File Buddy 8 Droplets

Droplets are back, rewritten from scratch and better than ever for File Buddy 8. The new Droplets work differently than those in previous versions of File Buddy as described here.

How File Buddy 8 Droplets Differ From Their Predecessors

Droplets created by previous versions of File Buddy contained code used to perform the changes they were created to make. In contrast, File Buddy 8 Droplets pass files dragged to them onto File Buddy along with the information File Buddy needs to process the files. What this means to you:

- Droplets will always launch and quit almost instantly, as if they haven't done anything, no matter how many items you drag to one for processing. This is normal.

- If File Buddy is not running when the items are dropped on the Droplet, File Buddy will launch to process them. File Buddy does not quit after processing the items if launched by a droplet.

- Droplets “process” items with the same privileges as File Buddy since it's actually File Buddy which does the processing. Consequently, if a droplet action requires administrative privileges, be sure you've enabled administrator mode in File Buddy prior to using the droplet.

- Droplets are smaller because they don't need to duplicate code which is already in File Buddy.

Other changes in Droplets:

- Droplets are now configured in the same window used to display their scheduled changes, eliminating the extra step of opening a second window to configure a droplet.

- File Buddy displays a progress window while the items dropped on a Droplet are being processed.

Please Note

- File Buddy 8's Droplets are a completely new implementation from the ground up, so if you observe any problems of any kind with the new droplets, please report them so we can address them.

- Believe it or not, save file dialogs in Mac OS X 10.3 are still not smart enough to deal with name conflicts when the existing item is a package. As a result, we suggest:

a) It's a well-known problem – even to Apple – and has been since Mac OS X 10.0.

b) Every approach to dealing with the problem has its downside and we're still trying to decide which workaround will provide the best experience for our users.

c) When naming a new Droplet in the save file dialog, just be sure to give it a name which doesn't conflict with any existing items in the same folder to avoid any confusion.