Hi
I'd like to say that ThunderbirdPortable.ini is not only helpful when running TBP from read-only memory. Because of this it deserves much better place in help than it currently has.
Placing any data (mail and profile data in this case) in a subfolder of program folder is just not right. Especially when there is already Documents folder created by default when installing PortableMenu... But to move mail to its proper location (underneath Documents folder) one has to get know ThunderbirdPortable.ini...
So please make information about ThunderbirdPortable.ini easier to find on TBP's web page.
Once upon a time I was very disappointed that U3 became dead but after a while I found PortableApps. Thank you very much for this platform and your work.
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Using a folder outside the folder contain ThunderbirdPortable.exe isn't directly supported although it does work at the moment (not by design, it just happens to). It may not in the future if we change launcher technologies, so you should be aware of that.
The data is kept with the portable app's directory but kept separate in Data vs the App folder which contains all the app stuff. This allows the app to be moved from one drive to another easily and keep all your settings intact. All the app data can be easily backed up using the included PortableApps.com Backup utility. As app data isn't documents, that isn't really the best place to store it... similar to the way windows makes the distinction between documents (which are user files) and "Application Data" which is, well, application data.
Many of our newer apps don't have options to alter the folder layouts (it's extra work in terms of code maintenance and support for minimal benefit) so you won't be able to do this with many apps.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
John
Once again thank You very much for this project and the time and work you put in it.
I see there is a distinction between app's data (Data folder) and app's binaries (App folder) - that's very good.
I agree with you that app's data and user's documents are the two categories of data.
Many of our newer apps don't have options to alter the folder layouts (it's extra work in terms of code maintenance and support for minimal benefit) so you won't be able to do this with many apps.
I wouldn't give up the freedom of specifying folders. If there is no such a function, the platform will be much less flexible. Good example is keeping apps' data encrypted on some drive or folder; it's much easier when we can point apps to their data.
As to _extra_ work; it's not as extra as it seems because you already have to support changes of folder layout used by desktop apps to enable them to work on portable storage. I would rather say it's 2in1.
As to extra _work_; there's no big difference between hardcoding folder in a source and calling one function to read it from ini file instead.
--- Piotr Dobrogost
I understand the arguments in this thread, but wonder if there's a way to accomplish the following:
I have recently started using SugarSync to keep my office and laptop computers synced without having to carry around a portable drive. I use a POPmail server, and would like to have TB running on both computers. I thought perhaps I could use TBPortable. But snycing the TBP directory doesn't seem to work. I wonder if I can install the program separately on each computer and just sync the profiles? Could this be done by specifying a different directory in the .ini file?
Thanks.
Yeah, using Sugarsync sounds like a sticky situation (sorry!)
There is no need to sync the entire program since the personal things (things that change such as the mail store) are all held in the profile folder.
Trying to keep mail on two computers could be done, but the trick is going to be keeping things straight. If you try this, please be aware of the pitfalls.
I'm not sure why you couldn't sync Thunderbird, unless you were trying to do so while Thunderbird was running. You need to stop the program so that files are available for copying/snycing.
Jim
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
BTW, I gave up on trying to solve this problem. I'm back to running TBP from my USB key which I just carry around :-).
download the messages, it helps me see messages that I may have missed or not followed up on originally. If you get a lot of unread messages, if you have the "Select All" and "Mark" icons in your toolbar you can quickly select all of the unread messages and mark them as read.