Author Topic: alternative to filehamster? (Read 109553 times)

kartal · « **Reply #50 on:** March 05, 2010, 07:56 PM »

AutoVer[/url] does, thanks for mentioning it.
-urlwolf (October 06, 2009, 05:22 PM)
Oops, you are correct; AutoVer does do that...However, I think I remember seeing somewhere that it isn't being actively supported or developed anymore. In checking their forums, they haven't had any traffic in well over a year.

-Mogware Support (October 06, 2009, 05:46 PM)

Is FH being actively developed nowadays? I have been an ardent user in the past. The Gui never improved much really, felt clunky and non user friendly. For example the file and folder exclusion menu is a joke to me and they have never given enough attention to improving that area. I have even complained and bugged in the beta forums. There are other slight usage issues as well.

It is a good product (the functionality) but the Gui needs some serious regrounding.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #51 on:** March 06, 2010, 03:35 AM »

Updates are constantly being pushed automatically for FH and the plugins. They certainly respond positively to any issues reported.

tomos · « **Reply #52 on:** March 06, 2010, 03:58 AM »

Updates are constantly being pushed automatically for FH and the plugins. They certainly respond positively to any issues reported.
-Carol Haynes (March 06, 2010, 03:35 AM)

yes,
a few updates already this year. I've been successfully asking for improvements to the Report window (minor bugs & also GUI)
(I was looking for a version history the other day but couldnt find an uptodate one)

I think it would be great for the programme if they improved the GUI - it is very far from user friendly. You might not need the GUI very often but when you do, well it's often a struggle to figure the thing out...

Talking generally:
GUI work seems to be the least favourite improvement made to software in general - but I always find it's top of the list for me (presuming the app basically does what you want). Maybe developers think along the lines of we need new features for an upgrade, but if the app is made more user friendly I would recommend it / plug it a lot more

40hz · « **Reply #53 on:** March 06, 2010, 11:49 AM »

The only equivalent I ever saw for FH's funtionality was a product called TrackMyFiles put out by internum GmbH. ( www.trackmyfiles.com ). I have a client who swears by it.

I bopped over to internum's website. From the looks of it, this program isn't being actively developed since there's no mention of Windows 7 anywhere. Their FAQ specifies WinXP and Vista as the only supported OS versions so I'm also guessing server use is not in the cards.

I loaded up a copy. Looks nice. Relatively small memory footprint (10Mb). Very clean interface. Seems to work as expected, although I've only had it running for a couple of days before I wrote this.

I emailed the developers some questions and also invited them to join in on this discussion.

Hopefully we'll be hearing from them.

kartal · « **Reply #54 on:** March 06, 2010, 12:01 PM »

@Carol

They do respond everything well except the Gui issues. I have never seen any real improvement to the gui all those years. Everything else has been well and steadily improved to certain degree.

Tomos`s remarks also support my dissatisfaction of the Gui issues. It looks like I was not alone in the complainer`s camp

@40hz

My main problem with many back up and versioning apss is the network support. Many of those apps work alright in the local machine but they seem to drop watching once in if the watch folders happen to be on a network drive or folder. I can undestand why but the thing is that this just makes it unreliable, you cannot trust the app because you never know when the watching might have been stopped. In some cases I need to open the network folder manually in explorer to force some kind of network recognition. I cannot tell what the issue is but even file explorers fall in to this trap. They cannot refresh a network drive unless explorer itself has refreshed or connected the drive or folder properly.

I have been using SyncbackSe for versioning and realtime back up and that one seemed to drop network watch once in a while. No idea

tomos · « **Reply #55 on:** March 06, 2010, 12:23 PM »

@Carol

They do respond everything well except the Gui issues. I have never seen any real improvement to the gui all those years. Everything else has been well and steadily improved to certain degree.

Tomos`s remarks also support my dissatisfaction of the Gui issues. It looks like I was not alone in the complainer`s camp
-kartal (March 06, 2010, 12:01 PM)

I intend to post about it in their forums, but as I say I've been concentrating on Report window problems (and requests) - when I do post re GUI I'll mention it here (the more people that ask for it, the more chance of a change...)

40hz · « **Reply #56 on:** March 06, 2010, 12:39 PM »

My main problem with many back up and versioning apss is the network support. Many of those apps work alright in the local machine but they seem to drop watching once in if the watch folders happen to be on a network drive or folder.
-kartal (March 06, 2010, 12:01 PM)

This FAQ may explain why it isn't supported on TrackMyFiles:

Can I track folders on shared network drive?

Currently iternum TrackMyFiles does not support tracking of network drives. The main reason is that it is currently not possible to resolve possible conflicts that might arise when more than one user attempts to track a network share or when user make concurrent modifications to a shared file or folder.

I can't really see an effective way to get around the issue since the alternative would be to constantly invoke a shadow copy every time a document got saved. Probably wouldn't be that big a deal if it were only one person doing it to their own folders. But the minute you go up on a network you almost have to assume there will be multiple users and shared folders.

Most "time machine" type apps get around the multi-user problem by doing snapshots via the ShadowCopy mechanism. Others use some variant of a filebase/incremental 'delta' backup. Genie Timeline by GenieSoft is a good example of a 'continuous' backup product that does the filebase/incremental thing. But it still works off a timer. And that's not the same as what FileHamster does since FH's doing version tracking based on changes to the file rather than at timed intervals.

I guess that's one fundamental difference between backup and version control systems: how the "commit to archive" operation gets invoked. Time = backup. File change = version control.

tomos · « **Reply #57 on:** March 07, 2010, 05:01 AM »

@Carol

They do respond everything well except the Gui issues. I have never seen any real improvement to the gui all those years. Everything else has been well and steadily improved to certain degree.

Tomos`s remarks also support my dissatisfaction of the Gui issues. It looks like I was not alone in the complainer`s camp
-kartal (March 06, 2010, 12:01 PM)

I intend to post about it in their forums, but as I say I've been concentrating on Report window problems (and requests) - when I do post re GUI I'll mention it here (the more people that ask for it, the more chance of a change...)
-tomos (March 06, 2010, 12:23 PM)

New thread in FileHamster Feature Requests forum requesting Ease of Use, GUI, UI, Improvements
Please comment/contribute

kartal · « **Reply #58 on:** March 07, 2010, 06:03 PM »

Tomos thanks for the post. I will try to follow up.

40hz, do you know any versioning that supports manual and automated committing? Something like git+auto watch(for file versioning for now). So for certain projects or folders I can do manual, for some others I can do automated? I know it sounds against the idea o Git since it is designed mainly for maintaining code base. I have tried tortoise svn in the past for manual stuff. it almost worked well but lack of automated watch makes it hard for certain projects. At the moment I use Git for my small code stuff. I need file evrsioning for non-code multimedia projects.

40hz · « **Reply #59 on:** March 07, 2010, 07:10 PM »

40hz, do you know any versioning that supports manual and automated committing?
-kartal (March 07, 2010, 06:03 PM)

Unfortunately, no I don't. But that sounds like a really great combination. Basically you have two categories in the version archive. One category automatically "versions" on save. The other category alerts on changes, but doesn't commit a "version save" unless explicitly told to do so.

Almost like a combination of smart sync and version control. Hmmm...

Might make a nice project for one of DC's community of coders to take a crack at.

(Hint?

)

f0dder · « **Reply #60 on:** March 08, 2010, 01:43 AM »

Hm, automated git committing?

Doesn't sound like a super good idea to me. Either it has to simply watch for changes, and commit when that happens - which could check in files that are only partially updated. Otherwise, you need integration with the specific tools used, which you likely won't be able to get everywhere you want. And even that probably won't work out too well if you have the habit of saving often (I hit ctrl+s pretty much after every sentence when editing text).

cmpm · « **Reply #61 on:** March 08, 2010, 05:50 AM »

another possible....

Oops!Backup

http://www.altaro.com/

40hz · « **Reply #62 on:** March 08, 2010, 06:26 AM »

Hm, automated git committing?
...

Doesn't sound like a super good idea to me.
-f0dder (March 08, 2010, 01:43 AM)

I was thinking more along the lines of an enterprise document editing and collaboration where you'd want private or semi-private document automatic versioning, but still have the provision for a more structured check in/out and commit cycle for more formal documents.

An example would be for something like a creative team who is responsible for AV scripts. Each writer has a set of assignments that he or she would like to keep versions of during the initial development phase. They would appreciate automatic version tracking. But once the script went into production, subsequent revisions and changes would require formal review from someone other than the writer before that revision got approved. So at this phase, it would be necessary to manually commit the changed script version. And so it would go as additional revisions were requested and approved.

I could see a combination system being quite useful for formal corporate communications and PR work; large creative team projects; or in the preparation of legal contracts.

But I agree that it's probably a not a good idea for computer code.

f0dder · « **Reply #63 on:** March 08, 2010, 07:01 AM »

Something like that could very well be useful, but I see that as a relatively specialized application, rather than automatically monitoring for changes and automatically committing?

For document authoring, a system with GIT integration could actually be pretty cool - but I'd still want the commits (and pushes) to be controlled rather than automated.

kartal · « **Reply #64 on:** March 14, 2010, 02:06 PM »

I think that an automated versioning can be great if the author is working in a certain branch with Git. For example a master branch would not be auto committed, but a branch named for example autocommit can have auto watch feature and would be interesting because there might be times when the author might want to try many different things in short amount of time ( without wanting branching) until a satisfactory result is achieved, then the branch could be merged into the head easily.

Branching is a great feature of common revision control apps. Most standard file versioning-backup applications do not have any kind of branching as far as I know, including Filehamster, which is not a negative thing at all. But branching is very interesting and useful concept.

Mogware Support · « **Reply #65 on:** March 15, 2010, 02:28 AM »

I'm not sure if you guys knew this but you can hook up scripts in 'FileHamster Advanced' that can be executed automatically or optionally; the optional setting places a 'run script' button in the FileHamster revision bubble so the user can simply choose when to execute the script by clicking on the button at revision time; FileHamster can use just about anything as a script but I've mostly just used common Windows batch files.

I thought this post relevent to the recent thread about having a tool that could either auto commit or optionally commit because you could hook up a commandline script to trigger your control commits. Using enviroment variables, you can customize the script to work dynamically and commit the recently modified file into your primary version control solution.

FileHamster's Script feature is quite extensive; In addition to just triggering a script, a user can actually pause, enable or even configure FileHamster through command files:
Here's a link with more information on the script commandline interface:
http://wiki.mogware....ommandline_Interface
*The environment variables that can be used within a script are listed at the bottom of this web page.

We've used this kind of control in past projects to disable FileHamster ( by simply copying a 'disable command file' to the root of a project's directory prior to a sync or get latest ) so we could prevent FileHamster from revisioning the files as they were being being updated.

40hz · « **Reply #66 on:** March 15, 2010, 03:06 PM »

@kartal - Looks like Mogware just came through with your solution!

Steven Avery · « **Reply #67 on:** March 20, 2010, 07:23 AM »

Hi Folks,

another possible.... Oops!Backup http://www.altaro.com/
-cmpm (March 08, 2010, 05:50 AM)

Half-price on Bits today. Some interesting comments back-and-forth. There is a real forum with moderate activity, always an excellent sign, and the developer handled the critical comments quite well on Bits. History Explorer (Sweden) has an ad for Oops on their website, perhaps they see the programs as complementary or have a connection.

May be worth a spin. They are from Malta and have an emphasis with community forums and such. Maybe a bit simple for most Donationcoder users at this time, only been around since December last year. I'm considering a trial.

Incidentally, the filehamster site was rated red on WOT, so I put in a little thread that should fix that.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

Mogware Support · « **Reply #68 on:** March 20, 2010, 12:25 PM »

Incidentally, the filehamster site was rated red on WOT, so I put in a little thread that should fix that.
-Steven Avery (March 20, 2010, 07:23 AM)

I read your post on WOT; thanks for noticing that and thanks again for making that post in our defense...Is there anything we can do as the developer or is this better handled by the users???

Strangely enough, we've had a few other sites do similar things but usually after an email they always lift the warnings; We are not sure where this is originating from but your comment about a potential competitor certainly got my gears churning...I’ll have to pay better attention to these issues in the future!

Hey guys, here's a special 50% off FileHamster link for all your support!
50% OFF FileHamster Coupon Link

Steven Avery · « **Reply #69 on:** March 20, 2010, 01:20 PM »

Hi Folks,

You can simply put in a post saying "hi .. thanks for noticing .. we can answer any questions" etc. The folks there are pretty savvy and what usually happens is that one or two folks check the site a couple of ways, makes sure all is fine, and then a bunch give a good rating and it becomes green.

There are lots of possible causes, when a site only has a few comments, it could simply be someone playing games, so unless there are many negative comments of absurdity, I would not be too concerned. Of course you might want to increase your awareness level of such situations, as you say.

The thread is at:

filehamster by mogware
http://www.mywot.com...lehamster-by-mogware

And has a link to the WOT-page. Technically I put it in the wrong section, but that should make little difference, the mods can move it if they want. There has already been significant improvement, so check it again in a few hours.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

Deozaan · « **Reply #70 on:** March 20, 2010, 08:02 PM »

Maybe it's red on WOT because of the Spam accusation on URIBL (URI Blacklist).

Steven Avery · « **Reply #71 on:** March 20, 2010, 08:58 PM »

Hi Folks,

You can't even find the supposed accusation, as this post points out.
http://www.mywot.com...8170#comment-6068170

Plus that would not explain having all the categories red, even if somebody thought it true.
Properly, that would only be privacy.

Note that the site is now green, although it should hopefully get more-green shortly.
Afaik, it will hinder any surfing in the current state.

Shalom,
Steven

Steven Avery · « **Reply #72 on:** March 20, 2010, 09:09 PM »

Hi Folks,

another possible.... Oops!Backup http://www.altaro.com/
-cmpm (March 08, 2010, 05:50 AM)

Half-price on Bits today. Some interesting comments back-and-forth. There is a real forum with moderate activity, ...May be worth a spin. ...Maybe a bit simple for most Donationcoder users at this time, only been around since December last year. I'm considering a trial.
-Steven Avery (March 20, 2010, 07:23 AM)

Found a BleepingComputer review.

http://www.bleepingc.../reviews/oops!backup
Oops!Backup Review
Reviewed by Lawrence Abrams on February 26, 2010

I would put that in the "nice, can do the job for some, but not really ready for prime-time category" .

Shalom,
Steven

Deozaan · « **Reply #73 on:** March 20, 2010, 10:41 PM »

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/reviews/oops!backup
-Steven Avery (March 20, 2010, 09:09 PM)

I fixed your link.

paulobrabo · « **Reply #74 on:** April 29, 2010, 06:39 PM »

Autover has been updated, btw. Version 1.4 was released on 28-04-2010, still free.

I put FH aside for a while and I'm trying to live with AutoVer only. So far so good.