Intelligence for Synchronize Browsing

Hi.

I want to ask for some intelligence for Synchronize Browsing (SB). Yes, it works fine, as long as all the paths match, after which you have the 2 sudden messages, and then again and again, and finally you create the empty directories to just avoid the messages next time. So, it's rather straightforward. I read the feature requests related to SB

https://winscp.net/tracker/347
https://winscp.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4590

and I completely agree with

The dialog interrupts the work flow, that is my view. For me, it should be a user preference what should happen

as said in a post under https://winscp.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4590.

I have several ideas for you to consider, as a hint to the direction SB should move in.

A. Do not display that error message "The directory ... does not exist"
And then another one - "Do you want to try to create the directory ... ?"
2 messages every time are nagging. This should be configurable and probably the message boxes should have the shortcut checkboxes "Do not show this again".
B. (eliminated by E!) OR: Once I said No to the question "Do you want to try to create the directory ... ?" remember the fact (the directory) in the list of directories I don't want and do not ask the same question for the directory again.
C. Once I'm back to a directory that matches (a remote one), resume SB. In order for this to work, all matching directories should be stored in a list. Perhaps, this should be a session list, that's it should be empty every time WinSCP is launched. The fact SB is back on may be notified of by flashing its toolbutton a couple of times (not sure if this is possible technically) or with a status message that does not require user confirmation.
D. Never show the messages if I navigate to the root on any machine (the "/" and "\" toolbuttons), and always turn SB off. When I go to "C:\", I definitely don't want to go to "/" remotely, and vice versa.
E. If you do display the message "The directory ... does not exist", add the option to create the directory ONTO IT (so the buttons will be "OK" "Create it" "Help"), and thus avoid the 2nd message anyway.


Also, SB often fails when I navigate using the blue history arrows, If I open the submenus and select a path that is not the very last. For ex., if I want to go back 2 paths (the 2nd item in the submenu), the remote path is changed correctly but then I have the message "Cannot open corresponding directory ...". At the same time if I just click the Back arrow 2 times in a row both panels navigate right, 2 times.

For ex., my (sync'ed) navigating was .../tools/temp -> .../tools -> .../tools/include. I cannot return to temp in just one jump. Note that in this case the paths in the submenus match. At the same time there can be scenarios when they do not (if I just turned on Synchronizing), yet SB should not fail even then (as long as I'm in the paths that match)! In order to implement that, you should not use both paths for navigating. Just take one (the one I click), compare it with the current path and get the relative path to go to, then go there in both panels. In the example above, the relative path is "../temp". Applying it to something like "C:\Apache\htdocs\project\tools\include" would yield "C:\Apache\htdocs\project\tools\temp". Note that this logic allows jumping to existing paths in the history lists even through non-existing directories (sometimes corresponding remote and local directories are named in a different way for a reason).

One more problem: if I change cwd manually with "cd ..." the remote path history is not updated, while the local one IS.

Thanks for your post. I have added link to your suggestions to tracker.

Note that implementing E eliminates B. First of all, the "Create the directory" button completely eliminates the need in the 2nd message box in itself. Second, if I do not want to create the directory now but change my mind later, I still have the chance to do it as the "Create" button is always there. While in the B version once I refused I only can create the dir manually. Plus, B requires keeping a list of directories which is more ocmplicated.

So, E is more preferrable than B.

One more suggestion along these lines: WinSCP should try harder to keep browsing synchronized for when Directory Trees are displayed. For example, suppose I have this directory tree:

./foo
/A/B
/C
/D/E/
/F

On the local machine this tree is rooted at c:\workspace (i.e., c:\workspace\foo and so forth). On the remote machine, this tree is rooted at /home/foo.

Suppose I'm in ./foo/A/B, and SB is turned on. I now click on ./foo/A/D/E in the Directory Tree. WinSCP 4.2.4 disables SB. In fact, it should first try to figure out if ./foo/A/D/E exists remotely.

ks wrote:

One more problem: if I change cwd manually with "cd ..." the remote path history is not updated, while the local one IS.

This issue has been added to tracker.

jacktanner wrote:

Suppose I'm in ./foo/A/B, and SB is turned on. I now click on ./foo/A/D/E in the Directory Tree. WinSCP 4.2.4 disables SB. In fact, it should first try to figure out if ./foo/A/D/E exists remotely.

Thanks for your post. This request is being tracked already.