IDE with incremental local backups of remote files

[jrrdnx]

I've been pulling my hair out trying to find an IDE with this feature, which (to me) seems to be a basic level of functionality that any editor should have.

I want this IDE to have Remote Connection capabilities so that I can click on a site, browse to a file, open it, edit it, and save it so that it not only saves the file remotely but also saves a local copy in the same file structure as the remote host with an additional date/timestamp in the filename.

I've been searching for months with no luck. I've found a few editors that give something close to this, but only when working on a "Project" and/or editing local files. I just want to edit the remote file to ensure I'm grabbing the latest version, but I do not want to find and download the file, edit it locally, and then re-upload it. The incremental backups is a safeguard to ensure if a co-worker overwrites a recent change of mind, I've got backups with all of my changes to that file.

Within the past several months, I've submitted bugs and feature requests to several IDE's that have all of the other features I need and are at the top of my list of editors to use, but these have either gone completely unanswered or only get a response of "this isn't important, we'll get to it when we get to it... which won't be soon".

Does anybody, anybody know of an IDE that has this feature? I have several co-workers using Windows IDE's with this feature, but haven't had any luck getting these to work in Wine, and I don't want to use a virtual machine just to run an IDE.

 

[Cromulent]

Sounds like you want to use a source code management system such as Git or Mercurial. This will make everything work just fine and gives you the ability to roll back any changes that are made in case they are mistakes.

 

[jrrdnx]

I agree this would be a more optimal solution for larger projects moving forward, but at this time I want the ability to edit current files/sites where they stand.

We have hundreds of clients and websites at this point, and we may get a random call from a client that hasn't needed a site update in months or even years but suddenly wants a few changes. Ideally, I would connect and edit those files and without even thinking about it have local backups of all those changes. I really don't want to have to set up the whole project with Git just to make a couple changes.

 

[-pete-]

I'm pretty sure Dreamweaver does something quite similar to this, I'm not completely sure about the time stamp / date though. :S

 

[jrrdnx]

I had tested with Dreamweaver not too long ago, and I believe it does have something close to this functionality but again, only with local files. If I remember correctly, everything needed to be set up as a local "project" and manually synced with the remote server.

If anybody has experience with EditPlus, this is the Windows editor that one of my coworkers uses. Its local backups of remote files functionality is exactly what I'm looking for.

 

[Hansr]

I think going forward a git repo will be your best solution for completeness but if you want to replicate precisely this functionality I think Coda + http://www.panic.com/coda/developer/howto/plugins.php would be your best bet.

But then again dumping the projects into git and just keeping a few repos really shouldn't take that much time.

 

[jrrdnx]

I agree this would be a more optimal solution for larger projects moving forward (assuming I can convince the rest of my team to use this as well), but at this time I want the ability to edit the hundreds of current sites where they stand.

I'm just looking for an IDE with this feature built-in, or one with a readily available plugin/extension, or one who's developers won't take months/years to add it.

 

[Hansr]

I don't think there is anything that replicates this in what's available today but building the Coda plugin should take no more than an hour or two and you can do it via Obj-C+Cocoa or a scripting language.

 

[bpaluzzi]

I'm absolutely terrified by the thought that you have hundreds of clients but no source control in your workflow.

Do it the right way:
Get a Git/Mercurial/SVN repository set up and use a tool of your liking.

You can import all of your old work into a repository.

 

[jrrdnx]

I'm absolutely terrified by the thought that you have hundreds of clients but no source control in your workflow.

These are not "active" clients. The vast majority have not had any updates in months or even years. When they do need an update, it's usually an address, or phone number, or the name of a specific type of contact or something. You really think it's in our best interest to take the time to import hundreds of old clients into a repository for a single change? Especially when that single change might be the only change made for the next several months or years?

Please view my previous responses. I'm not against using version control for projects moving forward. But I don't have the time to do this for every current client.

How is having another available option for file backups a bad thing here? Especially one that's built-in (or easily integrated) and happens automatically and seamlessly behind the scenes so I don't have to even think about it but especially take the time to do it myself.

 

[bpaluzzi]

These are not "active" clients. The vast majority have not had any updates in months or even years. When they do need an update, it's usually an address, or phone number, or the name of a specific type of contact or something. You really think it's in our best interest to take the time to import hundreds of old clients into a repository for a single change? Especially when that single change might be the only change made for the next several months or years?

Yes. Absolutely.

Please view my previous responses. I'm not against using version control for projects moving forward. But I don't have the time to do this for every current client.

Then you don't have time to do it right. I'm not sure why you're surprised there aren't tools to do a hacked-up version of what you're asking when there are already dozens of tools to do it -- source control clients.

How is having another available option for file backups a bad thing here? Especially one that's built-in (or easily integrated) and happens automatically and seamlessly behind the scenes so I don't have to even think about it but especially take the time to do it myself.

Because it's a false sense of security. Incremental backups done at time-based intervals are all but useless for any kind of change management / disaster recovery. Source control forces you to do it the right way -- you commit chunks of work.

If I'm being flippant, I apologize. But I (and many, many, many other people) have tried to do a home-brewed version of source control. It never works. There's always a failure sometime. There's not a single excuse you can give me that makes me believe that setting up a proper source control system isn't in your best interest.

 

[jrrdnx]

Incremental backups done at time-based intervals are all but useless for any kind of change management / disaster recovery.

What sense of "disaster" are you talking about here? We have off-site managed backups with our hosting provider.

Then you don't have time to do it right.

In a perfect world, yes, everything would be done the right way. In reality, you do what you can with the time and resources you're allotted by the people who sign your paycheck. If I can import an old site into a repository, then find, edit, save, and commit that change in the same amount of time that I can currently connect, find, edit, and save that file (say 2-3 minutes total for updating a phone number or the new manager's name, etc.) then I'll find a way to get that approved.

But I (and many, many, many other people) have tried to do a home-brewed version of source control. It never works. There's always a failure sometime. There's not a single excuse you can give me that makes me believe that setting up a proper source control system isn't in your best interest.

I'm not aiming for home-brewed source control.

If I'm being flippant, I apologize.

No need to apologize, I understand your concern (I'm concerned myself that we haven't been using source control for a while now) and appreciate your help and advice. I'm just getting frustrated that the question I'm asking isn't being answered directly, but with answers of "don't do that, do this", when "this" is not currently a viable option.

Even Hansr suggested earlier building the Coda plugin myself would only take an hour or two, but even if that estimate is accurate isn't something I can take the time to do right now.

What makes this even more frustrating is that I know there are several Windows-only IDE's out there right now that have this exact functionality built right in, but developers for Mac-compatible IDE's don't seem to care (like I said in OP, either vague responses of "we don't care" or I'm completely ignored).

 

[Hansr]

Do you have any experience with Apple script as an alternative to the coda plugin? If you've worked with Apple Script before you should be able to do this relatively easy without investing a full hour or two.

 

[jrrdnx]

Do you have any experience with Apple script as an alternative to the coda plugin? If you've worked with Apple Script before you should be able to do this relatively easy without investing a full hour or two.

Unfortunately not. I tried messing around with it several years ago but couldn't get it to do what I intended. I believe I was trying to get it to automatically copy files from one specific directory to another whenever any files were added to the first (adding mp3's to my local Music folder, wanted them automatically copied to a networked media server).

I'm afraid my "programming" abilities are limited to the web technologies (HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript/jQuery, etc).