jonnenau | # 41 | 2010-07-22, 09:22 | Report

Yes, as said I don't have any network checks at the moment. I previously played around with Qt in C++ and using its networking features automatically triggered the OS level dialog to select network if you were not online. This is missing from python/PyQt4 it seems. It's a shame that I have to manually start making sure that user is in net. I hope I can access the dbus stuff from python also to get OS level info and for example request connection. If anyone has pointers for wiki pages etc how to do this from python that would be appreciated.

OK, I think its best to put the DL folder also to a place that really has space. Hope I don't have to start verifying too much if phone is in mass storage mode so that we don't have access to MyDocs before opening the dialog And no DropN900 does not create /home/user/Download must be some other app.

Can I ask for the trace where the error is printed. Im assuming some where in the dropbox client code where it makes the network request content with invalid chars? I'm not sure what I can do to fix this. I could change my password and play around with it.

For now I'll focus to DropBox I did already find a python lib to connect to amazon services and I'm sure it could be done quite easily if they have similar api. If it has the same functionality we can use the same UI too and just login to another service That would actually be pretty sweet, but maybe later!

naabi | # 42 | 2010-07-22, 09:31 | Report

Not an expert in this area, but this seems to be suitable.

http://pymaemo.garage.maemo.org/conic.html

Yes, it's a shame that you have to do this manually.

itpastorn | # 43 | 2010-07-22, 10:00 | Report

This is great. App has been downloaded and it runs smoothly so far.

Since a daemon mode can not be made - we still seem to need an official app for that - the one missing feature is double tap to download and open file at once.

However:

I still think we should keep the pressure up on Dropbox for an official app, running as a daemon, with selective folder sync for people who have paid accounts or just don't want to sync everything by choice.

jonnenau | # 44 | 2010-07-22, 10:09 | Report

naabi: Thanks, I'll take a look at that later. I do hope I dont have to run a gmainloop also on the side in order to do this

itpastorn: Yes, we should keep asking them to make it. The rest api is limited on what you can do, and they do this on purpose, I would say, to not enable devs to make better clients than what they can make, as its expected from a company that tries to make money. This is ok for me, I just made this due there was no real signs that dropbox would make a client for maemo as a company.

I believe they see this too marginal of a target group. They seem to target this api more to support 3rd party iPhone/Android apps to use dropbox as storage, not mainly for "full" clients that what I have made here.

I can do the selective folder sync also without them banning my api keys, just give me some time

---

Last edited by jonnenau; 2010-07-22 at 10:11.

evad | # 45 | 2010-07-22, 10:42 | Report

Definitely yes. Putting user-facing content directly in /home/user directory, instantly seemed very awkward to me.

rmerren | # 46 | 2010-07-22, 14:23 | Report

Sweet! Functional apps like this are worth 1,000 fart apps--and I have yet another way for my N900 to smoothly integrate with what I already use in desktop-land. I will install this asap!

P.S. I still want more fart apps.

jonnenau | # 47 | 2010-07-22, 23:50 | Report

Fun to see google search or twitter search for dropn900. A lot more buzz than I was expecting with only announcing it here. I guess nowadays word travels fast Main issues with people seem to be with the sync missing, I doubt many of them have read the first post here to see why its not there. But that is ok, now I know what I have to do to make people happy.

Already did some improvements today. Mostly making the code easier to work with but also some functionality that end users will see. That is I changed the default download folder to /home/user/MyDocs/DropN900.

I also made my post install script in the dep to run python compileall to generate .pyc files into the applications /opt/dropn900 folder. As seems that during runtime you are running the app as "user" and python wont have permissions to create the files there. This should make the app load faster but I believe this pyc thing wont make the app run any faster. Now startup time authenticated is about 10 sec for me, haven't tested what is it with the new one. Thankfully I read some python optimization wiki page here and found this neat little tip

What I will focus on next:

• Network connection checks, graceful handling when connection is lost.
• Multiple file selection for upload/download.
• Making settings UI for the app
• Automatic folder sync when app is running for a single folder. I will make this disabled by default, makee it optional and make it so that you can enable it in the above settings ui.

Automatic sync:
For the automated sync I have to decide what is best. I have two main options, I'd like to have feedback here what to do

1. I could make this easier for people to understand and to use if I would sync the apps folder. This would mean having a "DropN900" folder in your dropbox root that you could set to auto sync. This would make clear to people what folder is actually synched with your N900 mobile device. Also this would make things easier for me to implement and to control how it operates. Would also be more safe so my app would not do anything harmful to already existing folders in you dropbox (just a precaution, i do have full access and i really dont want to make bugs that will piss off people) even though this will be completely safe as we are only asking metadata and downloading files.

2. Let the user select a folder/folders that wil be auto synced. This will be more error prone and harder to implement (at least ui wise). I guess this might be better option to expand to this way once I have the mechanism in place with #1 option.

Things to note:

• I do not get a contect hash or anything like this for files in the metadata. This means I will have to recognize purely on modified timestamps if a file has changed and it should be downloaded again to the device. I think this wont be a issue. As if the timestamp has changed at all we can go ahead and get the new file.
• I do not get callbacks to anywhere when your dropbox content has changed. This will have to be a manual timer to poll the folder content and see what files have changed.

DropN900 settings UI:
I'll do the following for the settings UI what you can control. Please tell me if you think something should be added here that I might not have thinked of.

• Changing the default download folder (default: /home/user/MyDocs/DropN900) this would also be the place where the automated sync downloads the content.
• Reset authentication button
• Automated sync enabled/disabled
• Automated time interval sync enabled/disabled + you can set the time interval (from lets say 1-60 min)
• Sync mobile folder now button (possibly can go to main menu also)

I will start working again on sunday evening and continue next week. As it happens this was my coding hobby project for my summer holiday and my real coding work starts again after next week. This has been so much fun and people have received the app so well that I wont leave this even when my work starts again. It just means I dont have time to do 6-12h work days for this project alone as I have been doing for the past few weeks

---

Last edited by jonnenau; 2010-07-23 at 00:06.

PathFinder@9GS | # 48 | 2010-07-23, 04:56 | Report

another cosmetic bug,If you click on the expand/collapse button instead of double clicking on the name, It won't load the underlying files/structure.
I'm not sure if this has been observed already, just wanted to share.

Yeah great work now I don't have to email myself or connect via usb for most of the data I transfer. Keep up the good work

rm53 | # 49 | 2010-07-23, 09:48 | Report

I would suggest you keep the option for only manual sync the folders. IMHO much more suited to mobile devices like N900, just as you pointed out in your very first posting.
To your question: A user settable folder would be better, otherwise you have the problem: the more independent DropBox clients, the more folders you need inside DropBox, and the advantage of syncing goes away...

Persson | # 50 | 2010-07-23, 16:39 | Report

i can´t find the dir home/user/MyDocs/DropN900

i have get some files from my dropbox and files are not on my phone..