- Textastic for iOS
- iPad
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Questions
ftp folder sync
Not sure whether this is a question or a feature request but here goes:
My workflow; sftp server (mac-mini) files to ipad, edit using textastic, upload changes to server and run against node using ssh and the prompt app. test the changes using ios safari.
The part that works less well for me is trying to keep the server in sync. Is there an easy way to manage [added|deleted] [files|folders]? I am thinking a sync button which i can associate with a folder and it uses the local copy as the master (only local changes occur).
If this isn't currently possible then might i suggest a queue of pending ftp commands which watches for local changes? This could be managed by setting a folder as a "project" and then the "project" button could show a list of projects with an option to upload or download (completely replace local copy).
A spin off of this could be the ability to launch the preview browser in remote mode at the index.html of the project. This would save me app switching.
Or do i have the workflow all wrong?
Customer support service by UserEcho
Currently, the best way is probably to use the quick upload feature (http://www.textasticapp.com/v4/manual/lessons/How_can_I_quickly_upload_downloaded_files.html) to immediately upload your changes after you made them.
I plan to add a feature in a future version that allows you to work live on a remote server which automatically handles uploading and downloading of files transparently for the user.
thanks for the quick reply, great app btw.
will the "work live" feature handle;
1. adding & deleting, files & folders?
2. if it is "transparent" to the user will you include some indication that either syncing is in progress or has completed, otherwise i'd start node never quite sure what source it had
It would be a useful feature because currently it can get very confusing. Is there a time frame for this feature?
In this case, you would just browse files on the remote server. If you want to edit a file, Textastic downloads the file and let's you edit it. If you are done, you can either save or discard your changes. Saving would upload the file to the server.
Since you are working on the remote server, deleting a file would delete it on the remote server. You would also be able to add files and folders.
I'm currently focusing on iCloud support which will be available in the next update. I plan to add live editing for the version after that. I can't tell you right now how long it's going to take to implement.
thanks for the info, guess i'll just have to be more organised until then!
what you are suggesting sounds much simpler and would be perfect for my use case.
good luck with icloud, i havn't had that pleasure yet (thankfully).
Was working live on a file server ever implemented? I can't seem to find any information on it. It's very convenient to have changes immediately propagated to Clone or Working Copy, but I would like to test my work somewhere before committing to git.
Similar use case here. I would like to have code changes automatically propagated to a running application hosted in the cloud (in my case, Ruby on Rails, which picks up file changes on-the-fly in development mode). Something similar to lsyncd (https://github.com/axkibe/lsyncd) would be perfect. This gives me a desktop-like workflow but using scalable cloud resources instead of local processing power.
Note that lsyncd typically uses rsync and ssh. OS X source for rsync is available at https://opensource.apple.com/source/rsync/rsync-52.200.1/. Not sure how hard this would be to port to iOS, but probably a better starting point than the original rsync source.
This is somewhat related: I prefer to have a copy of my code (physics simulation) on my ipad in case I want to look something up. I have a folder on a sftp-Server which contains a clean checkout of the git repository. While I can easily download the whole folder with textastic is there a convenient way to update it? I don't need an automatic update I just do not want to have to download the newest version of every single file but let textastic updated all the files in the folder with the latest version from the server. So basically it comes down to the quick download for a folder.
Occasionally I do updates on my ipad but I can take care of the uploading myself.
BTW: Is there a way to exclude some files when downloading a whole folder? I don't need the .git/ on my iPad.
Thanks for sharing your use case. Currently there is no way to exclude certain files. There's a separate feedback entry for this at http://feedback.textasticapp.com/topic/107275-filter-exclude-files-to-download/