Date Range Selections

[coogrrr]

The program is already fantastic but I have a special need that I think can
benefit other users in that it would be nice to be able to select a date range
for file selections.

In the settings for compare add a "Date" button that allows us to select from
a pop-up calendar. This would allow all the standard selection methods like
"Today" "Last Week" "This Month" "User selection - type it in" etc. The
control for this is a standard windows api/dll that is in many of the windows
search functions when searching for files on the hard drive.

This would allow me personally to sync only files made this month or this week
maybe even just files from today but ignore all other files.

Thanks for everything you have done so far! I do hope this is a worthy feature
request and that others would find this useful also.

~Coogrrr

[Zenju]

Thanks for the feedback. Analyzing the scenario you describe, it seems that it
is already possible to select time ranges. Have a look at the filter settings.
The only feature it is missing (not sure whether it's really important) is
alignment (to beginning of day/week/month).

[coogrrr]

Thank you for the reply. Sorry I just got back to this thread. The filter does
work except that it is only meant to go back X number of days. I need the
option to select "Find files created only in this month" so if I run it on
6/10 it would automatically go back 10 days and if I run it on 6/27 it goes
back 27 days.

The filter can be set to 30 but on the date 6/15 it will go back 30 days into
last month or 5/15 for example. This would then sync files from the previous
month and I need to avoid that. This is why I would like to select the
"Current Month". It requires you to add a date calculation addon to the
program. This would be a high end feature that many competitors have not taken
the time to do.

Righ now I write code to find the current month and find all files with a date
of
"current month"/01/2011 TO "current month"/31/2011 of course the code looks
different than this and substitutes the correct number for this month.

Can you add some code like this to the filter section - please?

Coog

[Zenju]

The problem is not how to find the beginning of a day/month/year. This is
solvable. The question is what is the best representation of time ranges for
use in selecting specific files for synchronization on the user interface.
Having the user select a time range with the ususal GUI controls is not the
right design IMO since it's application is limited to only one synchronization
job. The next time everything needs to be setup again. However the design of
all filter options is to be reusable. Include/exclude filtering fulfills this
automatically, date and time filter, as currently implemented, also do.
Fortunately, as I read your requirement, we don't need to specify a full time
range with begin/end date. Adding "alignment" should suffice. Alignment in
this context can be understood as taking a specific date (like today) and
calculate the beginning of hour/week/month/year depending on configuration.
This is similar but not quite the same as is currently implemented.
Now I don't want to duplicate all time units and offer aligned versions like :
"second, minute, hour, day, this week, this month, this year".
So I basically see four options:
1. Implement options "inactive, second, minute, hour, day, this day, this week, this month, this year"
2. Implement a shortened set of options from 1.
3. Not implement further functionatliy
4. Find a better abstraction for selecting time ranges, that covers current functionality as well as the proposed one.
TBD. 1 is basically out, avoiding feature bloat is one of FFS's distinguished
design goals. 4 would be the prefered solution. But it's a question without an
answer right now.

[coogrrr]

Zenju you rock!

I think all that you have done is far exceeding any expectation I have. As
with this request I agree 1. is too much to offer and certainly not what I
would ask for. The "date" range option would be similar to the date range
selector in windows search advanced file searching in windows 7 wherein I get
a small popup calendar and can select the first and last days of the range.
This of course then uses only the date code not hours minutes or seconds. That
would be nice but just being able to select a date range would be nice. Of
course I ask that this is able to store in the batch file for the automated
processes we do now.

Here is the kicker. You already include a way in the product to select all
files going back XX days. This is stored in the batch file and is totally
useable of course. What I am missing is that extra code that I could say the
1st through the 30th/31st of June so... 0/01/2011 thru 06/30/2011 and it would
only sync the files for that time frame. This is the "Month" selector. I might
also say all files since 07/01/2011 so that it does not sync anything prior
but does sync all files since.

If I do not get this addon I dont care. I am saving my pennies and going to
donate and I think everyone else who has ever used this product should too. It
is simply too awesome to pass up. Thank you so very much for the continued
development and the best sync software out there!

Quote me!

[Zenju]

I've been playing around a bit with a time range selector. It seems this
feature in general is not reusable, so it should not be part of a sync
configuration. I don't understand the scenario well enough to deeply integrate
it into the existing design. But it probably doesn't hurt to add a selector to
facilitate what is already possible manually: There is a new context menu
option for column "date" named "select time span...". This will enable all
files that are in the specified range. If you're interested to check its
usefulness, here's a (fully working) prototype:
[404, Invalid URL: http://ifile.it/uya8t0z/FreeFileSync_v3.22_beta.exe]

[Zenju]

I spent some more time thinking about this time-range feature: There are two
basic types of time ranges: static and dynamic ones. The static ones which
have a fixed "from" and "to"-date can be set manually with the new range
selector in date column context menu, which seems a fitting solution.
As for the dynamic ones, there are three main types:
1. Fixed "from" date to dynamic "to", basically the only useful choice for "to" is <now>.
2. From = <now> - fixed time span, To = <now>
3. From = <begin of day/week/month/year>, To = <now>. This can be seen as an "aligned" version of 2.

Option 2 is what FFS <= v3.21 had implemented. But it seems, 3 is much more
useful. In fact I hardly see usecases for 2 at all, that are not better solved
with 3. Most scenarios of 1 can also be solved with 3 as long ast "from" date
is beginning of day/month/year. The rest seems smaller/less relevant usecases.

Therefore the new v3.22 beta takes a little turn and fully goes with 3 + the
manual time selector shown in the previous beta:
The new filter categories are:
- none
- today
- this week
- this month
- this year
I am not sure if it is worth to include some resizable range like "last X
hours", but I refrain for now as I don't see a significant scenario.

Here's the update:
[404, Invalid URL: http://ifile.it/0klyi8u/FreeFileSync_v3.22_beta2_setup.exe]

[yul11]

Having read the above thread carefully, I think, scenario 1 (Fixed "from" date
to dynamic "to", where "to" is <now>) would fit best for me.
My task is to make about every half year a full backup on a mobile disk which
then will be stored in a safe place, and then to backup everything (to an
other disk) which has changed since this full backup date.
To backup every day the last one, two or three days is not sufficient, because
sometimes older files will be copied to the range which is to be backupped.
All I would need is a simply possibility to enter a fixed "from" date, as it
is in most other backup programs.

[Zenju]

This request is covered by the time range selector.