Add Support For Multi-Select?

[Agrajag]

Would it be possible to add support for the user to check off multiple files to download? I often will put up a group of photos and family and friends complain that it's too much of a hassle to grab them all one-by-one. I thought it might be simple to add a check box option so that they can just check 20 photos and have them come down sequentially.

[Unknown8063]

HFS has the ability to download an entire folder (and its sub folders) at once as a single tar file.  Most templates link to this as 'download folder' or 'download folder archive'.

[Agrajag]

Two issues:

1. How in the UI is that accomplished? I'm assuming that's what Folder Archive does? If so, excellent. I've never paid attention to that before.

2. TAR? Can we not get a ZIP? Zip is far more useful here. Windows users are not likely to have TAR support handy.

There still could be the need to select just, say, 8 of 10 files.

[maverick]

Two issues:

1. How in the UI is that accomplished? I'm assuming that's what Folder Archive does? If so, excellent. I've never paid attention to that before.

2. TAR? Can we not get a ZIP? Zip is far more useful here. Windows users are not likely to have TAR support handy.

There still could be the need to select just, say, 8 of 10 files.

Yes archiving a complete folder is the way to go.  No you can't get zip.  Most archivers support tar ex. winrar.  Winzip might to.  Haven't used winzip in years.  Selecting just a few out of a folder (checkbox scenerio) isn't supported (at least not for now).

[Agrajag]

Tar just won't work in my world. I share files with complete neophytes. Installing something else means it's too complicated.

Thus that was the main reason I was asking for the ability of THAT type of challenged user to be able to select a group of files (among more) and have them just come down sequentially.

No need for additional software. No need for additional explanation.

Thanks for the info though.

[maverick]

No need to install new software.  I just googled winzip and found that it does support the tar format.

[Agrajag]

I'm in XP right now (SP3). No WinZip to be found anywhere. What OS' include WinZip?

[Mars]

You can use this software ,it work as winzip and it is FREE

http://www.izarc.org/


http://www.izarc.org/download.html

and you can skin it

http://www.izarc.org/create_skins.html

[Agrajag]

mars.... Thanks but you miss the point. If novices say to me, "How can I get that file?" and my answer is that they have to install another piece of software, they're not interested in that and it reduces the value of HFS in their mind.

I'm trying to find a solution that keeps the product down to being totally self-reliant.

[Unknown8063]

Of course, if the user asked 'how can i get that file?' they can download the file individually, without software.  Readily available compression software can be linked to if they want to download in bulk, which I find reasonable.  If the user preferred to queue files up, you could link to a download manager instead, which in Firefox is simply a browser extension.

Zip compression was not chosen for folder archives because it is an expensive operation to perform on the fly.  You're welcome to, however, compress the files manually and host the zip file on HFS.

[Agrajag]

I hear what all are saying. Forgive me but I'm a long-time development manager and the issue still remains. It's not a big deal but excuses are still excuses. I'm simply pointing out something I found to be lacking in the case of novice users and pointed it out. Work-around solutions always exist but they're still exactly that--they exist solely because the product doesn't provide for it itself. It's little different than if Microsoft attempted to not include a spelling checker in Word simply because users could always use a dictionary or get some other solution from another provider. If you think that's silly then you don't know your history. This was once the case, and excuse, for not having it in the earliest versions of Word (and other word processors). Each vendor found it made for a much better product offering to just provide the missing feature themselves.

Again, don't take this the wrong way. I'm not being critical here. I'm a fan. I'm just a picky one that strives for completeness.

[rejetto]

hi Agrajag. what's your latest incarnation?

zip format (with zero compression, it's possible) is not available because much more complicated than tar, and i decided to spend time on other features.
anyway, the code was made to easily incorporate more than one format. I wait for a goodwill programmer to make it.

about the selection, it was recently requested and i replied
http://www.rejetto.com/forum/index.php?topic=6515.msg1039888#msg1039888
lets focus on a single topic

[Agrajag]

Believe me, I understand the challenges and support your efforts. Thanks for the link.