Grig Software

wI am setting up filters with many entries and I find the filters dialog annoying.

At least it should remember its column settings, so that every time I open it I don't have to resize the columns in order to see my filter list in its entirety.

Ideally it would offer a list-based editor with one file spec per line. This could work like a property page: you can see and edit the filter spec as a single line like now, but if you double-click the filter you get a list editor...

Thank you for report! Have you tried new beta version (3.0)? Do you like the way filters are edited there?

grigsoft wrote:Thank you for report! Have you tried new beta version (3.0)? Do you like the way filters are edited there?

It is a bit tricky to figure out... There is the text box just below the Filter and Exclude checkboxes which I might assume is for a filter string, and the text box labeled Files which it appears is actually where a filter string would go...

I'm still not sure what the first box is for, but I note it is disabled unless subfolders is checked.

I see in the second box I can pick from a list of filter strings, which I can edit via Edit List in the dropdown or going to Options > Filters.

In general this interface seems to offer a lot more control over the comparison process, which is good. As to the filter editing, it seems it is still a one-line matter...

The field under Filter/exclude is for folders filtering - version 3 can also include only specified subfolders.
Inplace file mask editing is one line, in Options/filters you just have more space for it. Hmm, I can probably make mask edit two lines in options, I will check this

I have a synchronization job which I would love to be able to do with Synch-It, between my desktop and my notebook. I do it now with a Perl script because of the exclusions and special cases which I could not figure out how to do with Synch-It.

What I would need, and what I think would be a wonderful enhancement in general, is to be able to exclude any partial, wildcarded path, e.g. *\\local\\*.exe or even *\\local*\\. I would also exclude specific files this way, e.g. *\\etc\\desktop.txt.

This would be wonderful, and of course an easy visual way to edit these wildcarded paths would be wonderful as well

Perhaps you would consider allowing the filter list to be kept elsewhere, say in a plain-text file whose name would be given to the filter dialog?

There will be such editor - note a button at the right. You can check how does it work in 2.x version, new version will have the same.

Thank you for explaining the Exclude Folders feature in your other note I did not understand how that works.

As you say it has the list editor I would like to see! However it does not work with partial paths - and this is what I did not understand. I see now that if I want to exclude c:\source\bin I must enter wither a complete path (including drive) or the directory name only. Thus if I want to exclude source\bin I must enter either "C:\source\bin" or "bin".

If this were enhanced to allow wildcarded partial paths I think it would be exactly what I am asking for (including the list-based editor )

Yes, partial pathes like source\bin* (or even source\bin) are not supported. I will try to implement it.

Thank you, that will be quite wonderful!

I note BTW that if you can do this, then the partial paths list could be used for the sort of exclusions that the filter list is used for; e.g. *\*.obj

I think this would add a great deal of power and flexibility, and also provide a more intuitive interface.

... and while I am asking for the moon, how about a few planets too

I was thinking that the include/exclude functionality could be applied to partial folder paths too... I think the most general interface would be to completely merge file-type filters and folder exclusions. Then for example if I have source\project1, project2, project3 and I want to sync project1 and project3 only, I could:

> synch source\project1 and source\project3 as two configs in a projec
> synch source and exclude source\project2
> synch source and include source\project1 and source\project3

And if I wanted to synch all the files in project1 and project2 but only the c++ files in project 3 I could for example synch source and include source\project1\*, source\project2\*, source\project3\*.cpp, etc.

And finally (why not include the asteroid belt as well), how about full regular expression support in the filter/folder strings? Then I could do with Synch-It everything I can do with Perl!