The views functionality has made the file structure dynamic.

With this in mind would it be possible/suitable to make drag and drop targets for git-annex get and git-annex drop commands? This would make available git annex most interesting feature to assistant users.

I'm not entirely sure it's a good idea but it avoids file manager scripts and should be discoverable and easy to use.

I see two possibilities:

1. A folder in the annex root that contains a mirror of the tree but with only the unavailable files. Unavaliable files would then not be displayed in the live tree. Perhaps the folder can be called remote? Files can then be dragged from this tree to the live tree to trigger transfer of files. Any error/info gets displayed in the assistant
2. Flat droptargets in the annex root for drop and get commands.

Number one above makes discovering available files a bit cumbersome as you have to navigate down a parallell tree. It does make the available/remote distinction clearer which may be good for assistant users.

The mechanism could be extended to include a folder or droptarget for each remote.

The creation of droptargets/action folders could be triggered by a big visible button in the assistant interface Manage Files

Is it messy?