)
bfa Blowfish Advanced CS
bim Broadcast Interface Module
bin DINO
binvox Binvox Voxel File
bkf MS Backup file
blend blender
bmp BMP bitmap image
bpg Better Portable Graphics image
bvr Blue Iris DVR
bz2 bzip2 compressed data
c4d Cinema 4d
cab Microsoft Cabinet archive
caf Core Audio Format
cam Casio QV Digital Camera Image
catdrawing CATIA
cdt cdl/cdt/cdd Concept Draw
che Compucon EOS Design File
chm MS Windows HtmlHelp Data
class Java Class
clip Clip Studio Paint
comicdoc Comic Life
cp_ MS compress file (SZDD)
cow Qemu Image
cpi AVCHD Clip Information
crw Canon Raw picture
csh Adobe Custom shapes
ctg Canon catalog
cwk AppleWorks
d2s Diablo II
dad Micae DVR
dar dar archive
dat IE History, Glavna Knjiga account data
dbf DBase 3, prone to false positive
dbn DriftBox
dcm Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)
ddf Didson Data File
dex Dalvik
diskimage SunPCI Disk Image
fat FAT subdirectory
djv DjVu
dmp Oracle Dump (export)
drw Pro/ENGINEER Drawing
drw Designer DRW file
doc Microsoft Office Document (doc/xls/ppt/vsd/...), 3ds Max, MetaStock, Wilcom ES
dovecot dovecot encrypted files
dpx Cineon image file/SMTPE DPX
ds2 Digital Speech Standard v2
DS_Store Apple Desktop Services Store
dsc Nikon dsc
dss Digital Speech Standard
dst Tajima
dta SPSS
dump Dump/Restore archive
dv DIF Digital Video
dvi TeX DVI
dvr RT60
dwg AutoCAD
dxf Drawing Interchange File
e01 Encase
eCryptfs Encrypted file by eCryptfs
edb Exchange Database
elf Executable and Linking Format
emf Windows Enhanced MetaFile
ess Skyrim Savegame
evt Windows Event Log
evtx Microsoft Event Log
exe MS Windows executable
exr OpenEXR
exs Apple Logic
ext ext2/ext3/ext4 Superblock
ext2 ext2/ext3/ext4 Filesystem
fat FAT
fbf SymBackup
fbk Microsoft Dynamics NAV (MS Navision)
fbx Kaydara 3D file
fcp Final Cut Pro
fcs Flow Cytometry Standard 3.0
fdb Microsoft Dynamics NAV (MS Navision)
fds fwNES Disk Image (with header)
fh10 Macromedia Freehand 10
fh5 Macromedia Freehand 5
sparseimage Filevault
fits Flexible Image Transport System
fit Flexible & Interoperable Data Transfer / Garmin track file
flac FLAC audio
flp Fruity Loop
flv Macromedia
fm Football Manager
fob Microsoft Dynamics NAV (MS Navision)
fos Fallout 4 Savegame
fp5 File Maker Pro
fp7 File Maker Pro
freeway Freeway 5 Pro
frm Pro/ENGINEER Drawing Form
fs Zope
fwd FRWD Sports Computer
fxp FX Preset files
gam Games Factory
gct XFI Electronic Fuel Injection Systems
gho Ghost
gi Roxio Creator
gif Graphic Interchange Format
gm* Game Maker (4.3 - 8.1)
gp2 Gobe Productive Document
gp5 Guitar Pro 4 & 5
gpg OpenPGP/GPG (Partial support)
gpx Guitar Pro 6
gsm Group Speciale Mobile GSM 06.10
gz gzip compressed data
hdf Hierarchical Data Format 4
hdf Hierarchical Data Format 5
hdr InstallShield
hds Parallels disk image
hfsp HFS+/HFSX
hm HyperMesh, structural analysis software
hr9 Heredis - Genealogy
http HTTP Cache
ibd InnoDB database file
icc Color profiles
icns Apple Icon Image
ico Windows Icon
idx RT60
ifo DVD Video manager or title set
imb Incredimail
indd InDesign File
info ZoomBrowser Thumbnail info
iso ISO
it Impulse Tracker
itu iTunes
jks Java Keystore
journal Systemd journal
jpg JPG picture
jsonlz4 Mozilla bookmarks
kdb KeePassX
kdbx KeePassX
key Synology AES key
ldf Microsoft SQL Server Log Data File
lit Microsoft ITOL/ITLS
logic Apple Logic Studio
lnk MS Windows Link
lso Logic Platinum File
luks LUKS encrypted file
lxo lxo/lwo 3d model
lz lzip compressed file
lzh lzh/LArc archive
lzo lzo archive
m2ts Blu-ray MPEG-2
mat Matlab
max PaperPort
maxis Maxis games (ie. The Sims)
mb Maya
mcd VectorWorks
mdb Access Data Base
mdf Microsoft SQL Server Master Database File
mdp MediBang Paint Pro
mfa The Games Factory Multimedia Fusion Files
mfg Pro/ENGINEER Manufacturing
mft NTFS MFT record
mid MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface
mig Windows Migration Backup
mk5 Custom CAD-CAM
mkv Matroska
mlv Magic Lantern Video
mobi Mobi e-book
mov/mdat Recover mdat atom as a separate file
mov mov/mp4/3gp/3g2/jp2
mp3 MP3 audio (MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1)
mpg Moving Picture Experts Group video
mpl AVHCD playlist
mrw Minolta Raw picture
msa Mensura
mus Finale Music Score
mxf Material Exchange Format
myo Mind Your Own Business
MYI MySQL (myi/frm)
nd2 NIS-Elements
nds Nintendo DS Game ROM Image
nes iNES/iNES 2.0 ROM image
njx NJStar Document
nk2 Outlook Nickfile
nsf Lotus Notes
oci OpenCanvas Image
ogg OGG audio
one Microsoft OneNote
orf Olympus Raw Format picture
pa PowerArchiver
paf Personal Ancestral File
pap Papyrus word file
par2 parchive
pcap tcpdump capture file
pcb PCB Wizard
pct Macintosh Picture
pcx PCX bitmap image
pdb Protein Data Bank data
pdf Portable Document Format, Adobe Illustrator
pds Reson - Sonar Data
pf Windows prefetch file
pfx PKCS#12 keys
dump Postgresql Binary Dump
plist Apple binary property list
plr Terraria Player File
plt Gerber Graphix Advantage
png Portable/JPEG/Multiple-Image Network Graphics
pnm Netpbm (PBM/PGM/PPM)
prc PalmOS application
prd Paessler PRTG
prt Pro/ENGINEER Model
ps PostScript or Encapsulated PostScript document
psb Adobe Photoshop Image
psd Adobe Photoshop Image
psf Print Shop
psp Paint Shop Pro Image File
pst Outlook (pst/wab/dbx)
ptb PowerTab
ptf Pro Tools session File
pyc Python Compiled Script
pzf GraphPrism 4
pzh Presto
qbb Quickbooks (qbb/qbw)
qdf Quicken
qkt Apple QuickTake 100
qxd QuarkXpress Document
r3d RED r3d camera
ra Real Audio
raf Raw Fujifilm picture
rar Rar archive
raw Contax picture RAW
rdc Rollei picture
reg Windows Registry
res Microsoft Visual Studio Resource file
rfp RoboForm
riff RIFF audio/video: wav, cdr, avi
rvl Revelation password
rm Real Audio
rns Reason Audio File
rpm RPM package
rw2 Panasonic/Leica RAW
rx2 Zotope RX 2, Audio Repair Software file
save Assassin's Creed II
sdsk SafeHouse virtual disk
sdw Microsoft Jet DB / Sage Simply Accounting database
ses Cool Edit/Adobe Audition session
sgcta Ciel
shn Shorten audio file
shp ESRI Shapefile
sib Sibelius
sit Mikron image
skd AutoSketch drawing
skp SketchUp
snag Snagit
snz Olfaction SeeNez odorama
sp3 Sisporto SP3/SPM
spe WinSpec bitmap image
spf ShadowProtect
sav SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) saved data
sqlite SQLite
sqm Windows Live Messenger Log File
steuer2014 Steuer 2014/...
stl Stereolithography CAD (Binary format)
studio Silhouette Cameo cutting machine
sit StuffIt Archive
swf Macromedia Flash (Compiled)
tar tar archive
tax Turbo Tax
tg Tux Guitar 1.2
tib Acronis True Image
tif Tag Image File Format and some raw file formats (pef/nef/dcr/sr2/cr2)
TiVo TiVo video record
torrent Torrent
tph Pro/ENGINEER ToolPath
tpl Adobe Tool Preset
ts MPEG transport stream (TS)
ttf TrueType Font
tx? Text files with header: rtf,xml,xhtml,mbox/imm,pm,ram,reg,sh,slk,stp,jad,url
txt Other text files: txt,html,asp,bat,C,jsp,perl,php,py/emlx... scripts
tz Timezone info
v2i v2i backup
vault McAfee Anti-Theft/FileVault
vdi Virtual desktop infrastructure 1.1
vdj VirtualDJ
veg Sony Vegas
vfb FontLab
vib Veeam Incremental Backup
vmdk VMWare
vmg Nokia Text Message
wad Doom
wallet Armory and multibit wallets
wdp JPEG XR
wee weecast
wim Windows imaging (WIM) image
win Opera preferences
wks Lotus 1-2-3
wld Terraria world
wmf Microsoft Windows Metafile
wnk Wink
woff Web Open Font Format
wpb OpenCanvas
wpd Corel Documents
wtv Windows Media Center TV
wv WavPack, Hybrid Lossless Wavefile Compressor
x3f Sigma/Foveon X3 raw picture
x3i Sigma/Foveon X3 raw picture
x4a Yamaha-YSFC
xar xar archive
xcf Gimp XCF File
xfi XFI Electronic Fuel Injection Systems
xfs xfs structure
xm FastTrackerII Extended Module
xml Symantec encrypted xml files
xsv XBOX GTA San Andreas Save File
xpt Mozilla XPCOM Type Library
xv XV thumbnail image
xz xz Archive
z2d ZeroCad
zcode Zortrax 3D printing
zip zip archive including OpenOffice and MSOffice 2007
zpr ZBrush

[jonasfroeller]

@guschin108

"mov/mdat" should be "mov" and AVHCD should be AVCHD (Advanced Video Coding High Definition) similarly SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) and not SMTPE, right? also why is MYI capitalized?

[guschin108]

@jonasfroeller
I am not the author of this program. I only implemented the search functionality to make the long list of extensions easier to navigate. I think you should probably open a separate issue for those.

[Tarek-Hasan]

@guschin108 no need to open a separate issue for spelling mistakes. We can fix this in while doing categorized list merge. My best estimate will take a week for me to complete.