Each Pair in a Settings File Window has settings associated with it. These settings can be accessed by selecting a Pair in the Settings File Window, and choosing "Pair & Loner Settings..." from the Pairs menu, or just double-click on the Pair in the Settings File Window.
Here, you can specify Auto-Connect settings for the Pair, and other settings for how to deal with Loners when they are encountered. The Pair and Loner Settings Dialog is shown below:
Think of the Pair and Loner Settings Dialog as being divided in half: the icons and settings on either side mean the same things, but are applied to the Pair Item on the same "half" of the window as the icon or setting is on. The arrow icons and buttons in the center serve as a dividing line.
The icons in the upper corners are the icons for the Pair of folders/files from the Settings File Window. Indicated directly below the icon is a "flag" for whether or not the item represented by the icon could be modified. Modified means files may be updated, folders may be updated, files/folders could be created, and/or files/folders could be deleted, depending on the Synchronization Direction, and the Loner Settings. Towards the center of the upper corner file/folder icons are the full paths to where the Pair Items are located at.
Synchronization Direction
-----------------------
The arrow icons represent the Synchronization Direction, or "flow" of files. If you know that one folder of a Pair is "old" and one is "new", you can use a single direction arrow, and synchronize FROM the "new" item (tail of arrow) TO the "old" item (head of arrow). It is convenient to think of the Pair of folders broken up as one being a Source and one being a Destination. In the arrow icons, the tail of an arrow represents a Source, and the head of an arrow indicates a Destination. Only Destinations can be modified. However, if you use the 2-headed arrow, each side is considered a Source AND a Destination! So, we can only say that USUALLY a Source is NOT modified. Destinations can ALWAYS be modified, but sometimes Sources can be modified too: if the Source is also a Destination (2-headed arrow setting).
If you use the bi-directional (2-headed) arrow setting, you are allowing MacUpdate to update files in both directions. Be very careful with bi-directional operation. In most cases, you should know which Pair Item is older, and which is newer. If you must use bi-directional synchronization, be sure you pay attention to the settings for what to do with Loners. If you have both sides set to delete Loners, for example, whenever you created a new file (that would not exist in the other Pair Item), it would get deleted each time synchronization occured, because it is a Loner. Additionally, if you independently modify a particular file in both Pair Item locations, ONLY the file with the latest modification date will exist in both Pair locations after synchronization is completed.
So, be careful with bi-directional synchronization. You have been warned. Enough said.
Loners
------
Loners are files and folders that don't have a "partner" on the other side. A Source Loner does not have a corresponding file in a corresponding folder in the Destination. A Destination Loner does not have a corresponding file in a corresponding folder in the Source. Loners can come about for a variety of reasons. Most obviously, you create new files. These are then Loners on your hard disk, until you "back them up" to some Destination disk. Notice however, if you delete files from your hard disk, you are creating Loners on your backup Destination disk. MacUpdate lets you effectively manage both types of Loners, either automatically, or interactively.
On the left and right sides of the Pair and Loner Settings Dialog are a row of icons (one row on each side), representing what should be done when a Loner is found on that side. The options are displayed as text beneath the icons, so feel free to click on the various icons and then read the text to remind yourself what they mean. If you are using a single direction synchronization setup, the Loner settings icons that do not apply are disabled. Basically, you have the following options:
1. Ignore Loners: This will leave the Loner as a Loner on the side it is currently on (Source or Destination). Pretty self-explanatory: the Loner just gets skipped.
2. Ask what to do for Loners: This will give you the choice of creating a "partner" for the Loner in the Destination, deleting the Loner from the side it is currently on (the Source), or ignoring (skipping) the Loner. This option is only available if bi-directional updating is on. When updating in a single direction, there are other Loner settings available which ask appropriate questions. Read on...
3. Ask before creating a partner for the Loner in the Destination: This will give you the option of creating a partner for the Loner in the corresponding folder in the Destination, or ingoring (skipping) the Loner in the Source. This option is not available unless the Pair Item is a Source in the "flow" of files. (arrow head points to opposite side).
4. Automatically create a partner for the Loner in the Destination: This setting skips the question from 3 above, and automatically creates all Loners from the Source in the Destination. Again, this option is not available unless the Pair Item is a Source.
5. Ask before deleting the Loner in the Destintion: This will give you the option of deleting the Loner in the Destination, or ingoring (skipping) the Loner. This option is not available unless the Pair Item is a Destination in the "flow" of files (arrow head points to that side).
6. Automatically delete the Loner in the Destination: This setting skips the question from 5 above, and automatically deletes all Loners in the Destination. Again, this option is not available unless the Pair Item is a Destination.
If you're after automation, you probably want to use either options 1, 4, or 6. Otherwise, synchronization will be interupted when Loners are encountered. If, however, you are unsure of what you created and what you deleted where, you'll want to use options 2, 3, or 5 so you can control each individual Loner, as MacUpdate encounters them.
Replace Newer Files
------------------
The checkbox labeled Replace Newer Files is only enabled on the Destination side when a single-directional synchronization setup is used. This checkbox is always disabled on the Source side, and is disabled on both sides when using the bi-directional Synchronization Direction setting.
Checking this checkbox makes MacUpdate replace newer files in the Destination with the corresponding older files from the Source. This can be useful if you are an administrator of "public" Macs (like at a school, for example). The problem with public Macs is that Macs are so easy to use, sometimes users change settings on files they shouldn't. Use of the Replace Newer Files option makes restoring these settings from a "reference" Mac very easy.
Note that if a file from the Source has the same modification date and file size as the corresponding file from the Destination, MacUpdate leaves the file alone.
Note that file size and file type mismatches are automatically resolved by using this option. The single Source indicates how to resolve mismatches: The Destination item will be updated to look like the Source item.
Note if the above scenario fits your case, be aware that users may create files (which will end up being Loners). To really keep a public Mac identical to a referece Mac, you may also consider using the Delete Loners option on the Destination in addition to the Force Replace All option.
Auto-Connect
------------
Near the bottom on either side of the Pair and Loner Settings Dialog are checkboxes to Auto-Connect, and Auto-Disconnect. This could be useful if you are working with network (AppleShare) volumes. When the Auto-Connect checkbox is on, the Auto-Disconnect checkbox and the User ID and Password button become enabled. You use Auto-Connect to bypass the Chooser (where you have to manually type in your User ID and Password). Auto-Disconnect, then, is like automatically dragging the disk to the trash (in AppleShare, to "put away" the network volume) after synchronization is complete. You use the User ID and Password buttons to set the Chooser User ID and Password, if you are logging on as a Registered User. If you're connecting as a Guest, leave the User ID and Password blank, or empty.
Auto-Connect and Auto-Disconnect are particularly useful when used with the Synchronize All when Document is Opened setting from the Synchronization Settings Dialog, mentioned earlier in this document. Used in combination, this can make synchronizing a set of Paired network volumes (and any local volumes that happen to be convenient) as easy as one double-click on the Settings File icon in the Finder (or, an Apple Event sent from an AppleScript, or an auto-synchronize at startup by placing an alias to a Settings File in the Startup Items folder inside the System Folder). Be sure to check out the documentation titled "Automation Users Manual" if you are interested in automating MacUpdate even further.
Other Pair Settings
------------------
You can access the Other Pair Settings Dialog by clicking on the Setting button in the Pair and Loner Settings Dialog. Each Pair in the Setting File window has Other Pair Settings associated with it. The Other Pair Settings Dialog is shown below:
This dialog lets you specify what to do when MacUpdate encounters a file that needs to be updated, but is locked. There are 3 options: (1) Ignore (Skip) the File, which will result in the file not being updated (because it is locked, this makes sense in many cases), (2) Ask what to do, which will prompt you for what action to take, and (3) automatically Unlock and Update the file. If option 3 is chosen, there are 3 more choices for what to do with the file after it is finished being updated. The file may remain unlocked, may be re-locked, or may be set to the same locked status as the source file.
In addition to updating locked files, you can also set your preference for deleting locked Loner files. Of course, this option is only applicable if you have configured Pair and Loner Settings to automatically delete Loner files, to ask before deleting Loner files, or to ask what to do with Loner files. There are 3 options: (1) Ignore (Skip) the file, which will result in the file not being deleted (because it is locked, this makes sense in many cases), (2) Ask what to do, which will prompt you for what action to take and (3) automatically Unlock and Delete the file.
Clicking on the Criteria button brings up the Criteria Dialog for the selected Pair. Criteria is explained in detail below.
Exceptions Window
-----------------
The Exceptions Window is only displayed if Exceptions are present after Synchronization is complete (as much as possible anyway -- the Exceptions aren't synchronized yet). A typical Exceptions Window is shown below:
At the far left is a single character that indicates what kind of Exception the item is. A "#" indicates an error of some sort, either detected prior to Synchronization (type mismatch, for example), or during Synchronization (ran out of disk space, for example). A "?" indicates the user needs to answer a question (OK to Create Loners, Delete Loners, or Update Locked Files). When the user answers "OK" to one of these questions, the "?" changes to a "•" to indicate the question has been answered.
Also displayed for each Exception is the icon and name of the affected item, as well as a short description of what caused the Exception.
You can double-click on a list item to get a little more information about it. You must double-click on "?" items to get presented an Alert from which you may answer the question. Note clicking on "Ignore" or "Skip" for these questions does not result in the "?" being changed to a "•". You may elect to process an Ignored or Skipped Exception at a later time.
Preferences
-----------
The Preferences Dialog is displayed when you choose "Preferences" from the File menu. There are multiple "panes" in the Preferences Dialog. Each Pane is shown and described below:
When you make changes, the Save Changes and Revert buttons will become enabled. The Factory Settings button restores settings to those shown in this document.
The Performance Pane lets you adjust how well-behaved MacUpdate is in the foreground and background. You can ask MacUpdate to be a "CPU Hog", or to be "Giving" when it comes to co-operatively working with other programs you are running.
There is a delay for display of the progress window. You can adjust it here. The delay is to keep the progress window from "flashing" on the screen and then right back off if only a small number of items are processed.
You can also set how quickly to animate the cursor during processing operations, and you can select from a number of animation styles.
The Security Pane Lets you Password Protect different operations in MacUpdate. Password Protection is only enabled if the Enable Password Protection checkbox is checked, and one of the checkboxes below it are checked.
When you Change Passwords, you will first be prompted for the "old" (current) password. The password is initially set to: ZUGSPITZ
Note that passwords *are* case sensitive.
The Documents Pane lets you adjust settings that affect the Settings Files that MacUpdate uses.
When MacUpdate first starts up, you can configure it to create a New Untitled Document, or to present the File Selection Dialog. The default is to do nothing.
In the File Selection Dialog, you can elect to include or omit a New button which will create a New Settings File instead of opening an existing Settings File.
Finally, you can elect to save window screen position and/or page setup information inside Settings Files.
Criteria
-------
You can access the Criteria Dialog by clicking on the Criteria button in the Other Pair Settings Dialog, or by option-double-clicking on a Pair in the Settings File Window (hold down the option key while you double-click). Each Pair in the Setting File window has Criteria settings associated with it. The Criteria Dialog is shown below:
The Criteria Dialog and Criteria Settings for a Pair default to allow everything except invisible files be synchronized.
Notice this dialog is divided into three sections with horizontal lines. The top section lets you specify criteria for inclusion in the synchronization process. This section is modeled after the Finder's "Find" command window, which lets you specify criteria in a similar manner. The middle section lets you specify file types and/or creators to be filtered in or out during the synchronization process. These top two sections work independently of each other, so you really have two sequential filters. Details of these two sections are described in the documentation titled "Criteria" below.
The bottom section contains "global" settings for what to process. The Include Folder checkbox should be checked unless you do NOT want to synchronize sub-folders from a folder Pair (only the files located directly in the folder Pair). The Include Files checkbox should ALWAYS be checked, unless you just want to duplicate a directory structure, without actually copying any files, or you only want to synchronize folder custom icons, or folder information.
Note if you want to duplicate a directory structure, be sure to un-check the Exclude Empty Folders checkbox (since all the folders will be empty - no files included).
The Include Invisibles checkbox should be un-checked unless you want to process invisible items (they will remain invisible in the Destination).
The Exclude Empty Folders checkbox defaults to being checked. This is useful if you have Loner folders on a Source, and you are using Criteria: if nothing in the Loner folder meets the specified Criteria, the folder will still be created on the Destination, even though it will be empty (since no items from the folder on the Source met Criteria). Checking the Exclude Empty Folders checkbox will delete these folders that are created, but have no items in them that match Criteria.
Notice you can save Criteria Settings to disk (the Save As... button) and open them up at a later time (the Open... button). This can be a real timesaver if you use the same complicated criteria on multiple Pairs.
Criteria
-------
As noted above, the Criteria Dialog is divided into three sections. We will look at the three sections independently, starting with the Criteria section:
At the very top of this section is a checkbox that turns Criteria on and off named Use Attribute Criteria. If you turn Criteria on by checking this checkbox, you must also select one of the radio buttons to the right of the checkbox to tell MacUpdate whether you want the Criteria applied to files, folders, or both files and folders.
Using the Files Only options results in all folders being processed, but only the files that meet the specified Criteria within those folders will be synchronized.
Using the Folders Only option means that only folders that meet the specified Criteria will be processed. All of the files in any folder that meets Criteria will be synchronized. This is useful, for example, if you append at the end of folders to be updated the text ".BACKUP". Then all files in any folder that ends with ".BACKUP" will be synchronized.
Using the Both option means that both the file to be synchronized and it's parent (containing) folder must meet Criteria in order to have MacUpdate synchronize the file.
The two checkboxes at the bottom of this section, Re-Apply Criteria to Sub-Folders of Folders that meet Criteria, and Exclude all Sub-Folders in any Folder that does not meet Criteria, are only enabled if the Folders Only or Both option are chosen. If one of these two options are chosen, it means that Criteria will be applied to Folders. In this case, MacUpdate needs to know a little bit more information about how to process Folders that do and do not meet Criteria.
Here's the basic gist of it: Let's say you are using Criteria as shown in the picture above (Name ends with .BACKUP, applied to Folders Only). Now imagine you have a folder named "MyStuff.BACKUP". Inside of this folder, you keep many files, and other sub-folders with all your important data. Let's also say that the sub-folders in "MyStuff.BACKUP" do *not* have the ".BACKUP" extension on them. What should MacUpdate do? There are two possibilities: (1) Re-Apply the Criteria to the sub-folders. In this case, the sub-folders would *not* be synchronized, becuase they do not meet the Criteria that was (re-)applied. (2) Don't re-apply the Criteria, and just go ahead and synchronize the sub-folders, since the parent folder met Criteria.
The other side of this dilemma is what to do when a folder does *not* meet Criteria: Should MacUpdate: (1) exclude all sub-folders within the folder that did not meet Criteria (even if some of the sub-folders meet Criteria), or (2) continue processing sub-folders in case a sub-folder that *does* meet Criteria is found? Your answer to that question will determine whether or not you check the Exclude all Sub-Folders in any Folder that does not meet Criteria checkbox.
Criteria Type
------------
Shown below is the Criteria Type popup menu:
This menu lets you choose exactly what you want MacUpdate to look at when evaluating Criteria. Name and Label are particularly useful. Note there is an editable text section where you enter the actual Criteria you are looking for. In the example above, this is filled in with ".BACKUP", so any folders whose name ends in ".BACKUP" will be included in synchronization. If you use the Lock Criteria Type, there is no editable text. You just chose either "Locked" or "Unlocked" from the Criteria Qualifier popup menu.
Criteria Qualifier
----------------
Each Criteria Type has it's own Criteria Qualifier popup menu. The Criteria Qualifier popup menus are shown below:
Menu 1 is for Name, 2 is for Size, 3 is for Kind and Comments, 4 is for Label, 5 is for Date Created, Date Modified, and Version, and 6 is for Lock.
If you use the Label Criteria Type, the editable text is replaced with the Label popup menu. Note that the Label colors are not reflected in this menu, only the Label names. The Label popup menu is shown below:
By using the Label Criteria Type, you can color-code the items you want to be synchronized with a particular label, and let MacUpdate do the rest. Any items that are not labeled with your specified label will be skipped. Only the items labeled with your specified label will be synchronized.
Type Filter
----------
The next section is the Type Filter Section:
If Any Type is selected, all the other options in this section are disabled. To use the Type Filter, you have to select Only Specified, and then one of either Include or Exclude. The Type Filter can be set up to either ignore (Exclude) or process (Include) files that are in the type list. The Type List shows the types that are in the Type Filter on the right-hand side of this section.
Types and Creator Codes
----------------------
You can remove a type by selecting it in the Type List, and clicking on the Remove button. When you click on the Add button to add a new type, you will be presented with the Type Creator Specification Dialog, shown below:
If you're a power user, you may already know about Types and Creator Codes. If not, here's a quick overview:
Each program on your Mac has a Creator Code associated with it. For the files that an application creates, it sets the files' Creator Code to the program's Creator Code. For example, TeachText's Creator Code (from the picture above) is 'ttxt'. Other examples include MS Word ('MSWD') and MS Excel ('XCEL'). Notice Types and Creator Codes are always 4 characters, no more, no less. The Type code is used by a program to identify the different kinds of file types the program interacts with. For example, MS Word knows about text files ('TEXT'), MS Word files ('WDBN'), it's own preference file ('PREF'), dictionaries ('DICT'), and lots of others. Each combination of Type and Creator Code has it's own icon associated with it in the Mac's Desktop Database.
OK, enough of the overview. There is lots more information on Types and Creator Codes at other locations (check Apple's WWW site as a good place to start).
If you know the Type and Creator Code you are interested in Including or Excluding, you can just type them right it. If you don't know the codes off-hand, or if all of this discussion of codes seems like mumbo jumbo, you should use the Select File button, which will let you select a "sample" file and extract the Type and Creator Code from the file you select.
So, for example, if you want to exclude Netscape Cache files, Add a new Type to the Type Filter, and when you get to the Type Creator Specification Dialog, click on Select File and then find one of those Netscape Cache files that you want to exclude. MacUpdate will automatically figure out the Type and Creator code when you select the file.
Global Settings
--------------
The bottom section is the Global Settings Section:
The bottom section contains "global" settings for what to process. The Include Folder checkbox should be checked unless you do NOT want to synchronize sub-folders from a folder Pair (only the files located directly in the folder Pair). The Include Files checkbox should ALWAYS be checked, unless you just want to duplicate a directory structure, without actually copying any files, or you only want to synchronize folder custom icons, or folder information.
The Include Invisibles checkbox should be un-checked unless you want to process invisible items (they will remain invisible in the Destination). The Exclude Empty Folders checkbox defaults to being checked. This is useful if you have Loner folders on a Source, and you are using Criteria: if nothing in the Loner folder meets the specified Criteria, the folder will still be created on the Destination, even though it will be empty (since no items from the folder on the Source met Criteria). Checking the Exclude Empty Folders checkbox will delete these folders that are created, but have no items in them that match Criteria.
Notice you can save Criteria Settings to disk (the Save As... button) and open them up at a later time (the Open... button). This can be a real timesaver if you use the same complicated criteria on multiple Pairs.
