Question

Other than the foldername, is there a way to get/set information about a directory to the actual folder itself?

I want to set a directory priority so folders are displayed in a certain order by assigning a number to each.

Answer 1

This is possible with Extended File Attributes:

• https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Extended_file_attributes

Extended file attributes is a file system feature that enables users to associate computer files with metadata not interpreted by the filesystem, whereas regular attributes have a purpose strictly defined by the filesystem (such as permissions or records of creation and modification times).

Try the xattr API to get/set them:

• http://docs.php.net/manual/en/book.xattr.php

Example from Manual:

$file = 'my_favourite_song.wav';
xattr_set($file, 'Artist', 'Someone');
xattr_set($file, 'My ranking', 'Good');
xattr_set($file, 'Listen count', '34');

/* ... other code ... */

printf("You've played this song %d times", xattr_get($file, 'Listen count'));