zeltak | # 131 | 2010-08-09, 01:05 | Report

Hi jonnenau

first of all thx so much for this awesome app..it really was the app that allowed me to buy a n900 a few days ago as i desperately needed a dropox app..thx again

just wondering if automatic sync (ala desktop client on my nix machine) is planned for the future?

thx again

Zeltak

jonnenau | # 132 | 2010-08-09, 19:47 | Report

No, not presently. I guess if it would be useful it could be made for Qt supported audio files or something similar. But then again, this would not be "streaming" per say, as the API only allows me to download the data with HTTP. So it would be essentially the app downloading the file fully and then playing it for you. So same as you actually downloading the file. I don't see much use for this and will be hard to do as the API is limited.

Hello Zeltak, I'm glad to hear my app motivated you to buy this great device

Automatic sync how you see it on the desktop clients is a bit tricky, let me explain. The API that I am working against is a DropBox company provided service. I can do only what they let me to do with it. There is currently no immediate updates or callbacks when stuff in your dropbox is updated/changed. I am left with a) asking randomly or from users request b) asking updated stuff with a timer that user can set.

a) I have implemented. User can hit sync when he feels like it. As you probably know if there is new content that you don't have on your phone. This is currently limited to one folder (that you can always change) in your dropbox but wont be necessarily always so.

b) Timers I left alone for the above reason. User pretty much knows if there is something new, or he can always click to check if there is something new in his dropbox. Timers would be doing stuff "behind" users back and as many have pointed out drain battery etc. things we have to keep in mind with a mobile device.

The main point is still that I don't get callbacks from DropBox saying "hey there is a new file here, get it fast" so the sync will be in all cases pretty much a manual task. I will how ever improve the sync in the upcoming updates. I will include upload sync and probably syncing your camera photos up to dropbox.

Hope that answered your question

jonnenau | # 133 | 2010-08-09, 19:50 | Report

Oh and one more thing. Seems that after the recount of the votes (duplicate and new accounts removed from all contest votes) I have placed first in the beginners category And to top that off the contest heads also have said that the beginners category will be rewarded the trip to Dublin Meego conference!

Thanks for everyone who voted for DropN900. I am very excited about the prize! Read more here about the results

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Last edited by jonnenau; 2010-08-09 at 19:53.

dscobsct | # 134 | 2010-08-09, 19:59 | Report

wow well done dude congatulations. but well deserved though

zeltak | # 135 | 2010-08-09, 20:38 | Report

thx jonnenau for the answers ans congratz on winning


i understand your points and since its an api things i guess i will have to settle for manual sync.

it would be cool though if there could be a button (or even a widget) one could press to just sync quickly instead of manually opening the app..pressing the menu and pressing sync..is that a possibility in future versions?

thx again

Zeltak

jonnenau | # 136 | 2010-08-09, 21:03 | Report

I think this might be possible yes. Even to do a sync without opening the application to make it faster. Just showing the confirm dialog and let it rip Very good idea, I'll look at it once other main features are in.

jonnenau | # 137 | 2010-08-10, 09:00 | Report

Happy to tell you that I implemented new about dialog with more info and clickable links to relevant urls and upload sync. Also added a donate link there, hope no one will mind, just in case someone likes my app a little too much

For a file to be synced upstream it has to be a) newer timestamp b) different size. Same applies now to download sync. As I cannot operate on timestamps alone. And actually they are quite pointless to even check. As when you download a item from dropbox it gets a newer timestamp on your device, and next time this would be recognized as a changed file and would be uploaded even if the data is exactly the same.

Lets see if this poses a problem. I think byte accurate size is a good indicator if the file has been touched, but maybe some files wont change size with small modifications, this will be a problem with this system. But as said I am hacking around the API and this is not supported directly by dropbox. Lets see how you like it and how it works. I'll try to push and update this week. I want to do the camera sync also before that.

P.S coded untill 4am and now I am very late for work if you'll excuse me

dscobsct | # 138 | 2010-08-10, 09:06 | Report

take your time dude, anything good is worth waiting for.

sb10ck | # 139 | 2010-08-10, 13:44 | Report

I try to sync a 1GB Truecrypt File with the N900, but there is no way. The File is in the N900-Folder in Dropbox and i try to download it to the N900. After a half an hour a (German) message appears: "Vorgang wurde wegen zu geringer Speicherkapazität vorübergehend deaktiviert". First Dropbox-Client freezes and last the N900 completly. Any other way possible?

When i sync a smaller TC-File, and a have changes, is the whole File transfer to sync (e. g. 200MB) or only the changes?

jonnenau | # 140 | 2010-08-10, 14:29 | Report

You can compare this download to you downloading this 1GB file from a webpage. And I would say web browser will handle it much better with memory usage etc. Python propably does a poor job there with that big of files with the standard httplib that is basically for getting web pages, not 1GB data files. In theory the download should work but probably get into trouble with the mobile devices memory or something.

If you do any change to a file it will be fetched again completely, there is no way for me to know what bits to update etc the dropbox desktop clients get the whole file also not just updated "parts". At least this is what I assume and have noticed when using the clients.

With the current API and things I am working with it's hard to make a client like you see on the PC that does networking for big files etc. perfectly. This client is for most use cases but not propably for getting 1GB files daily. You will find better luck most likely by using the dropbox.com web interface to fetch your big files than my python client