UI Changes in Jungle Disk 2.0
Continuing the series of posts on Jungle Disk 2.0 started last week. I’d like to talk about some of the user-interface changes coming in Jungle Disk 2.0 as well as the new related features.
The current Jungle Disk configuration user interface is a serious limiting factor for adding new features to the software. Since most features require new configuration options, the interface needs to continue to expand as the software grows. This is challenging for a few reasons. First is that a complex configuration dialog with hundreds of options is completely overwhelming, especially for new users. In the current user interface, all options as treated equally, and there is no easy way to know which are really important to understand and configure. Furthermore, the space given to describe each option is limited so that the only way to really know what they all do is to read the online manual. Adding to this complexity is the fact that Jungle Disk is really two online storage programs in one - it is a virtual drive that you can use on an ad-hoc basis or with 3rd party backup software, and it is a complete automatic backup and restore system. Most of our users really only use the software one way or another, but the options for both are mixed together in many cases.
In Jungle Disk 2.0 we’re going to take a step back and make some major changes to how the software is set up and configured. To ease first-time setup we’re going to be including a setup wizard that only configures the most important options to start using the software. To help less technical users set up automatic backup we’re planning on adding pre-built backup sets for important files and locations. Most configuration options as well as the automatic backup configuration will now be associated with a specific bucket, and for advanced users we’re going to allow mounting of multiple buckets at the same time (as different volumes / drive letters). The automatic backup configuration will also be getting a redesign, to allow for much more control and customization, such as the ability to set up multiple backup schedules for different jobs and the ability to enable/disable jobs. Finally we’re going to be taking a new look at how error messages are presented and try to provide more resources to understand the reasons for each message and whether it is cause for concern (without having to post to the support forums). As much as possible we try to eliminate error messages by making the software smarter in dealing with unexpected situations, but with the wide variety of network conditions and computers we see it’s impossible to deal with every situation automatically.
We’re always open to thoughts from our users on the user interface. Feel free to post them as comments here or in our Feature Requests forum. I’ve also started a special thread in the Mac forum to discuss Mac-specific UI changes in Jungle Disk 2.0.
Subscribe to our feed
Jassie said,
February 25, 2008 @ 5:38 pm
All the new options and interface redesign sound really exciting. But JD’s small resource footprint is one of its best features and hopefully you guys are always mindful of this as the software continues to grow.
I’ve seen too many cases of wonderful software turning into bloatware and utterly unusable very quickly.
Jungle Dave said,
February 25, 2008 @ 5:44 pm
We’re certainly mindful of the footprint and want to keep it light-weight as possible. A lot of the reworking of the UI is about allowing us to do that, while still being able to add highly requested features.
Jon said,
February 27, 2008 @ 12:02 pm
Glad to hear that you are redesigning the UI. On the Mac at least, this looks like a piece of software from the 90’s - and having a good designer on board familiar with Mac apps would go a long way.
Phurge said,
March 2, 2008 @ 9:42 pm
I think the client is ok. It could do with a little “prettying up” but not at the expense of functionality please.
Re the web interface, keep it simple html. Please none of this awful & often buggy flash/ajax/java etc.
Jungle Disk » Blog Archive » What do you backup? said,
March 18, 2008 @ 12:08 pm
[…] we mentioned in the UI redesign blog post, the user interface for configuring automatic backups is getting a major overhaul in Jungle Disk […]
John Rothlisberger said,
March 20, 2008 @ 11:31 pm
Hi there,
I love Jungle Disk. Comments in no particular order:
- I agree with the comment about bloat. I am amazed at how lean JD is, and I place high value on that.
- I also agree fully with the author’s comment about users using JD for one thing or the other. I use it for backup only.
- I think “synchronisation while keeping previous versions and deleted items” would be very useful; i.e. let me have 2 or more computers synchronised, while keeping the online version, while keeping previous versions and deleted items. Does that make sense? Dropbox is an example of this.
- Make JD run as a service (separate the engine from the GUI which is only needed for configuration and monitoring). This would also get rid of the requirement for “run as administrator” for the VSS stuff to work (which is a terrible hack).
- Make configuration more resilient. Currently I get “configuration can’t be updated because there is a job running”. It should be able to apply changes which would take effect “next time”.
- Instead of scheduled backups, which on my current backup set takes almost six minutes just to troll through everything to detect changes, is it possible to “notice changes” and back them up? i.e. something like continuous backup. If I’m working on a document, it would be handy to keep the history of changes as I’m working on it (i.e. every time I hit save).
- Is it worth implementing a more “intelligent” way of getting rid of previous versions? As an example, I think Apple’s Time Machine keeps every hour for a week, then every day after that for a month, then every month for a year, or something like that (granular for recent stuff, less and less granular as time progresses). Would need to think about all the use-cases for this, to make sure this wouldn’t impact anyone.
- Is it possible to implement something like the rsync method of using hard links to represent point-in-time snapshots of what the filesystem looked like at any given moment?
That’s all I can think of at present. Thanks for a fabulous little program, and I look forward to version 2.0. Am happy to beta test if needed. Oh, and email me if you want clarification on any of the above.
Cheers!
Jungle Dave said,
March 21, 2008 @ 8:50 am
@John - lots of good stuff in there. Sync, Service support, and continuous backup are being looked at post-2.0. Configuration got a major revamp in 2.0, I think you’ll be pleased.
We’re offering more previous version options, although not quite the TM style. We’ll also be rolling out a more TM-style “point in time” look at your previous versions, although probably not in the first 2.0 release.
Jungle Disk » Blog Archive » Jungle Disk 2.0 Beta Released! said,
May 2, 2008 @ 5:47 pm
[…] engine and user interface for Jungle Disk. We now support multiple bucket types, there is an entirely new user interface including a brand new backup selection interface, and a whole host of new features including […]
Mark said,
June 9, 2008 @ 12:17 pm
RUN AS A SERVICE please!!
My backups are useless, they never run based on scheduled task.
All is well in logs, the user and pw are correct, but they never fire.
I have gigs of data to backup, without a service this won’t work on a server! Can’t use whack solutions like firedaemon
Come on, please, run as service is standard in the industry for serious win32/64 software.