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My out-of-the-box thinking at work again... 
There is something that I've thought of many times since BC2 days. I would like to suggest it as a future enhancement.
I envision a special hybrid session type that has a folder session pane on one side, and a data session pane on the other side. The data session side would consist of columns that correspond to the columns on the folder session side:
Name, Size, Modified, CRC, etc.
One could copy from the folder session pane to the data session pane. This would record the contents of the folder session by storing the names of the files, the size, the modified date/time stamp, the CRC value (if that column is visible), etc.
One could also copy from the data session pane back to the folder session pane (except for orphans, of course). Obviously, one cannot alter the size or CRC of the physical files in the folder session pane...so a copy would, in effect, "touch" the physical files with the names and modified date/time stamps that exist in the data session pane.
Several uses of such a hybrid session type:
1) It would allow a user to capture a "historical" summary of folder contents in a .csv file. For example, I would capture the folder structure of our entire code base after our final product build before each public release of our product. Comparing two .csv files created at two different times would allow a user to see, at a high-level, what has changed in the folder structure between any two releases without having to do resource intensive and time consuming label comparisons in the version control software.
2) Many version control solutions do not support retaining the modified date-time stamps of the files a user checks in. I would also use such a hybrid session type to capture the datetime stamps of a labeled code base that I've stored in version control. When I retrieve that code base by it's label at a later date, I would use the hybrid session type to touch the modified date/time stamps in the entire folder structure back to how it was at check-in.
I realize that such a hybrid session type would be quite challenging to implement. If you see the merit of such a hybrid session type, however, I would appreciate having it added to the customer wish list. Thanks.
There is something that I've thought of many times since BC2 days. I would like to suggest it as a future enhancement.
I envision a special hybrid session type that has a folder session pane on one side, and a data session pane on the other side. The data session side would consist of columns that correspond to the columns on the folder session side:
Name, Size, Modified, CRC, etc.
One could copy from the folder session pane to the data session pane. This would record the contents of the folder session by storing the names of the files, the size, the modified date/time stamp, the CRC value (if that column is visible), etc.
One could also copy from the data session pane back to the folder session pane (except for orphans, of course). Obviously, one cannot alter the size or CRC of the physical files in the folder session pane...so a copy would, in effect, "touch" the physical files with the names and modified date/time stamps that exist in the data session pane.
Several uses of such a hybrid session type:
1) It would allow a user to capture a "historical" summary of folder contents in a .csv file. For example, I would capture the folder structure of our entire code base after our final product build before each public release of our product. Comparing two .csv files created at two different times would allow a user to see, at a high-level, what has changed in the folder structure between any two releases without having to do resource intensive and time consuming label comparisons in the version control software.
2) Many version control solutions do not support retaining the modified date-time stamps of the files a user checks in. I would also use such a hybrid session type to capture the datetime stamps of a labeled code base that I've stored in version control. When I retrieve that code base by it's label at a later date, I would use the hybrid session type to touch the modified date/time stamps in the entire folder structure back to how it was at check-in.
I realize that such a hybrid session type would be quite challenging to implement. If you see the merit of such a hybrid session type, however, I would appreciate having it added to the customer wish list. Thanks.
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