vladr

up!

Wow, this message has not been replied for one month. It appears that BitTorrent dropped the Sync API. I say that because: 1. there seems to be nobody interested in providing support for it. 2. the API is messed up and the documentation is messed up. The documentation section "Get Folder" should be named "Get Folder(s)" because it took me a while to find the part that explains how you get a list of folders. The example server output of the API method is messed up. Version 2.0 no longer provides a "secret" but a "share_id". I still didn't figure out what the hell is that and what do I do with it And damn this app is confusing. I have version 2.0 on two computers and when I add a folder, it appears as 1.4 type of folder.

I am selling a software application, which has options for utilizing the API. I see no reason to contact your licensing department about it. I also see no reason why my client, who will be using my application and your application, with a API key of its own (not mine), might need to do that, if he is not using your application for commercial purposes.

Well, it's not that simple. Tonido has a free version, which allows you to create only 5 links to your files. It is way too limited in general, not mentioning as a Dropbox alternative. If you want more than 5 links, you have to pay $29 every year. FileRun for a single user has a one-time fee of $39 and has no such limitations. But the light version of Tonido might be good enough for some private users with very light usage. FileRun was designed for work environments. Not really. Dropbox is popular because it makes your life ease. Not any PHP file manager in combination with BTSync achieves that. You cannot access files on the server or create shares from the remote BTSync apps. If you want a new folder on your computer or phone, you cannot do it from your common PHP file manager, but you have to access the Web GUI of the BTSync installed on your server. You will there browse the server for the folder you want to share and get the secrets. The PHP file manager will just be a frontend to the files on the server, no interaction with BTSync. Edit: I should add a mention here. Some people don't mind spending time learning a new programming language to get an app installed, editing XML files to configure it and using SSH to manage their online files. This topic is about replacing Dropbox, which is more popular among the rest of the people. My recommendations are for this type of people.

To properly replace Dropbox, you will need a good web frontend, from where you can manage files, shares and from where you are able to send out links to the files. Check out the BitTorrent Sync integration we added with our web-based file manager: http://www.filerun.com/features-bittorrent-sync Sync a folder on your server with your phone in two clicks and two taps. This is 100% web-based: P.S. FileRun is not opensource, but hey, neither is Dropbox, Tonido or BitTorrent Sync.

Sounds cool, but current BitTorrent Sync licensing allows the software to be used only for personal, non-commercial purposes

I see people using BitTorrent Sync at work or by syncing work-related documents. Others are directly using it at work with their clients. Even the video that is available on the home page of BitTorrent Sync's website shows a guys that is using it for work. All this despite the facts that the only license agreement available on bittorent.com (http://www.bittorrent.com/legal/eula) specifically denies commercial use: Funny thing, despite the fact that the product's home page (http://www.bittorrent.com/sync) has a sub-title that reads "Free for all.", I see now a tiny pop-in survey in the corner of the window, that asks visitors about how much would they be willing to pay for "BitTorrent Sync" if they use it commercially (aka for work-related tasks). Now, it's obvious that BitTorrent Inc. doesn't want to miss the opportunity of monetizing their "dropbox killer" app, which I'm not criticizing in any way. This post has two purposes. One is to give the users a heads-up on the current legal limitations of the software, so they don't invest too much time in setting up their workflow around something that they believe will have no additional costs. And second, to have BitTorrent Inc. attach a clear end user license agreement to this software and decide on how they are going to handle its commercial usage. It wouldn't be nice to be misleading.

I still hope that the developers will include the full-access secret in the JSON returned by "add_folder".

Big item on my wishlist: option to specify a list of ignored files when adding a folder.

(About the P.S., specifying the "secret" meant that the folder was syncing with an external folder, a folder added on another device. I thought the user can control the "secret" that a folder is being added with for the first time.)

I'm having troubles understanding why the "add_folder" method does not directly provide the folder' secrets in return. Adding a folder to BTSync seems a useless action without the secrets. So, my app needs to do the following: 1. "add_folder" 2. "get_folders" 3. iterate the list of folders and match the path that was just added to get the secret 4. "get_secrets" with the secret found at step #3 That's quite some work for a simple task. At least include the main secret in the "add_folder" reply, so that I can skip the step number 3. The best solution however would be to merge the response of "get_secrets" into the response of "add_folder". P.S. I tried as a workaround to specify my own "secret" in the "add_folder" request, however BTSync crashes with any operation that includes a folder added with a custom "secret". If I don't understand correctly how the API was designed to be used, please do let me know. By the way, great work on the software!

I would also like to know that and postponing any development until more information is provided.