tape_ape | # 251 | 2010-11-02, 15:38 | Report

says 'not installable' on my N900. i'll see if i can try to install it from the command line for more detail error reporting

sm8ps | # 252 | 2010-11-03, 17:53 | Report

First off, I would like to thank jonnenau for developping dropn900. I had been waiting for something like this but found the application only one week after upgrading to PR1.3. I did feel like slapping my face! The happier I was after the update was accessible. Thanks a lot!
Can you imagine the difficulties I had when trying to type in my login information in black type against a black background?
Well, I have not found a cure for that but at least a remedy: I could verify my typing by marking it by use of the shift and arrow keys. That way the type appears highlighted. -- Hope this helps others!
Cheers!
St. Mueller, Switzerland

larelogio | # 253 | 2010-11-03, 23:20 | Report

Well... no.
If you have a big file and change just a few bytes the sync done by the Dropbox client is very fast (win/mac). In the example given, a TC file, the size never changes, the timestamp is reseted and still the Dropbox client keeps the changed bytes and only them synced. Even a conflict file (a complete new copy of some version) is created very fast, no full transmission involved.

That sad, I wouldn't expect a mobile app to do all that. It would be awesome, but probably not possible.

LARelogio

dbrodie | # 254 | 2010-11-04, 20:32 | Report

Are you sure that only the changed bytes are transmitted? Have you looked at the network traffic to make sure that his is so?
You can't compare just on speed because one of the things that are really slow on the n900 (and similar devices) is writing to the non-onboard nand (where the rootfs is located) compared to the a regular HD.
I don't know how dropn900 handles it, butit could probably save some speed by splitting up the downloading thread from the thread that saves it to disk. (instead of having a read => write loop).

@jonnenau: Just wanted to give a shout out and say thank you very much for everything you put into making this app work great. Saved me quite a few times in the past 2 weeks.

jonnenau | # 255 | 2010-11-04, 21:19 | Report

Yeah I'm not entirely convinced that they would update just the few changed bits of the file. I guess they might, its not even that hard if you just have all the data what to do and where. I do agree dropbox PC client is very fast on big files so they must do something smart. But do remember the full blown client is in a constant pipe connection to the remote servers to get all data/updates/notifications immediately. I on the other hand have to use a REST api so polling for changes.

You can think of it this way: you have quite ok working sync while as far as I know the DropBox companys own iPhone, BlackBerry etc. mobile clients dont have any sync at all. I think the other operating systems might be the limiting factor to a point, so yey for maemo

Thanks, glad you like it. I am really doing this for you people as I don't use my own app at all its kind of funny how much hours I put to it without using it beyond testing for releases.

I actually do have separate threads for writing files to disk and getting them from the network So when the network fetch is done to memory I start writing that to disk in another thread and start the next network thread at the same time. If you are into code here: TransferWorker and DataWorker. Let me know if you have ideas at making the code better, I'm always open for that.

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Last edited by jonnenau; 2010-11-04 at 21:28.

xur17 | # 256 | 2010-11-05, 03:02 | Report

Here's a relevant help document from dropbox about syncing changes only:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/8

I am not sure if this is available in the api you are using, but it definitely exists in the desktop client.

Thanks for writing this app by the way. This was one of the things that android had that I wish maemo also had, and you made it!

stevomanu | # 257 | 2010-11-05, 10:49 | Report

my app has died , very gutted about that cant seem to log in anymore ?>

zerone | # 258 | 2010-11-05, 19:24 | Report

Not sure if this is a bug or expected behavior but here is something weird I notice everytime I sync my Dropbox folders.

Say, I have a folder called folder2 in my DropBox which is located inside another folder called folder1. So the path from my home in DropBox account is "/folder1/folder2"

In the DropBox client on my N900, I have my default download folder set to "MyDocs/DropN900" and my sync path is set to "/folder1/folder2"

Now whenever I try to sync my files, it Downloads folder2 and it directly under the default directly instead of first creating a sub-folder called folder1 and then put folder2 inside folder1.

All files goto "MyDocs/DropN900/folder2" instead of "MyDocs/DropN900/folder1/folder2" as expected.

jonnenau | # 259 | 2010-11-05, 19:43 | Report

No I certainly don't have this via a REST api, as said the pc clients have a udp or something pipe connection for these things. Its posible via http too but the api is very simple and this is out of the question. What im doing with it now is already quite impressive. Hope people would understand that on one of these days...

And yeah as I said if you have to mechanisms in place the binary diff as they call it there is not too hard to do. You just need full control whats going on on the client and the servers and that is what they have.

I don't know how your brain works but that is exactly what I should do if I ask you a folder to sync. Why would I then go and not get that but the parent forlder? If you want folder1 then select it. This behaviour would be neat if i wanted to keep the exact same hierarchy in MyDocs as what you have in the network storage.

I understand your point and this would be trivial to make but this is how I went with it. You select one folder at a time and I sync it to the default dl folder. I dont try to mimic the whole hierarchy from dropbox while doing so. This would propably get quite confusing once you start selecting sync folders from deep down. Just sync folder1 to make head hurt less or rearrage your dropbox to suit your needs

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Last edited by jonnenau; 2010-11-05 at 19:47.

zerone | # 260 | 2010-11-05, 20:09 | Report

So its the expected behavior then The reason I don't sync entire folder1 is because it has a lot of other folders that I don't want on my phone. I was expecting it otherwise because thats what the desktop client does. Thanks for the reply.