Sources

Intro

A source is one of the folders you need to synchronize.
Actually it may any valid local folder (like "c:\") or UNC folder (like "\\server1\shared\").

You can add one or by clicking Sources->Add from menu or from the toolbar, or by dropping folders directly from Explorer.
If you drag a file, the program gets its folder as a source. If a folder is already included into a source, it's ignored.

Property Dialog

When you insert a new folder or edit an existing one the following dialog will pop up.

When you press OK button, the program tries to verify the given folder.  It must not be included into another source.

Source Path	The folder you need to synchronize. Actually you can only use local or (UNC) remote folders. To fill it, you can type the value in it, or simply by using the Browse button. Sometimes it's possible that, you can't locate a network folder by browsing it.  Try to explore it, and when you have found it, you can paste the proper path into its dialog field.
Explore	If you wish to peek into the folder, just click the Explore button and and explorer window will pop up (only if the folder exist).
File/Folder Masks	This filters the files and/or the folders you want to care. "*.txt" will care every file with .txt extension, while "*.txt;a*.*" will care the previous ones and every file with its name starting by 'a'. The first row is the mask of the files you want to care about, the second is the mask to exclude files taken by the previous one. Note that the source will not handle the "not included" and excluded files at all (i.e. the source will ignore them even if they are present elsewhere). If you double-click, click '...' button, or press F2, an input helper will pop up (the window to the right). In this dialog you can easily edit the Masks items (one item per row).
Flags	Allow item Creating Allow item Reading Allow item Writing These flags handles what the analysis process can assume or not. These will be very handy in all cases you wish a read only folder, or an update-only folder and so on. Use Binaries' Version Infos Enable binaries' Version Infos handling. This will improve binaries file comparison but it affect the analysis speed. Use NULL Version Infos By checking this, the comparison cares about version infos even if they aren't present in both items.  More details are explained here.
Max Folder Level	This is the maximum folder level you need to recurse.
Use temp. Files	This rules on temporary file usage during the synchronization process. Actually you have 3 options: The first one is not using them at all.  It's quicker and it takes less storage space, but if the folder has a problem and the copy is not complete, you will loose the original file. The second is using them always. It is slower and it takes more storage space, but it is safer indeed. This because if any trouble occurs, your original file is preserved until the copy of the newer is complete. The third option is to specify an upper limit to use them.  This should be a good compromise between files' integrity and the available storage space. The temporary files will be used for the smaller ones only. You can express this limit in bytes, in kilobytes (by adding a 'k'), in megabytes ('m'), in gigabytes ('g').
Use Bin. Ver. Infos	This enable/disable the file version handling.  Using it will improve binaries file comparison but it affect the analysis speed. Remember, a file without version infos is considered always older than a file with these infos.  So, if you are in need to disable it in one source, it's better to do it in all other sources too.

Note: whenever you change source's options, you will loose all its collected data and you will have to analyze sources' contents again.

Handling the Sources

After having setup all the needed sources, there are things we can do with them.

The first one is the order them from the quickest (usually local folders) from the slowest.
Although the program should catalog the source type, the order may have some effect on choosing file newest candidate (if there are many copies of it).
The source order is recorded into the program data files.

If a source doesn't need to be updated very frequently (a slow device, a removable disk, a mobile PC), it can be disabled.
Disabled sources are simply ignored (no analysis, no synchronization).
This status is recorded into the program data files.

If we need to synchronize the source, we have to analyze them.
After this task, the source is filled with source's contents stats data.
Once filled a source will not be analyzed again.  To force it, we can invalidate source data.
This allows to do something like to load and analyze all the enabled sources, enabling a disabled one and analyze it too (without processing the filled ones anymore).

Finally if we need to see and alter the source result, we can always use the Source Result Viewer window.