The following documentation will refer to folder synchronization. File catalog is not implemented yet.
Important: Misuse of the program may conduce to data loss.
Folder synchronization is done in two steps: analyze differences and then synchronize. Differences between two folders means files or folders that are present in one folder and missing in the other one or files present in both folders (with the same name) but different content. The synchronization process makes the content of one folder to be the same as the content of the other folder. The user can choose to make customized or partial synchronizations.
Analyzing two folders:
Before you start the analyze process you must select the two folders that will be compared. In FileCatsyn, these folders are called locations. The main window of the program contains two tabs. Each tab displays files and folders on your logical drives using a list view and a tree view. These tabs will help you to select the locations that you want to compare.
First click one tab and go to the folder you want to analyze. The tab label will display the path to the folder. Then click the other tab and go to the folder you want to compare with. Click Analyze Differences in the Synchronizer menu. In the Analyze Differences window you can see the locations that will be compared. You can choose to compare files by content or by date modified. Comparing files by content will take more time, but you will know for sure if two files are different. Click the Start button to begin the analyze process.
When the analyze process is complete each tab will display differences between the current location and the other location. Current location is considered the location displayed by the currently selected tab.
Analysis Legend:
New - these files or folders are present only in the current location and missing in the other one
Missing - these files or folders are missing from the current location and are present only in the other one
Modified - these files or folders are present in both locations but have different content or different date modified (for files). Different folder content means that the folder contains at least one new, modified or missing file / subfolder
Identical - these files or folders are present in both locations and have the same content or same date modified (for files)You can select Filters in the View menu to choose which files are displayed.
Synchronizing two folders:
Once the analyze process is done, you can start the synchronize process. For safety and simplicity FileCatsyn was designed to operate only to one location. So the user must pay attention to a few things before starting this operation: what is the current location, what is the other location and what type of operation is performed (commit or update). Commit operation indicates that the content of the corresponding folder from the other location will be changed to match the currently selected folder. Only the folder from the other location will be affected. Update operation indicates that the content of the currently selected folder will be changed to match the corresponding folder from the other location. Only the currently selected folder from the current location will be affected.
Click one tab and go to the folder you want to synchronize. Click Synchronize in the Synchronizer menu. The Synchronize Folders window will display the current location path. Select operation: commit or update.
Commit action:
New / modified files will be copied / overwritten to the other location. Missing files or files that are present only in the other location will be deleted from there. (The other location is affected)
Update action:
Missing / modified files will be restored from the other location. New files will be deleted from the current location. (Current location is affected)
A list of these files and folders is displayed in the Synchronize Folders window. You can select which files or folders will be included in the synchronization process by clicking the checkboxes. You can also check / uncheck all new, missing or modified files. For example you can perform an update operation and choose to keep the new files by unchecking the new box. In the end, the updated folder will contain the same files as the other folder plus its unique (new) files.
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