Upload any FILE MODIFIED in the last 5 minutes - Possible?

[jazzviolin]

Often times, I'll do a sitewide Find and Replace in Dreamweaver.  Say 60 files have been updated. 

My Goal in YummyFTP:

By selecting all the files on the local drive and clicking Upload, I would like to filter only the files that have been modified with this Find and Replace -- say, within in the last five minutes.

(I have looked at the Filter options, but no option for time, only date?)

Thank you all in advance, I hope this helps others as well.

jv

[JD]

Why not use the Synchronize feature? Set it to Update Server and only the modified files will be uploaded.

[jazzviolin]

I just hit synchronize, and it is still "analyzing directory for update server" -- after 10 minutes.  Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but my original question may suit my needs better.

Also, I'm in China, and I'm a web developer for many American web sites, so the sync delay may have to do with that.  Anyway.  Maybe this "analysis" only takes place the first time?  Thank you for your response.

[jazzviolin]

Is there a way to only sync html and css files?

[JD]

It depends - if you've chosen a directory full of thousands of files and folders then it could take a long time. Maybe you've chosen the wrong Mac and Server folders to sync? Check this in the bottom left of the Synch Setup window, where it shows the names of the Mac and Server folders that will be synchronized.

There is no option for filtering by time, so your original question has no other solution, apart from using Synchronize, which provides exactly what you're trying to do.

You can use the filters to include only Mac and Server files ending in .css or .html and the filters can be configured to apply to Synchs, Transfers, Browsing or all three. In this case you'll need just the Synchs to be filtered.

[JD]

To follow up:

It sounds like you have something set up incorrectly - only a very large site or a very slow/intermittent Internet connection would result in such a long analysis stage.

The analysis stage happens every time. The analysis consists of fetching all the file and folder information for the complete directory structure both on your server and your Mac, then each and every file is compared to see which is newer. This results in a list of files/folders to transfer.

One thing to note: since your servers are located in a different time zone, I highly recommend that you enable the 'Automatically detect time offset' option in the Synch setup window.

[jazzviolin]

Yeah I played around with it more, in the middle of the night (when the internet is significantly faster here in China) -- no luck.  Analyzing the server is just not what I need to do, and takes too long and seems like overkill for what I need to do.  (I don't really need to check any files on the server, I already know my files are the newest copies).

If anyone knows of a way in YummyFTP, or actually, any Mac FTP client that can do this:

Only upload X modified in the last X minutes -- example: Take all PHP, SWF, CSS, HTM, HTML files modified in the last 5 minutes, only upload those

It would greatly increase my productivity.  Thanks again for your continued help.

[JD]

With respect, although you might already know which files you have changed, Yummy FTP can't read your mind - it has to compare the files on your Mac with the files on your server to see which ones are newer... it's the only way it can find out.

The synchronize function is designed to do exactly what you want. There are no other solutions, even on other FTP clients. It is your only option.

What we need to discover is why the analysis stage takes so long.

How big is your server site? For example, would Yummy be analyzing thousands upon thousands of files or folders?
What speed is your Internet connection? (up and down speed)
Could you send me an FTP Transcript after the Analysis stage has been going for 10 minutes? Maybe this will give me a clue. (Select 'Save FTP Transcript' from the File menu and send the resulting file to support at yummysoftware dot com)

For what it's worth, I have loads of customers using the synchronize feature for exactly the purposes you are trying to get, and I have no complaints about speed - quite the contrary. in fact. There is probably something in your setup which is making things take longer than you're prepared to wait.

[jazzviolin]

I understand -- sync is the only way, and it is not specific to Yummy.  (I've been wanting a feature like this since 2001 when I was using Dreamweaver for FTP transfers).

The thing is, if you just slightly modified the Filter dialogue to include a "time modified" then Yummy would not have to "read my mind" --  it would just check the system time, quickly scan my local site for files modified in the last 5 minutes, and upload those to their respective directories.

The problem is undoubtedly the fact that I'm in China on a slower connection (connecting to US servers).  Am I the only user using a slow connection to transfer files?  Should modem users have to wait to "sync" all the files on the server first?  My solution defeats this problem, as the command is initialize from the local computer.

I say, refine Yummy so it can outshine the other Mac FTP competition, because it is a great piece of software.  I'll send the log next time I get home.

Thanks again.

[JD]

Ok, I understand. I'll see what it would take to add a time filter option

I'd still like to see your transcript, though, just in case there's something out of order there.

-Jason

[spacific]

Another option is to maintain a local copy of synchronized files, which is trusted to correspond to the remote server's version. (This is used by Synchronex (for Windows)). So the only comparisons made are those between the source folder and the synchronized folder, both of which are local. If a difference is found then the new file is uploaded to the server and also copied to the synchronized folder. It's a bit of a hack but it works wonderfully well for one of my applications.  To avoid wasting space, the files in the synchronized folder can be empty.

Yet another way would be just to maintain a record of what has been synchronized and when. Then you don't need the synchronized folder at all.

For uploading data and web-pages these methods work well -- that is, where the server files will not get changed by any other means, which let's face it is the majority case. Why examine hundreds or thousands of server files when I know which ones need updating: the ones that have changed locally since the last update!

J

[jazzviolin]

Can you please explain how to use this method with Yummy?  (If you have time, a step-by-step would really help.)  Thanks, sounds interesting.

[JD]

Spacific is describing other methods that could be added to Yummy FTP to achieve what you want to do. None of the described functionality already exists.

[jonnybradley]

I'd like to see this feature too (the "time filter option").

I'm evaluating Yummy FTP (and agree, it is very yummy!)

I work with a large web application and it has several thousand files, and i need to keep several remote servers updated with recent local changes.

What i am looking for is an optional sync method where it only scans local files modified since the last sync. GoLive used to do this but has sadly passed away.

I'll probably pay for Yummy when the trial runs out anyway, but please add my vote to this feature request too - thanks!

jonny

[JD]

In the current beta there is a new filter type which will allow you to only consider files/folders of a certain age, but the Mac and server files still need to be compared to decide which to transfer, if any. Is this what you wanted?

Try the beta here:

http://www.yummysoftware.com/beta/latest/YummyFTP.dmg