Toucan 3.1
I am hard at work on Toucan 3.1 and thought I would give you all a quick update on what I plan to add for the new version. I will update and expand this when progress is made on each of the sections.
Improved Progress Output
The way Toucan sends output from the worker threads to either the user interface or the command line has been completely overhauled to use a message queue rather than events. What this means for end users is that the progress window will be even more responsive than before, and that output to the command line is finally properly fixed and will not randomly break in the future. There have also been a number of improvements to the progress window. Firstly it is now a proper modal dialog, this means that it should minimise properly along with the main window, amongst other things. A toggle button for toggling autoscroll on the output has also been added. Finially I plan to add saving and loading of the windows position and size, just like in the main form.
Current progress: All complete expect position and size saving
Rules
The rules system has been a bit limiting for some time now. One of the main problems is that it doesn’t allow you to completely exclude a folder. At the moment if a folder is excluded then Toucan continues to traverse that folder to check if there are any includes, this gives problems in a number of situations, and reduces performance. The next version will split the existing rules into five subtypes: File Include, File Exclude, Folder Include, Folder Exclude and Absolute Folder Exclude. This will allow maximum flexibility. Also rather than using special syntax to denote the type such as regex it is now a separate option.
Current progress: Finished, extensive testing needed
Debugging
As of 3.1 Toucan will no longer UPX as the Boost message queue doesn’t seem to play well with it. Because of this I am adding better debugging support to Toucan as it requires the exe not to be upxed. This will allow users to create proper crash reports when Toucan crashes and should greatly aid in debugging.
Current progress: Not started
Scripting
At the moment the Toucan scripting is very powerful but not very understandable for new users. An aim for this, and the next few releases, is to improve the usability of the scripting tab. This will mean making it look more like a proper editor, and adding ways to easily add exising jobs and command to your script.
Current progress: Not started
File Paths
Leaving what for many people is the best feature until last I aim to have full support for UNC paths in 3.1, at least for Sync. I also aim to support running from a UNC path as well. Support for Backup and Secure of UNC paths will be more tricky, I will aim to get Secure working for 3.2 however.
Current progress: Finished sync and application running support
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1. please add such variables as @quarter of year@ and @current user@ if possible
2. please add Rules to Remember Entered Information block
3. toucan hangs if no rules selected and press green plus near the rules combobox
4. the list of rules is ... awkward:
- for delete rule by pressing red minus need to select all row of the list, and to do this and how matter to do this - is very non-obvious
- cannot delete rule by pressing Delete on keyboard
- text cursor in the parameter field of rule disappears, and editing happens blindly
5. do you consider to implement the wildcards? regex complicates toucan using and scare away many users. And wildcards completes 80% tasks, imho.
for the propositions!
is being made, support for UNC paths in Sync has been added as has support for running Toucan from UNC paths. You can see a picture of it in action copying from one UNC path to another after being run from a UNC path here. The Rules update has also been finished but needs lots of testing.
While you're in the code that deals with path names, could you please add an option in "Sync" that tells it to use full paths?
For example, right now if I Sync (copy or mirror mode) from folder C:\abc\def\ghi to folder F:\C_Drive, the following file:
C:\abc\def\ghi\jkl\mno.txt
...gets copied to:
F:\C_Drive\jkl\mno.txt
I'd like the option to instead have the "destination" file/path automatically end up as:
F:\C_Drive\abc\def\ghi\jkl\mno.txt
This makes it a lot easier to set up and maintain selected "sub-backups" of a drive (all in a single Toucan "job set"), and ensures that it's possible to unambiguously ascertain which files on the mirror copy came from which original folders.
This option probably wouldn't make sense with bi-directional Syncs (like "equalise" mode) and should be enabled only for the one-way Sync operations.
intriguing suggestion, I don't think it has ever been asked for before!
I probably won't add it as a seperate option but I think you could do this at the moment using a clever set of rules. If you had your source and C:\ and your destination as F:\C_Drive and then set up a folder exclude to exclude everything (using a regex in the current version or a wildcard in 3.1) then you could specifically include C:\abc\def\ghi\jkl\ and I think that would give you what you want.
Following this, will the new rules provide an easy way to only copy certain files from a given folder (without copying any other file/sub-folder)?
it should do this fine
It is actually one of the tests I am using to check the new system works well!
Could you put an Copy Newer or Copy Missing option in the Sync Portion of the App
I am willing to test specific functionality if it will help during your development.
Thanks.
Older versions of Toucan had an integrated Help Browser. I miss that. I've continued to use 2.1.2 for that very reason.
What's a signature?
is that a big problem? Having it separate means you can look at the help file whilst having the dependent tab open.
The average user has a screen resolution of 1024x768 (or similar) and it's very hard to look at two windows at the same time on the same screen. Also, I find it kind of annoying to have to open my web browser just to look at a help file. Moreover, It's much easier to switch between two tabs than two windows. Having the help file in a separate tab was very convenient and I also miss it.
lol...
I guess he mean that you can view help with a simples "alt+tab" while you are configuring Toucan, without the need of switch between tabs.
This was already discussed eons ago. Steve is trying to bring his app in line with the rest of PortableApps. I don't forsee any change back to a built-in help file. In addition, and Steve can correct me if I'm wrong, I think removing the help file from the app means that Steve doesn't have to include an HTML parser with his app, which will reduce the size of the app a little bit and also reduce complexity (one less component to worry about).
Hi,
Thanks for this very useful application.
However, I miss an sync option that would be very useful for me:: add newer files from source to destination. Don't know exactly what could be the name of this sync option but the behavior would be:
S&D, S newer: copy S to D
S&D, D newer: -
S only: copy S to D
D only: -
Didn't find anything looking like that...
like what you want is a plain copy with the Modifications Time check, hope that helps!
Thanks for answer: its obvious indeed...! So sorry for my zero added-value comment...!
Hi Steve,
I'm a fan of Toucan and am anxiously awaiting version 3.1. Could you post an update about the progress you are making? I am curious as to how long it will take to complete(but, not to rush you in any way).
Keep up the good work!
can grab the second pre-release here. Feel free to leave plenty of feedback
I had a problem with this pre-release, running on Win7/64. I'm currently running Toucan 3.04, and had encountered the error where Creating a Rule caused an error and the application to stop.
installing Toucan_3.1.0_Pre-Release_2.paf.exe over the top of the existing 3.04 version, when I launched Toucan, An error would popup behind the splash screen(so it's difficult to see/get to) stating "*** Caught unhandled unknown exception; terminating"
if i perform a clean install into a new directory, it works fine.
Just an FYI for anyone who encounters the same issue;
thought I had this one sorted, I'll take another look and make sure I get it finally fixed in the next pre-release.
I got lost in the "UNC" paths. Could someone explain?
I'm not a Toucan regular user, but i'll tell you I haven't found a single syncing/backup program which could be managed the way Toucan is. I threw away syncing with windows some time ago but anyway I'd still use it if I had to instead of any other
2busy2googleitnow
Ive not used Toucan before - but I downloaded and ran the 3.1.0_RC3 in order to encrypt some files. I started simply after the install, and selected a single file to encrypt - and then pressed run. (2 mouse clicks effectively).
Toucan prompted me for a password, which I started to enter and then backspaced over. Toucan then gave me and error window WxWidgets error alert:- c:\Programming\wxWidgets.....\include\wx\strvararg.h(449) assert..... Arg tye failed in wxArgnormaliser .. format specifier doesn't match argument type"
I said "No" I didn't want to stop the program - but after saying this toucan stopped working anyway
I have Win7 Home Premium 64 Bit, 8Gb RAM, 1Tb hard drive.
G.
A feature I'm still missing in Toucan: when you sync files with 'mirror' option erased files in destination are deleted or go to recycle bin.
Is possible to add an option to send these files to a folder?
Or can I do that with resources already in toucan?
Thanks!
PS: Sorry my poor english, it´s not my native language.
this is not currently possible, can I ask why you would use such a feature?
Hi Steve,
Having just found your App I wondered if there was any news please on when 3.1 is planned for release and whether it will be compatible with Windows 8?
Hi Steve,
I've been using toucan for years now, I would like to request a feature I'm thinking about.
Basically I would request a feature that databases the File list, folder list, File sizes, modification times, short comparison(md5/crc32) and full comparison(md5/crc32) [the list and comparison attributes of files] of a folder. Then, a feature that can generate a "to do list" for toucan based on a comparison of an existing folder to the "database file" of a folder.
This is advantageous in my case because if I database the [list and comparison attributes of files] of my destination folder, even if my destination folder is in an external hard drive that is not currently connected, I can compare my current source folder to my destination folder (using database file). Therefore I don't need to be with my external hard drive when comparing my files (I can leave my laptop while it compares to the database, while I fetch my external hard drive in a location that is away from here--offsite backup). After fetching my hard drive (I assume the compare has finished), all I need to do is run the toucan "to do list" (which will copy/delete any file that is appropriate).
If possible, I like to request that the creation of this "database file" be an option to be automatically created when we Sync files (since in syncing files, we get the date/size/short compare etc. anyway).
I hope you get the sense of my feature request.
Thank you.
for the detailed request. There has been quite a long standing similar request to this as it would also allow better choices to be made when files have been deleted since the last sync or when a file in both the source and destination have been changes since the last sync.