Preserve Folder Date in Transfers

[gianpierot]

Hi, when I transfer files/folders from remote to my local PC I can't get FlashFXP (both v. 4 and 5) to keep the original server folders dates, despite that I have all options checked under Options->File Transfer Rules->Preserve File Date. Can anyone help please? If it's not possible to preserve the folders dates, is there a way to get them in a text file?

[bigstar]

The OS automatically updates the folder time-stamp when an item within the folder is created or modified.

Thus in order for FlashFXP to preserve the folder time-stamp it would have to update the time-stamp after every other operation within the folder has been performed, and only then can it update the time-stamp. (it would have to start with the deepest folder first and work its way to the top-most folder.)

This would require allocating additional system resources and additional processing time to perform the operation, an operation which has very little real benefit.

For example simply changing the folder view in Windows Explorer can change the folder modified time or if the folder has images and the Thumbs.db file is updated.

So at this time FlashFXP does not attempt to keep the original date on folders.

Users familiar with Custom Command scripts can use an experimental command to set the folder date/time to match the date/time of the newest file within the folder.

/setfolderdate [-rc] <path>
This local command can be used to set the modified date of a folder to the newest item within the folder.
The r flag can be used to perform the operation on <path> and recursively to all sub-folders within <path>
The c flag will update the creation date to the oldest item within the folder.

This could be used manually via the RAW command input box or you could en-queue the operation and have it run as the last operation in the queue.

So if you had a queue entry for downloading files from a server in path \data\shared\ to your local machine path c:\data\shared\, you might right-click the local browser file list and select Enqueue > RAW command and then enter /setfolderdate -rc c:\data\shared\

[gianpierot]

Hi Bigstar,

Thanks a lot for your help and for the detailed explanation. It makes perfect sense!

Unfortunately I couldn't make it work.
I was downloading on a USB drive and I thought that it might be the cause so I tried to use a local path on the C drive but it's still not working.

I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64 bit and the latest FlashFXP 5.4.0 (build 3936).

In the command I put as last in the queue, do I have to include the folder I'm going to transfer (that would be the subfolder) or just the parent folder?
i.e. If I want to transfer the css folder from the server, the command will be "/setfolderdate -rc C:\Temp\1and1\css" or "/setfolderdate -rc C:\Temp\1and1"?

[bigstar]

After further review of this command I have determined that the -r switch doesn't work as expected. Rather than update all sub-folders recursively it only applies to just one level of sub-folders.

I have corrected the issue in the following update.

ffxp5.4.0.3938.zip

Just unzip the flashfxp.exe and copy it to your FlashFXP program folder replacing the existing flashfxp.exe

When issuing the command you'll want to issue it on the folder being updated, so if you downloaded the css folder you'd then want to apply it as such

/setfolderdate -rc C:\Temp\1and1\css

But if you downloaded multiple folders into C:\Temp\1and1\ you can just as well use

/setfolderdate -rc C:\Temp\1and1

(Updated download link)

[gianpierot]

Brilliant! That worked fine.

Thanks a lot Bigstar.