Feature Request

[albertwinnigan]

When there is an error while backing up, the backup process stalls. It would be great if the process would continue, even if there is a dialogue window open. Or if the erroneous files be placed in queue until the good files are being processed.

[user296114]

Yes, I think it would be great if the backing up/syncing process would continue by an error.
After completing good files the program could message errors and offer some options.

I also wish that the "Completed - " dialog, which is shown after any run of a profile, could be switched off and seen on a click if desired.

This dialog it self contains tabs "Progress" and "Log". I think the "Log"-tab contains information, that is more important as "Progress"-tab information, and therefore the "Log"-tab must be shown as the first tab and the "Progress"-tab as the second tab. (I personally have no use of the "Progress"-tab.)

I also would like to have an option to add a task, that could be run before the backing up/syncing process, - analog to the task, that can be added under
"Synchronization Settings->Synchronization->On completion:".

Thank you!

[user296114]

I have also some more suggestions about the programm functionality:

1. if many folders are grouped in one task, then each pair of folders of this task must be able to be run separatelly from other pairs.
2. for each pair of folders a button or menu to a log file or window and a collumn with last run date, time and result (only the words "scan", "success" or "errors") must be accessible.
3. the options "Synchronization Settings->Synchronization->On completion:" and "Synchronization Settings->Synchronization->Before completion:" (the option "Synchronization Settings->Synchronization->Before completion:" - see my previous post - is not yet available at all) must be available for each pair of folders - not only in "Main config->Synchronization".

[user296114]

Some more suggestions:

4.
Sorting in the "Overview" area can be made by folder pairs collumn, so that the folder pairs in the task can be in same order as the corresponding lines in the "Overview" area. This would make easier for the user to find relation between folder pairs of the task and the lines shown in the "Overview" area.

5.
The button "Select SFTP folder" can be displayed optionally - This can be decided by the user
somewhere under "Tools->Options" by checking/unchecking a check box.

6.
The bottom bar, where "View type", "Select view" and "Statistics" are shown, can display the
progress of backup/sync process ("Items found", "Time elapsed" and "Scanning path"), so that
no additional bar is needed during scanning for showing scanning progress.
This would stabilize the main program window view that jumps down and up at the beginn and
end of each scann process.

7.
The line, that displays "Relative folder", "Name", "Size", "Category", "Aktion", "Name" and
"Size" collumn names, should not jump up and down depending on how many folder pairs are in
the task - the user can be able to decide about its behavior using a check box somewhere under
"Tools->Options".

8.
The global filter button, which opens the "Filter" dialogue of Main config, can be moved from its actual place into the row, where the "Swap sides" button actually is, and scaled down
proportionally.

9.
The window "Completed - ", that shows sync results (if it is not switched off by the user - see
my previos post here), and other windows and dialogs should keep their user set size and
position.

10.
Under "FreeFileSync - Help->RealtimeSync-#Overview->Limitations" is said:
"While RealtimeSync is executing the command line, monitoring is inactive and
changes occurring during this time are not detected.".
Does it mean, that these occured during this time changes are not detected by RealtimeSync at
all???
I hope, it does not! But the questions arise: if and when will this changes are detected and
when such changes will be included into backup/sync process? I hope the answer is "Such
file/folders and its changes will be detected and into the backup/sync process next time some
other changes are detected." or something like this.
An explanation about the behavior of the program in such a case must be added into the
Help-file answering these questions! Otherwise this limitation can be critical for decision about
using RealtimeSync.


I did not win the struggle against the text formatting engine of this forum, sorry ;)

[Zenju]

Great feedback! I'll process each item one by one. But for additional features please open a new topic to allow for a more focussed discussion.

[Zenju]

When there is an error while backing up, the backup process stalls. It would be great if the process would continue, even if there is a dialogue window open. Or if the erroneous files be placed in queue until the good files are being processed.

This requirement is basically covered by error handling option "ignore". However it may be a good idea to show this option in the progress dialog, too.

[Zenju]

Yes, I think it would be great if the backing up/syncing process would continue by an error.
After completing good files the program could message errors and offer some options.

I also wish that the "Completed - " dialog, which is shown after any run of a profile, could be switched off and seen on a click if desired.

This dialog it self contains tabs "Progress" and "Log". I think the "Log"-tab contains information, that is more important as "Progress"-tab information, and therefore the "Log"-tab must be shown as the first tab and the "Progress"-tab as the second tab. (I personally have no use of the "Progress"-tab.)

I also would like to have an option to add a task, that could be run before the backing up/syncing process, - analog to the task, that can be added under
"Synchronization Settings->Synchronization->On completion:".

Thank you!

> I also wish that the "Completed - " dialog, which is shown after any run of a profile, could be switched off and seen on a click if desired.

It can be switched off already (on completion "close progress dialog"), but it cannot be restored. This should be possible.

> the "Log"-tab must be shown as the first tab and the "Progress"-tab as the second tab.

FFS should remember the previously selected tab as well as the dialog size.

> "Synchronization Settings->Synchronization->On completion:".

Can you give a few examples about what kind of command lines you'd like to run before and after synchronizing a folder pair?

[Zenju]

I have also some more suggestions about the programm functionality:

1. if many folders are grouped in one task, then each pair of folders of this task must be able to be run separatelly from other pairs.
2. for each pair of folders a button or menu to a log file or window and a collumn with last run date, time and result (only the words "scan", "success" or "errors") must be accessible.
3. the options "Synchronization Settings->Synchronization->On completion:" and "Synchronization Settings->Synchronization->Before completion:" (the option "Synchronization Settings->Synchronization->Before completion:" - see my previous post - is not yet available at all) must be available for each pair of folders - not only in "Main config->Synchronization".

> if many folders are grouped in one task, then each pair of folders of this task must be able to be run separately from other pairs.

I'm planning a "Synchronize selection" context menu option. Using this option on a folder pair on the overview panel should also solve the above requirement.

> for each pair of folders a button or menu to a log file or window and a collumn with last run date, time and result (only the words "scan", "success" or "errors") must be accessible.

I'm not sure about the usefulness of a "status", since for GUI mode syncs it will almost always be success (if not, the user is already aware anyway). But the time of last sync should be made a new column for the config history panel. Having an additional column with links to the log file of the last run sounds very interesting!

[Zenju]

Some more suggestions:

4.
Sorting in the "Overview" area can be made by folder pairs collumn, so that the folder pairs in the task can be in same order as the corresponding lines in the "Overview" area. This would make easier for the user to find relation between folder pairs of the task and the lines shown in the "Overview" area.

5.
The button "Select SFTP folder" can be displayed optionally - This can be decided by the user
somewhere under "Tools->Options" by checking/unchecking a check box.

6.
The bottom bar, where "View type", "Select view" and "Statistics" are shown, can display the
progress of backup/sync process ("Items found", "Time elapsed" and "Scanning path"), so that
no additional bar is needed during scanning for showing scanning progress.
This would stabilize the main program window view that jumps down and up at the beginn and
end of each scann process.

7.
The line, that displays "Relative folder", "Name", "Size", "Category", "Aktion", "Name" and
"Size" collumn names, should not jump up and down depending on how many folder pairs are in
the task - the user can be able to decide about its behavior using a check box somewhere under
"Tools->Options".

8.
The global filter button, which opens the "Filter" dialogue of Main config, can be moved from its actual place into the row, where the "Swap sides" button actually is, and scaled down
proportionally.

9.
The window "Completed - ", that shows sync results (if it is not switched off by the user - see
my previos post here), and other windows and dialogs should keep their user set size and
position.

10.
Under "FreeFileSync - Help->RealtimeSync-#Overview->Limitations" is said:
"While RealtimeSync is executing the command line, monitoring is inactive and
changes occurring during this time are not detected.".
Does it mean, that these occured during this time changes are not detected by RealtimeSync at
all???
I hope, it does not! But the questions arise: if and when will this changes are detected and
when such changes will be included into backup/sync process? I hope the answer is "Such
file/folders and its changes will be detected and into the backup/sync process next time some
other changes are detected." or something like this.
An explanation about the behavior of the program in such a case must be added into the
Help-file answering these questions! Otherwise this limitation can be critical for decision about
using RealtimeSync.


I did not win the struggle against the text formatting engine of this forum, sorry ;)

> Sorting in the "Overview" area can be made by folder pairs collumn, so that the folder pairs in the task can be in same order as the corresponding lines in the "Overview" area.

There isn't a suitable column that could implement a sort by "folder pairs as entered by user". In general it probably wouldn't help much anyway since only a sub-set of all existing folder pairs is shown in the "overview" panel most of the time (= only those that contain file differences). The question is why would one want to go from "Overview" to the corresponding folder pair anyway? Maybe to change folder-pair specific sync settings? In this case providing an additional context menu option could be a solution.

> The button "Select SFTP folder" can be displayed optionally - This can be decided by the user somewhere under "Tools->Options" by checking/unchecking a check box.

Ideally this will be made a drop-down in the future to select from multiple types of folder pickers.

> The bottom bar, [...] can display the progress of backup/sync process [...] This would stabilize the main program window [...]

> The line, that displays "Relative folder", "Name", "Size", "Category", "Aktion", "Name" and
"Size" collumn names, should not jump up and down depending on how many folder pairs are in the task - the user can be able to decide about its behavior using a check box somewhere under "Tools->Options".

The statistics numbers should be shown near the location where the user clicked the "compare" button, to avoid needlessly long back-and-forth eye movement. But you're right, the temporary panel makes the GUI unstable, this is a small unsolved problem currently. A user-option is not justified for such a minor non-functional feature.

> The global filter button, which opens the "Filter" dialogue of Main config, can be moved from its actual place into the row, where the "Swap sides" button actually is, and scaled down
proportionally.

The filter button as well as comparison and sync settings belong together and should be placed near each other. This also mirrors the layout at folder pair level.

> The window "Completed - ", that shows sync results and other windows and dialogs should keep their user set size and position.

The results dialog should definitively remember the size, but probably better not the position. What other dialogs should remember the size?

> Under "FreeFileSync - Help->RealtimeSync-#Overview->Limitations" is said:
"While RealtimeSync is executing the command line, monitoring is inactive and
changes occurring during this time are not detected.".
Does it mean, that these occured during this time changes are not detected by RealtimeSync at all???

It doesn't make sense to monitor changes while synchronization is running, which naturally results in many file change notifications.

> But the questions arise: if and when will this changes are detected and
when such changes will be included into backup/sync process?

Yes, any change that happens after the FFS comparison phase has run will be caught by the next sync.

> An explanation about the behavior of the program in such a case must be added into the
Help-file answering these questions!

The help file probably sounds more scary than necessary. I've added some more explanation:

While RealtimeSync is executing the command line, monitoring for changed files is deliberately inactive.

The command line usually starts a synchronization task using FreeFileSync which naturally leads to additional file change notifications.
Therefore the RealtimeSync change detection has to be deactivated to not go into an endless loop.
On the other hand it is not likely that changes happen in first place since RealtimeSync runs the command line only after a user-specified idle time has passed which
makes sure the monitored folders are not in heavy use. In any case, files changed during the execution of FreeFileSync will be synchronized the next time FreeFileSync runs.

[user296114]

> I also wish that the "Completed - " dialog, which is shown after any run of a profile, could be switched off and seen on a click if desired.

It can be switched off already (on completion "close progress dialog"), but it cannot be restored. This should be possible.

> the "Log"-tab must be shown as the first tab and the "Progress"-tab as the second tab.

FFS should remember the previously selected tab as well as the dialog size.

> "Synchronization Settings->Synchronization->On completion:".

Can you give a few examples about what kind of command lines you'd like to run before and after synchronizing a folder pair?

> Can you give a few examples about what kind of command lines you'd like to run before and after synchronizing a folder pair?

Yes, I would run some commands like this: "start c:\...\move.bat" or simply "c:\...\move.bat" or "robocopy \\PC1\... C:\... /COPY:DAT /MOV /R:0 /W:0" since FFS does not allow file moving (and probably should not).

[user296114]

> Sorting in the "Overview" area can be made by folder pairs collumn, so that the folder pairs in the task can be in same order as the corresponding lines in the "Overview" area.

There isn't a suitable column that could implement a sort by "folder pairs as entered by user". In general it probably wouldn't help much anyway since only a sub-set of all existing folder pairs is shown in the "overview" panel most of the time (= only those that contain file differences). The question is why would one want to go from "Overview" to the corresponding folder pair anyway? Maybe to change folder-pair specific sync settings? In this case providing an additional context menu option could be a solution.

> The button "Select SFTP folder" can be displayed optionally - This can be decided by the user somewhere under "Tools->Options" by checking/unchecking a check box.

Ideally this will be made a drop-down in the future to select from multiple types of folder pickers.

> The bottom bar, [...] can display the progress of backup/sync process [...] This would stabilize the main program window [...]

> The line, that displays "Relative folder", "Name", "Size", "Category", "Aktion", "Name" and
"Size" collumn names, should not jump up and down depending on how many folder pairs are in the task - the user can be able to decide about its behavior using a check box somewhere under "Tools->Options".

The statistics numbers should be shown near the location where the user clicked the "compare" button, to avoid needlessly long back-and-forth eye movement. But you're right, the temporary panel makes the GUI unstable, this is a small unsolved problem currently. A user-option is not justified for such a minor non-functional feature.

> The global filter button, which opens the "Filter" dialogue of Main config, can be moved from its actual place into the row, where the "Swap sides" button actually is, and scaled down
proportionally.

The filter button as well as comparison and sync settings belong together and should be placed near each other. This also mirrors the layout at folder pair level.

> The window "Completed - ", that shows sync results and other windows and dialogs should keep their user set size and position.

The results dialog should definitively remember the size, but probably better not the position. What other dialogs should remember the size?

> Under "FreeFileSync - Help->RealtimeSync-#Overview->Limitations" is said:
"While RealtimeSync is executing the command line, monitoring is inactive and
changes occurring during this time are not detected.".
Does it mean, that these occured during this time changes are not detected by RealtimeSync at all???

It doesn't make sense to monitor changes while synchronization is running, which naturally results in many file change notifications.

> But the questions arise: if and when will this changes are detected and
when such changes will be included into backup/sync process?

Yes, any change that happens after the FFS comparison phase has run will be caught by the next sync.

> An explanation about the behavior of the program in such a case must be added into the
Help-file answering these questions!

The help file probably sounds more scary than necessary. I've added some more explanation:

While RealtimeSync is executing the command line, monitoring for changed files is deliberately inactive.

The command line usually starts a synchronization task using FreeFileSync which naturally leads to additional file change notifications.
Therefore the RealtimeSync change detection has to be deactivated to not go into an endless loop.
On the other hand it is not likely that changes happen in first place since RealtimeSync runs the command line only after a user-specified idle time has passed which
makes sure the monitored folders are not in heavy use. In any case, files changed during the execution of FreeFileSync will be synchronized the next time FreeFileSync runs.

> Sorting in the "Overview" area can be made by folder pairs collumn, so that the folder pairs in the task can be in same order as the corresponding lines in the "Overview" area.

> There isn't a suitable column that could implement a sort by "folder pairs as entered by user". In general it probably wouldn't help much anyway since only a sub-set of all existing folder pairs is shown in the "overview" panel most of the time (= only those that contain file differences). The question is why would one want to go from "Overview" to the corresponding folder pair anyway? Maybe to change folder-pair specific sync settings? In this case providing an additional context menu option could be a solution.

a) Why does such a suitable column can not be introduced? I think it would contribute to ergonomics. I mostly have up to 10 folder pairs per one task and it is very inconvenient to relate the content of "Overview" to the folder pairs view (and vice versa) if this content has another folder pairs order.

b) The question "The question is why would one want to go from "Overview" to the corresponding folder pair anyway?" shows a wrong direction! - The right direction is from "Overview" to the view of the found differences (the area under the line containing "Relative folder", "Name" etc): after a comparison run I often check what is prepared to be copied now. In the "Overview" it is possible to one-click a shown folder line and see what will be copied - the content to be copied will then be highlighted on the left side in the view of the found differences and this is very convenient!

> What other dialogs should remember the size?

I do not know now. I thought only about the window "Completed - " (that I see very often) since other dialogs are convinient enough.