Zip / archive integration into explorer view?

[Cornelius]

One of the features for registered viewers of BC 1.9, I believe, was the ability to perform comparisons on zip files using only their internal CRC's, rather than a binary compare. In version 2.x, I can open 2 different zips, and the file viewer says their the same, but a binary comparison shows them as dissimilar.

Is there any way to get BC2 to perform quick-compares between 2 directories without having to open EACH ... SINGLE ... ZIP ... FILE in order to see they're the same?

Cornelius

[Craig]

BC 1 didn't have any zip functionality, so you may be remembering a different program.

If you want BC2 to compare the files within the zips automatically, go into Session menu, select Comparison Control, and switch to the Advanced panel in the new dialog. There's an option named Always treat archive files as folders which will control that.

[Cornelius]

Something is inherently wrong with archive comparison ...
1) When I choose to treat archives as folders, and choose the expand button, I expect the ZIP file to expand & show me the contents within (doesn't happen in 2.1.2.216). In any case, "treat archives as folders" didn't have any noticable effect.
2) If I take a ZIP file, copy it to another directory, add a file to 1 of the ZIP's, then quick-compare them using CRC, the program says they're equal. Double-clicking on the file shows the same thing. That's just wrong.
3) The program can supposedly compare CRC's within RAR's, but I can't quick compare them (they show as dissimilar), and now that I've found #2, my faith has slowly dwindled.

I'm not mistaken about version 1 ... at one time, there was a plug-in to compare ZIP's, but I guess it's no longer available.

My last question would be ... why did you guys go to Delphi from whatever version 1.9 was written in? Maybe it's just me, but the program feels considerably slower, and takes much longer to perform comparisons.

[Craig]

I'll try to be complete, but I'm not quite sure what's going on. I may have better luck if you send an email to support@scootersoftware.com with the Help|Support dump and some screenshots showing what you're describing.
Supported zip formats should show up as a folder with a z on it, which you can double click to expand. Treat archives as folders makes them react completely like folders, so they'll react to an expand all command; if you perform a hard refresh (Ctrl-F5) they should sort at the top with the folders too. If the zips aren't showing up that way they may not be a supported format.

What are you using to copy the zip and add files to it? If you're changing the zip outside of BC it may not have noticed the update, and a refresh (F5) should solve the problem. I just did a simple test and BC did detect the new files without a refresh, but I can't do anything more complex without more details.

Beyond Compare does not support RAR files as archives and never has. We support zip, tar, gz, and cab, plus the Java-zips (jar, ear, war).
I don't want to be argumentative about your v1 comments, but I think you're thinking of Side-by-side/OmniSync, by Accel Software, which appears to be discontinued. It's the only competitor I know of that supported zip comparisons in that time frame.

Beyond Compare has always been written in Delphi, from v1.0 on, and did not support zip comparisons until v2.
The plug-in interface was pretty simple in v1 too, so there wouldn't have been any way for a third-party to add zip support either. The comparison speed should be the same or faster than v1, but it can feel a little slow opening a folder for the first time because the display doesn't update right away.

[Cornelius]

I redownloaded, and it seems to work OK ... sorry for the troubles!

Except I just learned that the program can't delete corrupt ZIP files when "treat archives as folders" is enabled. I select the collapsed zip/folder, hit delete, hit OK, and I get the message it's a corrupt archive.