A question for the hardcore JauntePE users
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:59 pm
A question for the hardcore users, i.e., those of you that understand how JPE's redirection mechanism works.
As you might remember, I modified JPE a while back concerning the use of the %userprofile% special folder #40 within the file system redirection sections. The mod put in place was to ignore blanket %userprofile% redirection requests. You were forced instead to use a new %40% token, along with an appended path, to get the redirection request to be used. My aim was to prevent some possible troubling scenarios from occuring due to the shortcomings in how JPE handles file system browsing requests.
Well, 030 has a new WFSMerge setting that causes JPE to present a given directory's contents to an app after first merging the real file system's directory's contents with that of its counterpart portable file system's directory's contents, if any. What this means, in terms of the %userprofile% redirection use, is that the "troubling scenarios" go away.
So, after all that, assuming the above makes sense, my question to you all is - when WFSMerge is turned on, should JPE allow the use of the %userprofile% special folder #40 on its own, without the need for the %40% token with an appended path? If it is allowed, then a number of apps (mostly open source apps written to work on both linux and windows) that currently require special handling, no longer require that special handling. Any file system mods within %userprofile% would be redirected as expected.
The downside to allowing this is that most people won't realize what could go wrong for those few apps if WFSMerge was turned off. So an app that was previously working fine would suddenly stop redirecting file system changes as expected. I could add a popup to the gui when the setting was turned off, but as can be seen from the above hot air, it's a bit wordy explaining what the problem would be and what they would need to do to ensure that turning it off wouldn't be a problem.
So, any thoughts? I can't decide myself. It'll all be documented in the help, so I don't think it'll be an issue for those that go beyond being a casual JPE user. I guess I'm wondering about those that don't really know, or want to know, how JPE works, and also don't want to read the docs. In other words, probably the majority of the people. What's the best way to handle this sort of thing with those type of people in mind?
As you might remember, I modified JPE a while back concerning the use of the %userprofile% special folder #40 within the file system redirection sections. The mod put in place was to ignore blanket %userprofile% redirection requests. You were forced instead to use a new %40% token, along with an appended path, to get the redirection request to be used. My aim was to prevent some possible troubling scenarios from occuring due to the shortcomings in how JPE handles file system browsing requests.
Well, 030 has a new WFSMerge setting that causes JPE to present a given directory's contents to an app after first merging the real file system's directory's contents with that of its counterpart portable file system's directory's contents, if any. What this means, in terms of the %userprofile% redirection use, is that the "troubling scenarios" go away.
So, after all that, assuming the above makes sense, my question to you all is - when WFSMerge is turned on, should JPE allow the use of the %userprofile% special folder #40 on its own, without the need for the %40% token with an appended path? If it is allowed, then a number of apps (mostly open source apps written to work on both linux and windows) that currently require special handling, no longer require that special handling. Any file system mods within %userprofile% would be redirected as expected.
The downside to allowing this is that most people won't realize what could go wrong for those few apps if WFSMerge was turned off. So an app that was previously working fine would suddenly stop redirecting file system changes as expected. I could add a popup to the gui when the setting was turned off, but as can be seen from the above hot air, it's a bit wordy explaining what the problem would be and what they would need to do to ensure that turning it off wouldn't be a problem.
So, any thoughts? I can't decide myself. It'll all be documented in the help, so I don't think it'll be an issue for those that go beyond being a casual JPE user. I guess I'm wondering about those that don't really know, or want to know, how JPE works, and also don't want to read the docs. In other words, probably the majority of the people. What's the best way to handle this sort of thing with those type of people in mind?