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I also had a suggestion from a user for a kludge to allow deletion of events iCal (to get around the problem of deleting an event in one place only to have it get put back in from the other place). So I went ahead and implemented that. You just set the event title to *delete* and it gets blacklisted.
February 4, 2004
I received another bug report regarding the iCalendar plugin. As a result of that, the iCalendar plugin now chooses which events it puts into the composited calendar by relative file modification dates where two events occur in the same calendar. It also chooses which file header to use the same way.
Keep the mail coming. I like to know that people are using, or at least looking at, something I made.
January 31, 2004
I received a bug report this morning that the iCalendar plugin wasn't working. I wrote it in December of 2002 and it appears that with the advent of iCal 1.5, things have changed. I don't use the iCal plugin myself, since I have a .Mac account and I just publish my calendar, so I wasn't aware of what happened. To make a long story short, the iCal plugin is now updated to work with iCal 1.5-1.5.2, though it should still be compatible with iCal 1.0.
To elaborate a little more on the issue, it turns out that iCal as of 1.5 now uses dos line endings rather than the unix line endings used by previous versions. Further, it has changed the way it specifies the calendar name, which the iCal plugin uses to determine if it should sync two calendars or not (they must have the same name). I spent a few hours today revamping the iCal plugin, and it should work for people now. These changes are reflected in the unstable release linked above. I will not be backporting them to the stable version, because the plugin interface is so much different now that it would just be a hassle. Instead, I hope to do a little more testing and coding this upcoming week and drop the May build entirely in favor of the new version.
I've also rolled in a number of fixes for appearance issues, file saving, and a new synchronize icon while I was working today. As always, let me know if you have bug reports, comments, or suggestions. Also, I'm not sure if I've made this clear anywhere, but DirectSync is not ever going to be a shareware or commercial product. It will always be free and open source, so you needn't worry about me taking your freely given suggestions and turning this into a for pay application.
January 20, 2004
It has come to my attention that DirectSync has been listed on macupdate.com. I did not submit it there, but I am not going to ask that it be removed either. I had not wanted to unleash the program on the general public because I was worried about the potential for data loss and the resulting enemies that would make for me. Further, when people write to me about bugs in the software, I feel obliged to fix them. As a result of this, I have posted a new build of the unstable binary that does not crash when you double click on location 1 in the iCalendar plugin. There is some build setting in the "Development" style that causes this problem, and I haven't yet determined what it is, so the unstable build is now a "Debug" build. DirectSync is generally i/o bound anyway, so I doubt it even matters.
All the same, if you do download the software and you encounter bugs or have suggestions for improvement, please write to me and let me know. I would much rather fix the software than have it be buggy. As always, the source is available, so if you make any fixes or extensions to it I would like to hear about it (though I don't require that you notify me).
January 10, 2004
I stopped developing DirectSync back in May for all intents and purposes as it did everything (besides Address Book) that I needed from it and that I could expect to accomplish in reasonable time. I received feedback from a few people that its interface was too confusing and so I tossed around some ideas about how to make it more straightforward.
I began work on those ideas back in August and I came up with a revised interface based on the criticism I received that I hope will be more obvious. I had hoped to also deliver an Address Book plugin to go along with it, but I got busy with other things and never finished it. If you look at the source, you can see a prototype version (using an extremely inefficient approach more as a poc than anything else).
While its not to say that the May 20 version was the height of stability, the version I have posted under "Unstable" is less so. The real kicker is that I hacked on it back in August and then got wrapped up in other things and I've forgotten where I was at. I just dusted it off today, it compiled and ran, so I decided to toss it up. I believe that it is mostly functionally equivalent to the May 20 version just with a different ui. Use it with caution.
May 20, 2003
I've added a new mode to the file sync plugin that I think is really cool. Its called "log mode synchronization" and you can enable it by going to the options tab in the file sync config window. What it does is renames files with the same filenames so they are no longer counterparts if they are not equal in content. The practical application of this is to synchronize your chat logs or irc logs or any types of files that are created with a consecutive naming scheme. For instance, the iChat file Erin Easter 10.chat on my iBook and Erin Easter 10.chat on my powermac could be two completely different conversations and I would want to preserve both. Yeah, this does that.
Another small triumph: I fixed that darn folder icon bug from the plugins window. That was long overdue, I know.
File loading has had some bug fixes done from bugs that were introduced with the "more compositing options" release on April 27. Hmm... what else? Oh yeah, double clicking on file modifications in the modifications viewer opens the implicated files so you can compare them or something. I should allow the user to specify a diff tool and give that sort of comparing also, but I didn't want to clutter the ui any more than it already is.
May 1, 2003
I've made a couple of small fixes. The file sync plugin now properly remembers its defined locations and will only allow them to be changed by the overall locations changing if the defined locations don't actually exist. In practicality this means that when you save a document with file sync plugin in, it actually comes up correctly again.
I've also upped the default max time difference to 1 second. It turns out that upon synchronization the time discrepancies between 2 synchronized files are around .5 seconds so this should cut down on unnecessary file copies. You might even consider going up to 5 or 10 seconds if that works for you.
The log window now keeps the newly added log items at the bottom of the screen. Note that with lots of small files being copied that the logging can become an expensive operation. If you don't need the detailed logging, reduce logging to medium or low to boost performance.
April 27, 2003
I'm adding more compositing options, like incremental backups and "safe" (simple) compositing. Currently, the file sync plugin is the only one that takes advantage of these new modes (the others should default to ordinary synchronization when using a mode they don't know). I've also fixed the long standing menu validation issue and some memory leaks. Grab the latest build to check it out.
April 11, 2003
I've redone part of the modifications viewer. It can now identify "orphaned" files and disable/delete all modifications that involve them. The file sync plugin is maybe a little better now, too. I forget exactly what I've changed since I last posted a build.
April 1, 2003
I've switched development of DirectSync over to windows xp. Download the new version to keep your pcs in sync!
The folders sync works properly now, too!
March 29, 2003
I've posted a build with an experimental folders sync plugin. I've not fully tested it. In other news, I have an idea for how to get iTunes sync working using a combination of applescript and folder sync plugin.
March 3, 2003
I've begun work on an iTunes synchronization plugin. I hope it works out. Update: No, its not going to work anytime soon. Sorry.
February 26, 2003
It seems that there was a regression in the MBox plugin causing it to not work. I fixed it.
I also added a preference that is on by default to sort plugins by their precedence as they are inserted into a document. Upon the completion of the folders sync plugin this will allow you to just set your entire home folder to be synchronized by the folders sync and the files in your home folder that need to be composited will get composited without you having to worry about setting up exclude lists. Further, its smart enough to allow the AppleScript plugin (or any plugin having "USER" precedence) to be inserted at any point in the list.
I've also removed the AppleScript plugin and the Test Plugin from the binary by default. They are in the extra plugins folder with instructions on how to install them. I've done this because of the graphical script bug in the AppleScript plugin and because the Test Plugin is worthless.
February 12, 2003
After a few false starts the AppleScript plugin is here -- now you can have scripts execute anywhere during the synchronization process. Grab the latest preview to get it and a version of DirectSync that can load new plugins without restarting. Note that graphical scripts will break the AppleScript plugin, so keep it simple until I figure that out.
February 7, 2003
I have posted my second build for previewing here. The modifications viewer is nearly completed. I think its use should be fairly straightforward if a little finicky right now.
I have a few more icons in there from Erin. I don't think she wants me to put them up, but let me just say that they are merely prototypes. I'm not sure if the tampon "stop" button was in the other build, but its here now. It needs to stand out a little more, the archiver needs to be aqua blue, and the synchronize button is just dumb so that will all be changed soon.
While I still don't have a way for plugins to be reordered within a document, I do now require that they have unique display tags (and I provide numbering for the user so that they will be unique).
The Safari sync plugin now honors the "Be Master" setting and it makes sure that it gets its synchronization properly logged now.
January 26, 2003
Initial "preview" build posted.