The file synchronisation feature is intended to synchronise files on CompactFlash cards from cab printers registered in the cab Network Manager. A set of files can be simple and convenient updated or copied to several printers. The target of our file synchronisation feature was to make it easy to use and highly configurable.
For starting the synchronisation dialogue select "Tools" in the menu and click on the menu item "File Synchronisation" ...
Create bookmarks for the printers and the files or folders to be synchronised. Afterwards, select the desired bookmarks to execute them.
Definition: A bookmark is a collection of references of files or printers.
To read more about this topic refer to "Bookmark configuration".
Picture 1: File Synchronisation - Select your bookmarks
After the file synchronisation has been called a dialogue becomes visible, see picture 1. On the left hand side of the window file bookmarks can be selected. On the right hand side select the desired printer bookmarks. All available bookmarks will be listed in the combo boxes at the bottom. If a bookmark has been selected, its contents will be displayed in the list above the combo box.
The "File Synchronisation -Status" dialogue is divided into three tab registers and a synchronisation progress display below the tab register:
It is possible to switch between the tabs all the time to watch what is happening.
Picture 2 is showing the "Synchronisation" tab register. The table contains the printers stored in the selected bookmark and displaying their types, names, IP address and connection status.
The connection status will be displayed as a coloured dot:
The dot colour is per default blue, which means "not a checked connection". A check can be performed by pressing the "Check" button on the left hand side below the tab register. If a printer could be reached over the network its dot will become green, otherwise it would gain the colour red. A check can be started all the time.
Once the synchronisation has been started it can be stopped by pressing the "Stop" button. It is the same button like "Start", but its context meaning and label has changed. The progress of the synchronisation will be shown below the tab register, showing two progress bars. The upper bar gives information about the transfer of files. The lower shows the general status.
Picture 2: File Synchronisation - Start synchronisation
Pressing the "Start" button will initiate the synchronisation. All transfers concerning printer connection and file transfers will be logged. The log can be viewed in register tab "Protocol". The log can be also be cleared or saved to a log file. Clearing and saving the log can be done by using the protocol menu entry and by using the pop-up menu of the log text area. To format the CF card before transferring the files select the option "Format CF" on the right hand side of the "Check" button. To improve customisation and automation two more options were introduced. First, cancel print jobs checkbox, a soft reset option to send a "Total cancel" (ESC t) to terminate the actual print job, clearing the input buffer and error messages in the display. Second, the final reset checkbox, the possibility to send a "Hard reset" (ESC!ESC!), which is useful when updating the default label.
The "Format CF" option will format the CF card, which means that files not being synchronised will be lost.
For security reasons to prevent the loss of data a confirmation question will be asked.
Picture 3: File Synchronisation - View synchronisation log
After a file transfer to a printer it will be sorted in groups of successful or failed processes, see picture 4. The status entry of a printer uses also a coloured dot to display the result:
A printer sorted as "Successful" will still remain even when the verification fails. During the verification, the transferred files will be checked about existence and file length.
This could happen when the connection gets lost or an I/O error occurs.
With the retry functionally a printer will be moved back to the synchronisation register tab to start over.
Picture 4: File Synchronisation - Evaluation