FTP Uploader Panel for Desktop Sidebar
Version 1.5 released on November 4th, 2005.
Download from the Extension Exchange.

Version 1.5 includes:

• Ability to change the idle text.
• Added antu's multiple-sized icons as a zip file. In order to use them, extract the zip file called "Additional Icons", choose the desired icon size (16*16, 32*32, 48*48), copy the icons to the installed directory (usually %appdata%\Desktop Sidebar\plugins\FTPUploaderPanel) and rename them to upFinish.png and uping.png.

Version 1.4 includes: (Semptember 1st, 2005)

• Validation of connecting details after editing them in the Panel Properties dialog.
• Added a button to clear log in the Panel Properties dialog.
• Several bug fixes and improvements.

Version 1.3 includes: (August 16th, 2005)

• No more flickering, thanks to GoMa.
• Click on the panel to get a dialog box in order to choose files to upload.
• Fixed a bug in the icon system. Not major, but I'm a perfectionist.

Version 1.2 includes: (August 14th, 2005)

• Log was added - see it in the details window.
• Several bug fixes and improvements.

Version 1.0 includes: (August 13rd, 2005)

• Specify FTP server, user name, password and remote path to connection.
• Drop files into the panel in order to upload them.
• Supports multiply files and folders.

The password is saved insecurely in the DS settings file. If it bothers you, please write to me. I'll remove the password then.

Hope you'll enjoy it.

Nice idea I don't use servers but I guess many people do. Just a suggestion to make it look cooler - I would add a small icon near the text like the earth icon at Icon Galore. It's free and looks cool - might give you some more points

Yep. I thought about it right after the release. Next version perhaps.

OK. I've updated the package with some graphics. This shall be called version 1.0.1.

The pictures aren't very nice (where's antu when I need him... ), but they'll do it.

I think the icons from Icon Galore are really good. But antu's work is definitely great too

I haven't tried this panel yet but I'm sure it's good



Will this do? Made out of some XP icons and slapped em together



Icons are here

[Attachment removed]

They're great, but I need also an "idle" icon, when the panel doesn't do anything.
Thanks.

I agree, but they supply only few icons... I wish everything there was free...

OK. Try antu's icon then - it looks nice

The panel works fine! Nice job!
Can you display the error if it fails (e.g. not enough room on server)?
Oh, and you should at least indicate that the password is saved insecurely in the settings file.

Thanks.
The panel should display errors after failure. Doesn't it work for you?
Damn it. It was 2AM and I knew I had forgotten something.

It displays "Failed to upload file..." but not the specific error.
Three small display issues:
1) The panel flickers when the mouse is moved quickly into and out of it.
2) You should have an "uploading" icon that will be displayed when uploading files.
3) When the panel successfully uploads a file it momentarily displays the red "fail" icon and only then switches to the blue "success" icon.

It does display some errors though (such as "failed to set current directory" when the directory does not exist).

Errors: That's what I get from the interface I'm using. Anyway, this panel ment to upload files, not to manage your server.

1. Do you know how I can reduce the flickering?
2 + 3. Actually, the red icon means "uploading" and the blue one means "idle".
I'm sorry if it's not clear. I hope antu's icons would be more self-explanatory than mine.

Fine then.

I don't know how it's done in C++, sorry.

Oh, I understand. My fault.

How is it done in C#?

http://www.desktopsidebar.com/forums/index...indpost&p=17482

You can ask in other forums, like Neowin, how it's being done in C++.

Second attempt Additional two icon are drawn from scratch (<-- is this correct? ) past few hours ago. Inspired by some icon that I have. Maybe it's not suitable for this panel but you can use em for something else

What's in the package:
- 3 icons
- 9 PNGs

You mean you made them youeself?

Correct!

Wow - you're really talented Good work !

Not really I think I've hurt my wrist due to a lot of clicking.

Prism, the label is overlapping the icon if I use a large icon. Please fix that

EDIT:
I've dropped some file before configuring the panel and the panel say "Cannot upload file". It would be nice if you follow yyy approach: Return the text to normal state after a few seconds.

BTW, these two looks good together

Yes 2 Drag & drop panels But it's all thanks to your beautiful icons

BTW, "Droplets" - I like it

New version was released.
I decided to adapt kdam's method of features listing , but I know it annoying you guys so here's the list:

• Switched to antu's icons (16x16).
• Text positioning improved - you can use any icons size now, if you don't care about the space.
• I tried to reduce flickering. Not sure if it helped, though.
• Added the log.
• Panel now gets it's regular text message 15 seconds after uploading.

I'm confused here Prism. In this thread, the latest version is 2.0 but in Ex² it's 1.2? Another thing is.. I'm having trouble upgrading. Even after the panel is disabled (for upgrade), it keep telling me to disable the panel. I end up deleting the panel and install the latest version after that.


I donno where I get the word from but I sure like it

I don't mind the space. With my current configuration, I still can fit 2 more Droplets Thanks for the update

Sorry about that. Should have been 1.2. I've fixed it.
Maybe the updating problem is releated to the new DS update mechanism?



Let's make a deal: you'll make the graphics, I'll make the panels. Fine?

I was thinking the same.

It's a deal

I have the same problem.
Also, that's a bit weird. I thought that the new upgrade mechanism dynamically unloaded the old version and installed the new version on top of the old one. Perhaps it's only for .NET ones?

Is there something I need to change in the dspackage?

I don't think so. It's a DS problem I think. Dunno.

BTW, I've figured out (thanks to Neowin forum memebers ) how to disable flickering in C++. They suggested to use a helper class which should take care of that, but it's much more complicated than the way it's done using .net

I haven't tried it and I'm not sure if that's what you need but that's the best I could find.

If you're still intrested: http://www.codeproject.com/vcpp/gdiplus/gdiplushelper.asp

I don't know the exact implementation details, but I think you could get away with overriding the WM_ERASEBKGND and setting bHandled to TRUE (you're using ATL right?).

Thanks, GoMa. You helped a lot.

And a new version is available now. Hopefully it'll be also the last and final one, unless you find any kind of bugs. I'm just out of ideas of new features for this panel.

No problem, but let's not jump to conclusions. I still see flickering - better than before, but still. Dunno if I can help you any further - try asking kdam.

I'm sorry, but in my machine the flickering is gone. I tried to move the cursor as fast as possible in and out the panel, and it works fine.
Maybe it has something to do with your CPU speed or graphics card?

I don't see any flickering with the latest version. All seems good to me.

Hmm I AM experiencing flickering. WinXP SP2 AMD 1700+ nVidia GeForce 2 MX (and don't you dare to insult my system!). It's a different kind of flickering.
1.2: when I move the mouse in/out of the panel quickly (not THAT quickly for all of you who are trying to reproduce this) I see the default control background (gray) for an instance.
1.3: it's more of painting the controls and not the background - I see the controls flicker (they are drown on top of the new background I think). I see a similar effect in the Volume panel btw. Somehow drawing should be double-buffered (not only the background, the controls too) - again, dunno how to do this in C++ sorry.

At first i thought this panel wasn't much use for me, because I dont upload stuff to ftps, but hell I was wrong. Found out that I can directly upload files to imageshack in my account. Just use your ID for username AND password. Thanks

Sorry, GoMa, I just don't experience those flickers. Everything's smooth on my system (WinXP SP2, Pentium 4 2.4 GHz, GeForce 4 Ti 4800SE).
And I don't blame your machine, of course.

I didn't even think about it. Very creative thinking.

Just a cosmetic request. Can you put the text in the middle (center vertically) and remove the dot?. Thank you

But be careful, it uses you zip upload credits.

Wanted to chime in after testing this plugin.

First of all, this is a very handy little app for those of us that routinely FTP stuff, so thanks very much for developing it!

You mentioned that you were out of ideas for potential improvement, so I thought I'd throw in a feature request. I'm not sure how hard this will be, but I'll ask anyway. :-)

I realize that if you have multiple servers you can simply install the panel multiple times, but this could get rather cluttered if you have a whole lot of servers, or directories that you want to have up there.

Therefore, I wonder if it would be possible to modify the panel to accomodate multiple FTP server entries. Even if you could only have a limited number like 5 or 10, it would still be helpful.

I was trying to think how you might accomplish this visually, and I thought perhaps a drop down menu list would be a good way to do it. For example, directly below the panel title there could be a dropdown selection box which would have each of the FTP servers which had been added listed in alphabetical order. One would simply select from the drop down menu the server they wished to upload to and then drag and drop onto the drop box.

I would further suggest one additional change to go along with this feature request. I would suggest adding one additional field called "Site name" to the site configuration dialog box. The Site Name should be the one that appears in the drop down selection menu.

The reason for the site name is that if someone had several FTP sites in the list such as:

1.1.1.1/home/
1.1.1.2/home/
1.1.1.3/home/

They might not be able to easily identify them. However when they are entering them in the configuration dialog they could name them "Personal", "Work", "Church", etc. so they would be able to remember them easily.

Thanks again for developing this add in, and please let me know if anything I've suggested is unclear.

John

I added this feature to my todo list. Meanwhile, you can use multiple panels and change their caption to something easier to remember. In order to do that, right-click on the instance of the panel and choose "Rename Panel...".

Well, thanks for considering this feature request. Currently I'd already done exactly as you've suggested and it works fine for now.

Thanks again,

John

A couple of other little things:

1.) When you drop a directory on the inbox which already exists on the server, it reports an error "Unable to create directory". I would suggest that the system just report "Directory already exists" or simply "Directory created"

2.) Is there a way to clear the FTP log? It would be useful to do this periodically, but I can't find a place to do that.

Thanks,

John

1. You are right. Added to my todo list.
2. The log should be clean when DS shuts down. There are many opinions about logs, but I think that a log should be reachable for the longest amount of time. Clearing it when DS shuts down seems like a good way to do it. You'll probably not need it afterwards.