herculese
Hello Mat,
First of all, thank you for such a nice program. I "loved" Smart FTP from the moment I saw it a few years back -- I didnt even know what FTP was at that time but the interface was so neat and clean and I was modelling my small VB apps after your software . It took me so much time to get back but this time I really need the software.
I had been using AceFTP Freeware over these days. It had pretty much all the feature that I want but its too buggy, resource hungry and does not provide any queue management. I am also a bit hesitant to upgrade to their commercial version, because I am afraid of the same memory leaks.
SmartFTP is much more advanced than Ace but I am really missing a couple of features that I found very useful in Ace. I assume these are going to be features that everyone will be in need of.
1. File Exist Rule - Rename: In AceFTP, there is a Rename action available if the file already exists. It automatically renames the old file to 'filename_old.ext' which saves a lot of time when people dont want to delete their existing files as they mat want to revert back in case of something bad happens. You may go one step further by allowing rename pattern -- maybe append the current timestamp instead of just adding _old.
2. Wait and continue on file exists: In Ace, if the file already exists on the server, it shows me the dialog box asking what to do and waits for a particular amount of time. if I dont repsond within this time it proceeds with action specified by the rule. They also provide an option to 'Do the same for all other files in the queue'. This can be very useful when we are scheduling a large upload but still have the option to decide for each file.
3. Auto-rename: Here is another feature that is there in some less popular clients. There is an auto-rename optoin. If the filename matches a pattern, it will be automatically renamed to the specified name. This can be really useful with .htaccess files especially as it is hard to name and save them in windows.
4. Quick uploads: In AceFTP, file existence check is not done on a per file basis. Instead, it keeps checks it in the last LIST commands results. This speeds up the process considerably. This can appear to be less reliable but it is not much in fact. As a collissoin occuring in such a situation is less, I think. Maybe users can have a choice between the two also? (AceFTP issues another LIST in case files were uploaded to the directory but the view was not refreshed because of a CHDIR)
5. Auto refresh: The remote view should better refresh after a file upload (all uploads in a queue) -- unless there is CHDIR command following -- to show the newly uploaded files.
I tried adding the rename on collission feature as a custom command but I dont have the option to check the last results of the LIST, so I wil have to do a blind rename on all files which can also be time consuming.
Another suggestion, although of a bit less priority is one found in CoffeeCup DirectFTP. It allows users to edit files directly on the server. It comes with an integrated syntax highlighting editor for the same. Maybe you can consider that as well (I think you can just grab the SynEdit control to include the syntax highlight stuff )
I am sorry for the long message, just wanted to point out a few features that should be really helpful. I am hoping that you will be considering these for the next version.
Best wishes and thanks once again for this cool software.
Have a nice day,
Davis
First of all, thank you for such a nice program. I "loved" Smart FTP from the moment I saw it a few years back -- I didnt even know what FTP was at that time but the interface was so neat and clean and I was modelling my small VB apps after your software . It took me so much time to get back but this time I really need the software.
I had been using AceFTP Freeware over these days. It had pretty much all the feature that I want but its too buggy, resource hungry and does not provide any queue management. I am also a bit hesitant to upgrade to their commercial version, because I am afraid of the same memory leaks.
SmartFTP is much more advanced than Ace but I am really missing a couple of features that I found very useful in Ace. I assume these are going to be features that everyone will be in need of.
1. File Exist Rule - Rename: In AceFTP, there is a Rename action available if the file already exists. It automatically renames the old file to 'filename_old.ext' which saves a lot of time when people dont want to delete their existing files as they mat want to revert back in case of something bad happens. You may go one step further by allowing rename pattern -- maybe append the current timestamp instead of just adding _old.
2. Wait and continue on file exists: In Ace, if the file already exists on the server, it shows me the dialog box asking what to do and waits for a particular amount of time. if I dont repsond within this time it proceeds with action specified by the rule. They also provide an option to 'Do the same for all other files in the queue'. This can be very useful when we are scheduling a large upload but still have the option to decide for each file.
3. Auto-rename: Here is another feature that is there in some less popular clients. There is an auto-rename optoin. If the filename matches a pattern, it will be automatically renamed to the specified name. This can be really useful with .htaccess files especially as it is hard to name and save them in windows.
4. Quick uploads: In AceFTP, file existence check is not done on a per file basis. Instead, it keeps checks it in the last LIST commands results. This speeds up the process considerably. This can appear to be less reliable but it is not much in fact. As a collissoin occuring in such a situation is less, I think. Maybe users can have a choice between the two also? (AceFTP issues another LIST in case files were uploaded to the directory but the view was not refreshed because of a CHDIR)
5. Auto refresh: The remote view should better refresh after a file upload (all uploads in a queue) -- unless there is CHDIR command following -- to show the newly uploaded files.
I tried adding the rename on collission feature as a custom command but I dont have the option to check the last results of the LIST, so I wil have to do a blind rename on all files which can also be time consuming.
Another suggestion, although of a bit less priority is one found in CoffeeCup DirectFTP. It allows users to edit files directly on the server. It comes with an integrated syntax highlighting editor for the same. Maybe you can consider that as well (I think you can just grab the SynEdit control to include the syntax highlight stuff )
I am sorry for the long message, just wanted to point out a few features that should be really helpful. I am hoping that you will be considering these for the next version.
Best wishes and thanks once again for this cool software.
Have a nice day,
Davis
. The other two features are enough to make my day.