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Managing Sources

Sources are the documents and media files you analyze. QualCoder supports text, PDF, images, audio, and video.

Supported File Types

Type Extensions Features
Text .txt, .docx, .rtf Full-text search, coding
PDF .pdf Text extraction, region coding
Images .png, .jpg, .gif Region selection, coding
Audio .mp3, .wav, .m4a Timeline coding, transcription
Video .mp4, .mov, .avi Timeline coding, frame extraction

Importing Sources

Import Individual Files

  1. Navigate to the File Manager screen
  2. Click Import Files
  3. Select one or more files
  4. Click Open

File Manager - With Sources

The File Manager showing imported source files with type statistics and folder tree.

Tip: Bulk Import

You can select multiple files at once. Hold Cmd (macOS) or Ctrl (Windows) while clicking to select multiple files.

Import a Folder

To import all files from a folder:

  1. Click Import Folder
  2. Select the folder containing your files
  3. Choose file type filters (optional)
  4. Click Import

Organizing Sources

Create Folders

Organize sources into folders for better management:

  1. Click New Folder in the File Manager toolbar
  2. Enter a folder name (1–255 characters, must be unique within the parent folder, no slashes)
  3. Optionally select a parent folder to create a nested folder
  4. Click Create

Tip: Nested Folders

You can create folders inside other folders for hierarchical organization — for example, Interviews / Round 1 and Interviews / Round 2.

Rename Folders

  1. Right-click the folder in the folder tree
  2. Select Rename
  3. Enter the new name (must be unique within the same parent)
  4. Press Enter or click OK

Delete Folders

  1. Right-click the folder
  2. Select Delete
  3. Confirm the deletion

Warning: A folder must be empty before it can be deleted. Move or remove all sources from the folder first.

Move Sources

Move sources into folders using one of these methods:

  • Drag and drop — Drag a source onto a folder in the tree
  • Right-click — Right-click a source, select Move to Folder, and choose the target folder
  • Move to root — Select No Folder (or root) to remove a source from its current folder

Source Metadata

Each source has metadata you can view and edit:

  1. Right-click a source
  2. Select View Metadata
  3. Edit fields like:
  4. Author
  5. Date
  6. Description
  7. Custom attributes

Viewing Sources

Text Documents

Click a text source to open it in the document viewer. The text is displayed with:

  • Line numbers
  • Coding highlights
  • Search functionality

PDF Documents

PDFs are displayed page-by-page with:

  • Page navigation
  • Zoom controls
  • Text selection for coding

Images

Images open in the image viewer with:

  • Pan and zoom
  • Region selection tools
  • Overlay of coded regions

Image Viewer

The Image Viewer displaying an imported image with zoom controls.

Audio/Video

Media files open in the media player with:

  • Playback controls
  • Timeline visualization
  • Segment marking tools

Media Player

The Media Player with playback controls for audio/video files.

Empty State

When no sources have been imported yet:

File Manager - Empty

The File Manager empty state with import options.

AI Agent Source Management

When an AI assistant is connected via MCP (see MCP Setup), it can manage sources programmatically:

Adding Text Sources

The agent can add text sources directly using the add_text_source tool, providing a name and content without needing a file on disk. This is useful for:

  • Ingesting interview transcripts from other tools
  • Adding field notes collected during research
  • Creating sources from processed or transformed text

Each source must have a unique name within the project.

Importing Files

The agent can import file-based sources (PDFs, images, audio, video) using the import_file_source tool by providing an absolute file path. The file type is auto-detected from the extension:

  • Text: .txt, .docx, .rtf, .md, .odt, .epub
  • PDF: .pdf (with automatic text extraction)
  • Images: .png, .jpg, .gif, .bmp, .tiff, .webp
  • Audio: .mp3, .wav, .m4a, .ogg, .flac
  • Video: .mp4, .mov, .avi, .mkv, .webm

Use the dry_run parameter to validate a file before importing. The optional name parameter overrides the default filename-based source name.

Listing and Reading Sources

The agent can browse and read your sources programmatically:

  • list_sources — Lists all sources in the project. Use the optional source_type filter (text, pdf, image, audio, video) to narrow results.
  • read_source_content — Reads the text content of a source document. For large documents, content is paginated using start_pos, end_pos, and max_length parameters. The response includes has_more: true when additional content is available.
  • navigate_to_segment — Opens a source in the coding screen and scrolls to a specific character position. Optionally highlights the segment for easy identification.

Suggesting Metadata

The agent can analyze sources and suggest metadata using suggest_source_metadata:

  • Language detection — Suggests a language code (e.g., en, es, fr)
  • Topic extraction — Suggests key topics and themes found in the text
  • Organization hints — Suggests how the source might be grouped or categorized

All metadata suggestions are stored with pending status and require your approval before being applied.

Organizing into Folders

The agent can manage the full folder lifecycle:

  • list_folders — Lists all folders with their hierarchy (parent-child relationships)
  • create_folder — Creates a new folder, optionally nested under a parent folder via parent_id
  • rename_folder — Renames an existing folder (new name must be unique within the parent)
  • delete_folder — Deletes an empty folder (fails if the folder still contains sources)
  • move_source_to_folder — Moves a source into a folder, or back to root by passing folder_id=0 or null

This enables automated organization of large source collections — for example, sorting interview transcripts by participant or date.

Removing Sources

The agent uses a preview-then-confirm workflow for safe deletion:

  1. remove_source with confirm=false (default) shows what would be deleted
  2. You review the preview (source name, type, number of coded segments affected)
  3. remove_source with confirm=true performs the actual deletion

This ensures you always know what will be removed before it happens.

Deleting Sources

Warning: Caution

Deleting a source also removes all coded segments associated with it.

  1. Right-click the source
  2. Select Delete
  3. Confirm the deletion

Next Steps

With your sources imported, you're ready to:

  1. Create a coding scheme
  2. Start coding your data