Description
Problem description
The backend contents manager uses the obstore package to list the contents given a path inside a drive, retrieve the contents of an object and for all other functionalities to manipulate content (create, save, rename, copy, delete, download).
Unfortunately, the package does not include the concept of a directory. As such, when listing the contents given a path, it is impossible to differentiate between an empty directory or an empty file.
It is important to note that even if the S3 provider doesn't have a typical directory, they create a zero-length object with a key ending in / to mimic one (see red box marked important here).
The obstore package removes these trailing slashes when dealing with the key to an object, so it is impossible to properly interact with a directory. For example, when creating a directory, it actually creates a broken file, and only once you put other objects into that supposed directory, it creates it, but you are still left with the initial broken file.
As such, it becomes problematic to:
- identify empty folders (compared to empty files)
- rename, delete or copy the directories created outside of the
DriveBrowser(the zero-length object itself, not the objects inside of it)
Current state of extension v0.0.1
The current logic to identify directories is based on the name not including ., as files which have extensions do (.txt, .ipynb, etc). If they do include a ., we check if the string after the character is not one of the registered file extensions in JupyterLab, and then consider it a directory.
The logic is faulty as directories can include the . character in whatever format. It also does not solve the issue of interacting with already created directories, which contain the trailing slash.
Possible solution
Use another package for the backend content manager to perform content manipulation operations, but keep the obstore package for its paginated listing abilities.