[Tip] Easily navigate to Desktop from 'Open file' dialog

by Troy Elliott
Data Mosaic

For all you Maccie's out there who just can't get no satisfaction from the Java file system navigator in Servoy, here is a one-line tip that can save you some time.

I am lazy. Whenever I can shave an extra click or two off of my workflow, I revel in anti carpal tunnel syndrome glee. So finally, a week or so ago I was importing a few solutions into Servoy Developer that were sitting on the desktop. Navigating all the way to the root level of the hard drive and then finding my way through Users, to my directory, and finally the Desktop irked me one time too many.

Opening up an instance of Terminal, I made a symbolic link from my desktop to the solutions folder by typing:

ln -s /Users/troy/Desktop /Applications/Servoy/solutions/Desktop

Assuming that you installed Servoy into the default location, the only change to the command needed is replacing troy with the name of your home directory. Now whenever I need to import or export a new release of a solution I'm working on, the Desktop shows up in my file listing and is only a click away.

Note: An alternate way to accomplish this would be to create a symlink from your solutions folder to the desktop. This way all of your .servoy files are easily accessible while not cluttering up your desktop. The syntax should look something like this:

ln -s /Applications/Servoy/solutions /Users/troy/Desktop/Servoy\ Solutions