[Coming Soon] FlashFXP Feature List & Developer Notes

[bigstar]

The next version of FlashFXP will include the following features.

Enjoy some bonus notes directly from the developer.

June 17th 2009

• SFTP Support.
It was a real challenge to integrate the SFTP protocol into FlashFXP, it was worth all the hard work. I am very pleased that we were able to support SFTP.

• Windows task scheduler integration providing seamless scheduling of transfer queues.
The new task scheduler is simply amazing, This feature is still under development and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

• Improved logging system.
Just last week I completed the new log system, its extremely flexible and much improved over the old system. You can optionally separate transfer sessions into individual log files. I've had many requests for the ability to log just file transfers and now you can do it.

• Improved file transfer rule system.
I know the FlashFXP community has been wanting this for a very long time. There were a lot of reasons I held off on making the change, I admit, I regret them now. The new system blows me away, its extremely flexible. I can schedule a mirroring queue and transfer modified files based on size & date and know that every file that needed to be transferred was transferred and bandwidth was saved by not transferring unchanged files.
http://download.flashfxp.com/images/fileexists.png

• Improved Preference dialog user interface.
This was a task I dreaded but I am glad its finally done. The preference dialog evolved over the past couple years with new options being added here or there or where ever they might fit. Similar options weren't grouped together and trying to find an option was sometimes a nightmare, its bad when the developer forgets where an option is. The number of options provided by FlashFXP is simply unbelievable. The preference dialog contains 100+ settings to personalize your FlashFXP experience. Is it too many, or is it not enough..

• Extended tooltip window
For someone who performs long transfers this new window is the next best thing since sliced bread. Mouse over the FlashFXP tray icon to see a beautiful hint window with all of the transfer information. This is a huge time saver and increases productivity, well unless your me and waste your time admiring it.

http://download.flashfxp.com/images/tooltip.png

• Customizable toolbar buttons and backgrounds
Oh the eye candy is amazing, I can't wait to see some user created artwork. My good friend Filipe Oliveira designed two new button styles and a few backgrounds.

Using Tango buttons and Eclipse background.
http://download.flashfxp.com/images/toolbar.png

FlashFXP Window
http://download.flashfxp.com/images/ffxp.png

June 18th 2009

• Improved Remote Edit, now with automatic uploading
As someone who never did much remote editing until recently I really missed the mark on the original design, it was lacking automation. The new remote edit detects modification and automatically uploads the file, but wait there's more, you can edit multiple files in multiple locations on the server. This is great for when you need to edit files that relate to each other, editing one or the other with complete automation. There's also a new advanced transfer feature on the local browser that lets you "edit & upload", for when your working with a local copy that needs to be uploaded on modification. As you can see from the screen shot below you can turn off the auto upload and manually upload if necessary. Sometimes you'll be working with a file and close your editor, the ReEdit command allows you to reopen the file back in your editor.

Active Edits Window
http://download.flashfxp.com/images/edit.png


This thread will be updated as new information becomes available.

[bigstar]

Some of the changes are small but make a huge impact.

Here's some of the smaller changes.

Now when auto column sizing is enabled if the remote server doesn't provide information such as owner, group, or attributes these columns are now automatically hidden. The moment you connect to a site that provides this information the columns reappear. Of course you still have full control over which columns are shown, if these columns are unchecked they'll remain hidden.

The queue remaining time has been updated to take latency into consideration as well as the current number of folders and files in the queue resulting in a better estimation, and it sure beats seeing ??:??.

The stop and restart stalled transfer option has been changed to accept a value in seconds, previously this value was based in minutes and the lowest value was a 1 minute, the limit is now 10 seconds.

The "allow local browsing during download" option has been eliminated and the behavior of FlashFXP changed so that browsing is now allowed during upload or download and by leaving the current folder you allow manual navigation without being switched to the local folder being transferred, switching to the current folder of the file being transferred allows flashfxp to pick back up and switch from manual navigation to automatic.

There's a new option to allow cached folders to automatically expire after a set amount of time.

The connection character encoding can not be set globally, This provides greater usability for users who have more servers of a specific type, or always want to force a specific the mode.

The queue list double click action now allows for going to both the target and source folder in one click. As someone who does this often its been a huge time saver.

You can now change the text, the background, and the offline background colors of the file listing.

The information bar (the area below the file listing) is now a gradient and you can customize the normal and active colors.

[bigstar]

July 14, 2009

* Renamed File Exist Rules menu entry to File Transfer Rules.

* Added New File Exist Rules Option "Request file size/date prior to transfer" for servers that support MLSD and their content doesn't update often. The size & date from the directory listing is used. Unchecking this option can give a speed increase provided you can achieve the desired results.

* Re-factored and replaced some internal text routines for an increased performance. This is most noticeable during directory listing and navigation.

* I've completed the task scheduler. In my opinion the scheduler is extremely robust, if FlashFXP crashes during a scheduled task then FlashFXP will automatically restart after 60 seconds and attempt the scheduled task again.

* Added file list right click "New File" feature to create a new local / remote file, the file is created and then open in the default application for that file type. The remote file created locally and then uploaded on edit using the remote editing behavior.

* Major changes to the Site Manager UI and some new features.
* The list command is now a drop down box, allowing the following selection, (auto detect), LIST, MLSD, STST -al.
* The character encoding now has a new "use global setting" selection.
* New Copy URL fields so you can copy a file url link as http://
* Selecting a group now allows you to reset the selected group totals.

I still have a few things to work out in the Site Manager, I'm debating a per site skip list.

* The queue has been adapted so that you can synchronize One Way or One Way w/ Delete, which would delete orphan files on the destination that don't exist on the source.

* In addition to defining selective transfer rules per scheduled task, you can also define them per queue item. So that different queue items within the queue can also have specific rules. This provides tons of flexibility.

* The error handling component has been updated to provide improved bug reports that will aid in fixing any issues that may come up.

... I'm sure there's more but right now I'm drawing a blank.

July 24, 2009

* Major overhaul of the Skip List, The new skiplist allows you to define a scope to apply the file pattern to. For example you can separately match the a file name, a folder name, a file path, a folder path.

This allows much more flexibility so you can skip a folder named ABC but allow a file named ABC. or skip all files/folders in a specific area. This makes it extremely easy to skip .svn folders.

The skiplist now consists of global and per site skiplists. This allows for much more flexibility. At one point "selective transfer rules" were used for this but now you can set it and forget it with personalized skip lists.

* Updated SFTP engine.

* Transformed a few more dialogs to the new interface style.

* Updated the background toolbar image list to include 43 different background designs.

* Many performance optimizations. Compared to 3.6 final the new version feels like I upgraded my computer hardware. Everything seems faster.

* Added new navigation button to toggle the treeview visibility, this button is now the left most button.

* Compared the Site Manager dialog improvements.

* I think the only thing we're missing now is user defined shortcut editor. How many of you would like to see this in the next release? I was going to wait, but if you can convince me....maybe

What else should I add into the next release? let me know.....

[X3]

nice nice... dont forget fellas follow ffxp on twitter @ http://twitter.com/flashfxp for more updates lets get the party going the new FFXP looks and works a treat. Good work to bigstar and your Friend make a good team. lol ;) dont forget a few snaps at the preferences dialogue... cof!!!:eek:

[Branchus]

good job

couldn't wait

how soon will it be?

thanks

[X3]

Well it needs quite a lot of work still this is a major release with tons of improvements, more features and code optimization to mention a few... Good things come to those who wait... you guys wont be disapointed.

[5free]

• Windows task scheduler integration providing seamless scheduling of transfer queues.
The new task scheduler is simply amazing, This feature is still under development and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

waiting for this !

[bigstar]

Latest Updates (https://oss.azurewebsites.net/forum/showthread.php?p=73336#post73336)

[bigstar]

July 24, 2009

* Major overhaul of the Skip List, The new skiplist allows you to define a scope to apply the file pattern to. For example you can separately match the a file name, a folder name, a file path, a folder path.

This allows much more flexibility so you can skip a folder named ABC but allow a file named ABC. or skip all files/folders in a specific area. This makes it extremely easy to skip .svn folders.

The skiplist now consists of global and per site skiplists. This allows for much more flexibility. At one point "selective transfer rules" were used for this but now you can set it and forget it with personalized skip lists.

* Updated SFTP engine.

* Transformed a few more dialogs to the new interface style.

* Updated the background toolbar image list to include 43 different background designs.

* Many performance optimizations. Compared to 3.6 final the new version feels like I upgraded my computer hardware. Everything seems faster.

* Added new navigation button to toggle the treeview visibility, this button is now the left most button.

* Compared the Site Manager dialog improvements.

* I think the only thing we're missing now is user defined shortcut editor. How many of you would like to see this in the next release? I was going to wait, but if you can convince me....maybe

What else should I add into the next release? let me know.....

[Oldbunny]

BIgstar - I really love the new improvements as the very nice appearance in bright colors the whole layouts of FlashFXP!
It looks like a brand new product on the line!

This is a heluva great job you did! http://i41.tinypic.com/fokt9j.gif http://i40.tinypic.com/fyg6c3.gif http://i41.tinypic.com/fokt9j.gif http://i39.tinypic.com/14tpqoz.gif

[hotsnow]

wait for new release :)

[lumierestudios]

Hello, please can you make a Portable and a U3 version of the Beta release?

Thank you

[bigstar]

The portable and u3 versions wont be ready until the final is released. Since they require an updated installer.

[info_60]

Is there a chance we will see FlashFXP 4 Final (Retail) this year ?

[bigstar]

Yes, I will post an exclusive beta to registered users within the next couple weeks.

I ran into a few bumps with the integrated translation editor and I need to find a php/mysql coder who can do some back end work for me. I can probably do it myself but lately I've extremely busy and I don't know when I'll find time.

[info_60]

Yes, I will post an exclusive beta to registered users within the next couple weeks.

I ran into a few bumps with the integrated translation editor and I need to find a php/mysql coder who can do some back end work for me. I can probably do it myself but lately I've extremely busy and I don't know when I'll find time.

Thanks for the update.^^

[smartftp1]

Dear Charles ...

After looking through your recent feature announcements I'm very happy to see that SmartFTP is setting the standards and doing the innovations in the FTP client market and others are trying very hard to copy them.

Let me give you an example. Take a look at our file exist rules dialog:
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2159/fileexistrules.png

And then compare it to yours:
http://download.flashfxp.com/images/fileexists.png

At least if you copy our features do not make it so obvious. Otherwise you look like the fools at UltraFXP (now FTPRush) which I remember your company sued (or tried to) for copyright infringement. And we all know what happened to UltraFXP resp. FTPRush. And I personally do not wish the same for you.

Regards,
Mat

[bigstar]

Hello Mat,

Its nice to see your following our progress.

The design and logic is somewhat similar but I'm really not sure what to say, other than that great minds think alike?

/EDIT

In all seriousness, I didn't intentionally copy your UI design, the fact that they are somewhat similar is a bit of a mystery to me.

I came up with the listbox with a header and button controls and went from there, this design has replaced most of the old lists, like the ones in the filter dialog and is used in the new schedule, its clean and functionality, though I was informed by a couple blind users that the new design less than ideal for them.

The text styling is based on delphi language coloring syntax I use.

Originally I had buttons that allowed the user to insert IF AND THEN along with the comparison expressions but this ended up being too involved for the user.

EDIT/

I've been wanting to display the file transfer rules as IF THEN statements for ages, such as this thread (https://oss.azurewebsites.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4461) specifically this post (https://oss.azurewebsites.net/forum/showpost.php?p=21511&postcount=4) from back in 2004.

I'm not sure why this is being compared to ultrafxp. But I like how rushftp.com redirects to smartftp.com, I thought it was renamed rushftp, not ftprush, but I guess its an obvious mistake. A big win for you guys.

In a sightly unrelated topic, I've got some big news coming next week...

[X3]

Mat

I looked at the Dialogues and while you have to admit the logic is somewhat similar because there is not too many ways if at all possible of doing the same the whole design is by far more complete in both options and flexibility with ffxp then what you show from you program.

Its good that you think that smartftp is setting the standards in the ftp market however its not the case with every single option and ui that anyone comes up with otherwise its like the chicken or the egg case here since their both FTP clients then at some stage similarities will occur because the lot of FTP client and server are limited... Claiming someone has stolen your design is while serious clearly unfounded since by extension UI and option on the whole dialogue are clearly not the same.

There is always the scenario you have to look at since FFXP is as much as a ftp client as SmartFTP and its a little off to think just because something is similar than it must be ripped off.

I could sift trough dozens of FTP clients and claim they are all the same fundamentally so who stole who's ideas?

I'm a designer and on field on the internet is more saturated by ideas that originality is almost impossible we use same techniques and inspire ourselves in others work to achieve what we need but we not at each others throats or in court just because we done a shine or reflection or design that has similar elements in it, it would just stop evolution if we all stopped improving.

I a sad day when more grief has to be had for such coincidental and inevitable clashes occur, shame really.

[Ranbir]

any more updates?

[DYN_DaTa]

Deleted text.

[bigstar]

I've been working hard at getting the website re-designed, its coming along slowly when it comes to php, mysql, css, and javascript they are not my strong points.

As far as FlashFXP goes. I'd really like to release a new beta build next week to registered users, however there's one thing holding me back, the integrated translation editor.

The new release will sport a new translation editor built into FlashFXP, the idea I had was that users could submit their translations directly from within FlashFXP to a db on the website, moderators assigned by us could then approve or deny individual lines of text. The problem is getting the backend to work and work well. my web dev skills are lacking bad in this department.

The new version also uses a new license key and the idea was that FlashFXP would be able to auto fetch the new key and do a smooth upgrade, so far in tests this seems to work well.

Since this release is so close to being completed everything has been updated to reflect v4.0, including data folder locations and registry keys. The installer needs to be updated to take this into consideration and import or copy the existing data into the new branch, the idea is that 4.x and 3.x will be able to co-exist on the same machine without any conflicts.

I have some more features I'd like to get into 4.0 final but at this point I may end up saving them for 4.1 just so we can get 4.0 out the door. maybe 4.1 by Christmas. Once 4.0 is out the door my release schedule will improve, I really hate waiting so long between releases, and the release schedule will be much more frequent.

[info_60]

Very good news :D
Keep up the good work Oo

[bigstar]

Last week wasn't as productive as I had planned. I've been dealing with flu like symptoms and I'm not sure whats going on. Perhaps side effects of the flu shot I got the week before.

Anyways I have some updates for everyone.

I completed the v4.0 key system when upgrading from v3.x you'll have an option to retrieve your key online via our website, its a simple one click process.

I updated the FTP File Search dialog which now sports a search bar that lets you search within your results. Sometimes I'll do a very generic search and the search bar allows you to narrow your results even further, best of all as soon as you clear your search it reverts back to your original search list. (You'll notice in the screen shot that the dat-5332.zip filename text is colored, this is due to my filename highlighting, i have *.zip displayed in a golden yellow color). The background color does change to provide visual feedback to the user that some results are hidden.

I added adaptive TCP/IP buffer sizing which dynamically scales the TCP/IP buffer size based on network conditions, it will try to achieve the best possible speeds. This new feature is enabled by setting the TCP/IP Buffer size to (AUTO). I've also added a couple larger values for users who like to manually select the size.

More performance optimizations.

I rewrote the ANSI parser used for displaying ANSI text in the status window. The new version improves ANSI support for background colors, The original parser failed to handle background colors in ioFTPD.

Updated the SFTP engine to the latest version.

I fixed some compatibility issues with Windows 2000 and Win98 that were introduced by some of the new features.

I've made lots of progress on the new integrated translation editor but its still not 100% functional. I've included a screen shot. The dialog is resized smaller than normal.

All menu entries now automatically generate keyboard shortcut keys. i.e. Sites, Add Current Site. Originally they needed to be done manually but I've come up with a way to automatically insert shortcuts.

I'm sure there's probably more, I always forget things.

As you can see I've completed a lot, but not as much as I've wanted.

The current beta release available on the website has some issues that I discovered and I wanted to mention them here. I will not be removing the beta from download but this is your warning that I have discovered some bugs.

* Auto discover time offset doesn't always work properly.
* In some situations the file transfer rules go screwy and the desired result is not what occurs. (i.e. overwrite instead of resume, or skip instead of overwrite.)
* Preserve file date stops working for file uploads if an upload is aborted.

[KappaYeates]

and again, is there any hope to implement multi-tab feature in the new version?

[bigstar]

As previously stated a major rewrite is necessary to properly support a multi-connection/tabbed interface. The new version is not a rewrite.

[flashfxp-friend]

Hey bigstar, do you think we could get a ShellExecute script token to use in Custom Commands? I'd like to be able to download a file (based on a wildcard or regex pattern), then pass it (=the local file name) on to an external program. Thanks!

[bigstar]

Hey bigstar, do you think we could get a ShellExecute script token to use in Custom Commands? I'd like to be able to download a file (based on a wildcard or regex pattern), then pass it (=the local file name) on to an external program. Thanks!

Can you please give me a situation where this would be used?

Adding a shell execute to a custom command is simple but since you can't use custom commands on local files it doesn't make sense and it would be pointless on the remote side because you can't use them to transfer files.

The issue I have with executing files automatically on download is that 99% of the time you may not want to do that, I can see a small 1% of the time where it might be useful, the problem with executing a program for each download is the delay incurred by the program being run, especially if FlashFXP has to wait for it to finish.

I toyed around with the idea executing a command line virus scanner for each file downloaded and due to these wait delays from the virus scanning program there were all sorts of issues, the biggest one is that the ftp connection would time out while the file was being processed.

In this type of situation if you don't wait then you end up with multiple instances of the program being run which in some cases can crash your system, I think after about 30 copies of the command line anti-virus program my system choked.

If you want to execute a program on a file that you download thats one thing, but to make it automated 100% of the time, unless its a simple program that returns instantly and even then there's no such thing as fast enough, running any external program will cause a huge performance hit in the amount of time it takes to transfer the queue.

[ChaosKiller]

All looks very good :)