My wish-list: in binary comparison, show the status icon also for directories.

[RodolfoGiovanninetti]

Right now I am using B.C. 4.1.1 to do a folder comparison of three folders on the right and of their backup on the left.
Each of these three main folders has some folders inside it, and each of these sub-folders has some documents inside.
I select the three main folders and then I start a binary comparison of three main folders, sub-folders and documents.
Files that have already been compared are marked with the icon that says that they are the same.
But I do not see anything at the folder level.
If it were possible to mark a folder as the same, meaning that ALL contents are the same, I could see the situation already at the top level, instead of expanding.
Is it possible to add this feature?


Thank You and regards

Rodolfo Giovanninetti

[GregM]

Files that have already been compared are marked with the icon that says that they are the same.
But I do not see anything at the folder level.
If it were possible to mark a folder as the same, meaning that ALL contents are the same, I could see the situation already at the top level, instead of expanding.
Is it possible to add this feature?

Differences within folders are indicated by the icon color. Since the folders are black, there are no changes. If there were differences, they'd be red, or if there were orphans, they'd be blue.

[Aaron]

As Greg mentions, the Folder Color inherits the colors of the items within. If there are differences within the folders, this propagates up to the folder. The comparison scan used (content or otherwise) determines the file colors, so this goes back up to the folder level. Marking the folders with a comparison icon isn't accurate since folders can't actually be Binary equal, but it might be useful to know if a content scan has been run without expanding the folder; I'll add these notes to our wishlist.

[RodolfoGiovanninetti]

Thank You Greg and Aaron. The only "issue" with the black colour is that B.C. marks the two folders (and also files) as same since the beginning, "just" because of dates, times, and sizes are the same. So, I cannot use it for my test. If I do a binary comparison it is because I want to be sure that data is the same on both sides. Aaron, thank You for adding this subject to the wish-list.

Thank You again and regards

Rodolfo Giovanninetti

[GregM]

Interesting, it used to leave the folders as yellow when it hadn't done a comparison yet. Is it no longer doing that?

[Aaron]

No, that's still the same. Unscanned folders are Yellow, and folders to be scanned are White/blank. Rodolfo would like to know, at a glance, if a content comparison has been run on a folder without needing to expand the folder. We currently update the folder's color, but there isn't a graphic representation that a content scan has been run on all/some of the items within. It's not a quick design change, as we wouldn't want to show Binary Equal or Different if only a subset of items have been scanned, but it's something we've been considering. Something as helpful as the little icon between files showing the content scan results.

[GregM]

Ah, I think I have it now, the colors have already been updated because there was a non-content comparison (size/timestamp), so there's no way to tell if a content comparison has been done by just the colors.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Sort of. If you then enable a content scan after a timestamp/size scan has run, BC4 would remove the folder colors while the scan runs and re-populate it. However, if you are loading a saved session, there isn't a visual indicator on the main screen on if you've customized the session to run a content scan or if it is running the default timestamp/size scan. Currently, you have look at the files themselves to see if the center column displays content scan results, or double check the Session Settings dialog to see how the comparison is set.

[RodolfoGiovanninetti]

Right in this moment I have not here the folders for which I found this "issue", and it would be difficult for me to get back the disks with data, but I remember this.
I started the folder comparison, I expanded folders and sub-folders on both sides and everything, folders, sub-folders and files was black, because they were considered the same, because sizes and time-stamps were equal.
Then I started a binary comparison.
During the binary comparison the folders, the sub-folders and the files did NOT go back to yellow, they stayed black.
If they had gone back to yellow, and then if they had been marked as black after the binary comparison, then I would be satisfied, because I could check that a top level folder is black and so I could know that its contents are binary the same.
I still keep my wish-list as a better solution. If two files are black, but have not the icon that says that they are binary the same, I can see that they are the same for generic rules, size and time-stamp. Once they have been binary compared, the icon says that they are the same also for their binary content.


Regards

Rodolfo Giovanninetti

[Aaron]

Hello,

Once you start a Content scan, the items in the scan revert to a white/blank state. The scan can complete very quickly if there are not many items in the folder, so it would then re-update to black if all items within are found to be equal again.

[RodolfoGiovanninetti]

This is not what I saw, but maybe I am wrong, so please let me check again if I understand what You mean.
STEP 1
I start the folder comparison according to sizes and time-stamps.
I expand all / open sub-folders.
Everything, folders, sub-folders, files, are marked in black as they are the same (and this is correct).
I select the three main folders on both sides, and then start a binary comparison.
STEP 2
In this moment, WHILE the binary comparison is running, You mean that folders and sub-folders and files should go back to an unknown state, and they should become black again only after their binary comparison has been completed and each pair is seen as equal?
If this is what You mean, this is not what I saw.
I start a first comparison based on sizes and on timestamps, as in STEP 1.
So, now everything is black.
I start a binary comparison.
Everything is kept black.
In addition, when the binary comparison find that two files are equal, it marks them with an icon.
Tomorrow I fill try to find the time and the resources (disks) to compare some big files, to get a screen shot while the binary comparison is running.


Regards

Rodolfo Giovanninetti

[Aaron]

Hello,

Ah, thanks. Sorry about the mistake on my part. I double checked and when we run the Compare Contents command on a sub-selection of data the color isn't thrown out; instead we show the Progress Bar to show the status of the scan. If you update the Session Settings dialog, Comparison tab, this would revert colors then update them.