[joaosousa]

OK so as everyone knows a file manager is essential on any OS (be it mobile or not)... and so is an archive manager. Imagine you receive a rar or a 7-zip on your email.

Astro FM - couldn't seem to access my files... not even the "sdcard" folder.

AndroZip - browses root folders and can extract files to default PB folders (like "documents" and "books"); opens / extracts zip, rar an 7zip but creates only zip (I can swear I have seen tgz2 and tar a couple of times).

ES File Manager - doesn't browse outside "sdcard" which means It can't see many of the default PB folders (just "downloads" which is apparently shared); opens / extracts zip and rar.

I have also tried Archidroid, 7Zipper and ZArchiver but from what I remember they crashed opening /creating archives or had didn't allow to browse the whole file system (I tried to test them but for some odd reason I was not allowed to sign the bar after converting the apk because I had done so in the past... I deleted the bar from when I first tried those apps so I can't test them again... go figure).



AndroZip works quite well and it's what I'm currently using... but there's a snag related to a limitation with all Android file managers... There are issues with any file created (paste, move extract) outside "sdcard" which somehow makes opening the files with any app or managing them with the desktop device manager fail. There's a workaround but it's a pain to go through this process every time. See here for more info on the issue and instructions on how to recover your files.



So after digressing so much my question is if anyone here know of a 7-zip native PB port (or any alternative to it)? I'm guessing that the current native file manager would have issues adding these feature because of licensing restrictions... I haven't been able to find one so far but some other user may have had better luck (the ScummVM port came from a somewhat hard to find source).

[xsacha]

The Android apps can see your entire shared folder. So all those ones you mentioned work perfectly (including ES File Manager).

Also note that some PB file managers include compression/unzipping. Not necessarily .7z though.

[joaosousa]

Well more or less... It depends on the file manager. I had dled, converted and tested the latest Astro and ES FM (the free version of both that is) from Google Play right before writing this thread: Astro didn't see anything when I pressed the "internal memory" icon and it stated the "external sd card" folder did not exist (though the "sd card usage" function worked); ES FM wouldn't go up from the sd card folder.

I've experienced the "paste" issue with every single Android FM I tried (not just the ones I sideloaded... it includes the ones in BBAW).
For example with any Android FM (I use Ghost Commander from BBAW) try copy /paste a pdf file to "books" (inside "/accounts/1000/shared/") and then try to open / launch it from the file manager (the PB built in file browser won't see it so this is the only way).

The main issue with other formats is if you receive a rar (or anything besides a zip) by email or dl one from the web while you're on the go and really need to access its contents... it's extracting them that creates the need (it was the reason I converted and sideloaded AndroZip). There are some issues: one can't extract them to "/accounts/1000/shared/" directly (else you'll get the issue you got when you copied that pdf) so instead one needs to extract them to "/sdcard/" with AndroZip and then use a "native" file manager (I use Air Browser) to copy them to "/accounts/1000/shared/" for the file path to be regarded as correct by other PB apps (or for the files to be visible when the PB is connected to the PC).

[SifJar]

You can extract and create RARs using the DOS version of RAR.exe in DOSBox [Download from here]. Dunno if there is a DOS version of any other archive manager. Obviously not ideal, but it works.

[joaosousa]

That seems like too much of a hassle... If going DosBox I think Far Manager would be an easier and more featured alternative (if it works).

There's an xarchiver port for maemo... maybe when xsacha finishes porting Qt UI components it'll work... I'd seriously like having this native (the Android apps under Android Player are to inconsistent to be dependable... I already lost some work files using Office Suite and lost a few hours of work / annotations because RepliGo froze / crashed).