Firstly i would like to thank you for Toucan, it is really good.
I still have a few feature requests though:
1. Support for VSS.
It would be nice if Toucan would be able to sync files that are in use (locked files).
SyncBackSE or Cobian backup are all able to do this by using VSS (volume shadow copy service) which is available in windows xp, vista and windows 2003.
2. Auto backup of every file that has been replaced or deleted during the synchronisation.
3. Real-time syncing.
So that when, for example, a file is added to the destination folder, it will be copied in real-time to the source folder and vice versa.
4. True bi-directional mirroring with sync memory.
By that i mean that it would be nice if Toucan would be able to remember all the file synchronization actions.
The big advantage of a sync memory would be that, if, for example, you would delete a file from the source folder, it will also be deleted from the destination folder.
Right now, if i delete a file from the source in a mirror mode, Toucan will simply do the opposite, it will copy the file from the destination back to the source, so i will have the same file back again!
5. Conflict handling.
If you are going to implement some intelligent sync memory, then you are also going to have to implement some options for conflict handling, because it can be possible that a situation occurs in which a file has been changed both in the source folder aswell as in the destination folder.
This situation is very likeley to occur when, for example, a user changes a file on the source folder located on a laptop where at that moment no network connection is available.
If someone then also changes a the file in the destination folder and the network is available again, Toucan is confronted with a file that has been changed both on the destination aswell as in the source folder.
Maybe the user will then have to be confronted with a dialog asking him what he/she wants to do.
The following options can be presented (got these from SyncBackSE):
- overwrite destination
- overwrite source
- delete
- delete from destination
- delete from source
- move to destination
- move to source
- skip
6. Ability to run Toucan also as a service, so that synchronization will continue even when no user is logged on.
It would be nice if this feature would be implemented in such a way that only one instance of Toucan will be running at any time.
Otherwise, when you log on, Toucan will start and the service version of Toucan will be running also, that would cause conflicts i guess.
7. Force a Sync at logoff and at logon.
8. Prevent file corruption by renaming.
I am not sure if any options have been build in to make sure that files do not get corrupted when they are transferred to the destination folder, but to prevent file corruption from occuring because of, for example, a bad network connection it would great if Toucan would first copy the file to the destination folder and then rename it to its original filename. That should prevent file corruption.
SyncBackSE uses this technique also.
9. Resume support.
I don't blame you for not even looking at this feature request, because it will probably be incredibly complicated, but it would really great if that were possible.