Fetch Softworks

Can I share shortcuts via dropbox? (23 posts)

• Started 14 years ago by Chris
• Latest reply 11 years ago from Jim Matthews

• Chris Member

  I would like to synchronize my shortcuts using the "dropbox" web service.

  Can I set the location where fetch gets the shortcuts from?

  I would then put shortcuts in dropbox and both home/work computers use the SAME shortcut list. Updating it in 1 location keeps it updated for all locations.

  Thanks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  Fetch shortcuts are stored in a file named "com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist", in the Preferences folder, which is in the Library folder of your home folder. To put it another way:

  Home > Library > Preferences > com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist

  Let us know how it goes!

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Chris Member

  Originally posted by JimMatthews:

  Fetch shortcuts are stored in a file named "com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist", in the Preferences folder, which is in the Library folder of your home folder. To put it another way:

  Home > Library > Preferences > com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist

  Let us know how it goes!

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Can that location (of the preference file) be changed by editing some fetch.app resource?

  Thanks again!

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  No, the location can't be changed.

  If you need to use a different location I would recommend making a separate shortcut list:

  1) Choose "New Shortcut List" from the Shortcuts menu
  2) Choose "Save As..." from the File menu

  Then, instead of opening Fetch, open the saved shortcut list document, so that it's always available.

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Rory Member

  I don't understand how the solution you suggest in the last post would work. So, I can create a new shortcuts file. I save that in my dropbox. Then, how do I get Fetch to use that list and not the one in the default location? It seems you are saying that you cannot change the default location of the shortcuts file. So, how do I get fetch to use that one, and to always store new passwords into that dropbox file?

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Rory,

  What Jim was proposing was that you double-click on the icon of the new shortcuts file to start Fetch, instead of starting Fetch by double-clicking the icon of the Fetch application itself. You could put the icon of the new shortcuts file in your Dock if you wanted, and then start Fetch by clicking the shortcut file icon there.

  When you open the new shortcuts file, that will open Fetch, and Fetch will automatically open a window displaying the contents of the new shortcuts file.

  It's like opening a word processing program by opening one of your documents, instead of opening the word processing program itself.

  Does that make sense?

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Chris Member

  Hi Scott and Rory,

  The solution suggested works "ok". When you double-click the shortcuts file saved in the dropbox, it launches Fetch and displays those shortcuts. Unfortunately, when you choose "Make Shortcut" from a fetch window, it still creates the shortcut in the file stored in preferences, not in the shortcuts stored on the dropbox.

  So again, it works to an extent, but is still lacking the ability to keep anything sync'd. Please consider adding the ability to specify the location of the shortcuts as a preference in a future version of Fetch. :-)

  Thanks,
  Chris

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Chris,

  That's a fair criticism of the suggested solution.

  You can easily move shortcuts from the Fetch Shortcuts window by dragging them to the other shortcuts window, or create them directly in the desired shortcuts window by dragging a file or folder (or the icon in a Fetch transfer window title bar) to that shortcuts window. But nevertheless, it's not as convenient as it could be.

  We continue to consider changes that would make it easier to sync shortcuts in a future version of Fetch - I'm sorry we don't have a real solution for you yet.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Rory Member

  OK, I'll be eager to hear about a solution to this issue when it is ready. I am a web developer and have to keep track of a lot of logins, and with 2 computers that becomes even more difficult. I'm hoping you'll enable syncing soon.
  Rory

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Charles Maurer Member

  Have you tried putting Fetch's plist in a Dropbox folder and putting a symlink to it in the preferences folder, where Fetch expects to find it? I synchronize Chrome's and Camino's bookmarks and preferences this way.

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Rory Member

  I have not tried that. I have no idea what a symlink is. can you give me more info? Will this solution work?

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Charles Maurer Member

  A symlink is the short form for symbolic link, which the closest equivalent in unix to a Macintosh alias. Try these two unix commands in Terminal. I wrote them assuming that your username is "rory" and that your dropbox folder is "/Users/rory/dropbox/", but you can alter the pathnames to reflect reality. The first moves the plist, the second creates a link to it. Be sure to quit Fetch first.

  mv /Users/rory/Library/Preferences/com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist /Users/rory/dropbox/
  symlink /Users/rory/dropbox/com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist /Users/rory/Library/Preferences/com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Rory Member

  I will have to think about this. I don't understand what it does, but thank you for the help. I'll run it by my tech guru. I am just a little nervous about messing with stuff in terminal. I'll let you know what happens!

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Charles Maurer Member

  You don't need to do it in terminal. This freeware package <http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/412587/review/symboliclinker_20.html?expand=true> will make a symbolic link in Finder. Just move the plist into your dropbox folder, make a symbolic link, move the link into your preferences folder, and rename the link to the same name as the original file.

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Rory Member

  Oh. You lost me there, all sounds very confusing. I"ll run it by my tech guy, maybe he can figure it out. Thanks for the explanation!

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Charles,

  Thanks for the suggestions and helping out, but unfortunately due to the way Fetch updates the shortcuts file, a symlink to it somewhere else won't work - Fetch will almost immediately replaces the symlink in the Preferences folder with a real plist instead, so the plist you copied to the Dropbox folder wouldn't be used.

  So, Rory, no need to investigate that approach further.

  Again, sorry not to have a better solution for you guys at the moment.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Chris Member

  I was excited to see the update to Fetch 5.6 which is a pay upgrade for me. I am disappointed that there is still no option to sync shortcuts via dropbox or some other means. Syncing is a very important feature these days especially with regard to bookmarks and shortcuts. Hopefully we'll see this option soon as my original post was a year ago. Time flys when you're having fun!

  There's another thread here that appears to be looking for the same/similar feature.
  http://fetchsoftworks.com/fetch/messageboard/new-feature-shortcut-sync

  Oh! and this just released dropbox has API for 3rd party apps. May be just what we need :-)
  http://www.macworld.com/article/151060/2010/05/dropbox_anywhere.html?lsrc=nl_mwnws_h_crawl

  Thanks!
  Chris

  Edited 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Chris,

  I'm sorry that we weren't able to add shortcuts syncing support to Fetch 5.6, but it remains on our list of things to look into. Thanks for the tip about the API.

  Best,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #

• KevinH Member

  Another thread requesting dropbox support:

  http://fetchsoftworks.com/fetch/messageboard/sync-shortcuts-using-dropbox

  Would love to see a solution for multi-computer soon. It's more painful everyday as I add new FTP locations to need to manually update all the computers in the office. We use a single dropbox account for many other apps(1password, doc editors, image tools, browsers, etc) and Fetch is the only app that won't allow us to sync it's shortcuts to multiple computers.

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Kevin,

  Thanks for the additional feedback.

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Mike Member

  Please support syncing its getting frustrating updating manually.

  Posted 11 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  Hi Mike,

  Would you be willing to test an experimental version of Fetch? If so, please send an email to bugs@fetchsoftworks.com

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 11 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  Thanks to everyone who helped test this feature in experimental versions of Fetch. We've now released Fetch 5.7, with support for syncing shortcuts with Dropbox. For instructions see:

  http://fetchsoftworks.com/fetch/help/Contents/Tutorial/DropboxShortcuts.html

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 11 years ago #