GS Design Just another developer blog

The problem

If you are developing or using remote files you might be interested in services like dropbox witch allow you to copy a file in a folder in your computer and have it uploaded to a remote location. I personally love dropbox and usit as a back-up & sharing that i can access from multiple locations. I store my password manager software on it for example

But services like dropbox dont solve all your problems since sometimes you might want to sincronize to a location of your choise, like a FTP server.

This really comes in handy when you develop web application on a server you installed on your computer. I personally dont do it because of 2 reasons:
1. i have to remember to upload the copy to the remote server
Cant really show the client from my computer or have it stored on a stick with a portable webserver.
Also, having the last copy online is good when you might login and do modifications from multiple computers.

2. compatibility issues
There is always the possibility of the application working on my computer and not on the server. This is both due to the difference in OS but also in the serves configurations.

But i can see the advantage of having application developed locally. The most important would be speed ( saving files and viewing the website ), also not depending on the internet connection ( yes, e i get that sometimes, at night, probably from all the guys logging in to download torrents & porn ).

The solution

Well i recently discovered a really handy piece of software that solve my first problem. Its called
Fling FTP Software and is a powerful ftp program that allows you to synchronize a local folder with an remote one by using FTP.

The cool feature about it is that it integrates really well with your Windows explorer.

Also you have several options of synchronization, including sync between hardisks, network folders and flash sticks.

The way fling works is you setup rules for each folders you want to sync.
This is done in 2 steps:
1. You setup the source and destination folder

1. You setup the scanning options
Here you have the options of telling fling when you want the transfers to be executed and in which way. You have options to do it manually, automatically or at preset intervals. You can also specify witch is the primary source ( when files are conflicting witch one to keep )

I find this software really useful and another cool feature about it : Fling is completely free.

Download Fling FTP Software 2.02

Cheers

If you are a developer than you are well aware of the importance of testing your applications, and i dont mean testing it your self since that is really not going to be very helpful beyond the development stage.

Since you ( or your team ) have build this application you will not be tester, since you already know how the application will perform. The best thing to do is to do a test with more subjects, of all knowledge levels if possible and give them a series of events and tasks to perform to see how the application handles and how easy it is for them to perform those tasks.

I found that in all test groups there is always a “bird brain” (as the speaker in the presentation reffered to it) that will execute a series of actions that will crash your application (usually things you havent thought of anybody doing). Although some developers hate those type of testers ( how the F did you managed to get there) i like them. At my old job i used to have a secretary that would find any bug i might have overlooked in a matter of minutes, just by clicking around ).

Anyway, the point i was trying to make ( beside the fact that testing is important ) is that human driven tests although very creative at times, have a few limitations and will not managed to test the full amount of possibilities. And above this will take quite a few resources ( human and financially ) to execute this tests, and they cant be reused if the application changes.

So there are some really smart persons that are looking into making an automated system for testing web applications. Some the research in this field are also done by microsoft ( this is a small inside info for all those microsoft haters ).

I am not going to go into much more details and let you watch the presentation.
Enjoy.