TIP: On using vars

[Gerrit]

TO ALL:

The beta of Synchronize It! makes it possible to use predefined PATH strings (called: vars). Already defined vars are:
My Documents
Program Files
Windows

Using vars instead of folder names is useful when Synchonize It! is used to keep two (or more) PC's in sync. Synchonize It! can run on a USB stick and you only need to define your sync-session ONCE. Synchonize It! will automatically convert the 'My Documents' var to the actual path of the 'My Documents' folder on any of the PC's.

Users can define more vars under 'Options - Vars'. One powerful possibilitiy is to make use of predefined folder names available in Windows (at least on Win 2000 and above).

For instance a var pointing to the folder 'Favorites' can be defined by:

%UserProfile%\Favorites

Likewise %AppData% can be used to point to the current user's Application Data Folder. This folder stores a lot of configuration information. For instance the User's custom dictionaries for MS-Office can be found in this folder:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Proof\

and my MS-Office templates are stored in:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Templates

I recommend you make use of this possibility.

But do not forget that vars can only point to folders. So if you want to sync only to a specific ini-file found under %AppData%\SomeSoftware then you first define a var that points to the folder. For instance 'SomeSoftware' points to '%AppData%\SomeSoftware'.

When you make your sync session you write '$(SomeSoftware)\settings.ini' as source or target.

I still miss a var that point to the drive name/letter that Synchronize It! runs from. The USB stick that Synchronize It! runs on here, does also contain the target Package files. The USB stick usually gets a drive letter assigned automatically, and this might differ from PC to PC. I hope this var will be implemented too.

Gerrit

[Gerrit]

Well, these features aren't fully implemented yet as turns out when I want to apply them like I sketched in my previous post.

For instance the vars do get converted to hard coded paths the moment the session is selected by the user. Therefore at this stage of development a saved session will only contain hard coded paths.

I edited the ini-file so that it does contain the vars and Synchronize It! is perfectly able to handle them. It does nevertheless always pops up the question "Save changes to this session", since after it converted the vars to hard coded pathts it believes the definition of the session has been changed.

Happy as ever to do some advanced features testing

[Gerrit]

Another remark on this issue:
Sessions that are correctly stored in ini-file with vars work as session. As part of a project they malfunction...

Gerrit

[grigsoft]

Thank you, Gerrit, I will check why it is not working as it should