Feature change: Warn users before overwriting "synced" data

[Cobra]

This is not a feature addition request, but rather a request to change behavior of an existing feature.

iFly allows users to share data and configurations across devices via "syncing" (Menu > Setup > Sync devices...), which uploads the data from a source device to the Adventure Pilot cloud, so that other devices can subsequently pull the data back down from the cloud.

This works well, but can have unintended consequences that can cause loss of data. For instance, if a user creates two different flight plans on two different devices but each has the same name, then the user syncs flight plans from one device to the other, the flight plan with the same name on the 2nd device will be overwritten by the downloaded plan from the 1st device and the user will not be warned.

So I request that iFly warn the user of the potential to overwrite data. At a minimum, iFly should pop a warning that advises of the possibility in general, to prompt the user to think, "Am I syncing data that might get overwritten?"

However, it would be better if iFly were "smarter" about warning the user: iFly should be able to recognize if any of the about-to-be-downloaded files have the same name as existing files on the destination device, and explicitly warn the user, "The following files will be overwritten. Do you want to proceed?" Even better would be to present that list of files with a checkbox by each file, so the user can pick and choose which files are okay to overwrite, and which ones should not be.

And even better still, this proposed "overwrite protection" improvement could also be implemented in the "upload" phase (from a source device to the AP cloud), as well.

Thoughts?

 

[MDreger]

I agree that the process should be as smart as possible. In addition to what Cobra has suggested above, I've noticed that when I copy files in Windows, it will run through all the files, and tell me that XXX have the same file size and date, do I want to copy them. So it seems it's doing some figuring. While this particular method won't keep me from overwriting an existing differing file, this would possibly reduce the bandwith needed in when it may be a premium for a pilot.

 

[Brian]

This is not a feature addition request, but rather a request to change behavior of an existing feature.

iFly allows users to share data and configurations across devices via "syncing" (Menu > Setup > Sync devices...), which uploads the data from a source device to the Adventure Pilot cloud, so that other devices can subsequently pull the data back down from the cloud.

This works well, but can have unintended consequences that can cause loss of data. For instance, if a user creates two different flight plans on two different devices but each has the same name, then the user syncs flight plans from one device to the other, the flight plan with the same name on the 2nd device will be overwritten by the downloaded plan from the 1st device and the user will not be warned.

So I request that iFly warn the user of the potential to overwrite data. At a minimum, iFly should pop a warning that advises of the possibility in general, to prompt the user to think, "Am I syncing data that might get overwritten?"

However, it would be better if iFly were "smarter" about warning the user: iFly should be able to recognize if any of the about-to-be-downloaded files have the same name as existing files on the destination device, and explicitly warn the user, "The following files will be overwritten. Do you want to proceed?" Even better would be to present that list of files with a checkbox by each file, so the user can pick and choose which files are okay to overwrite, and which ones should not be.

And even better still, this proposed "overwrite protection" improvement could also be implemented in the "upload" phase (from a source device to the AP cloud), as well.

Thoughts?

Cobra, you mentioned flight plans specifically here. Does this apply to much else? We can certainly do a bit more, without much work, to protect specific types of data.. what we'd want to avoid is doing this for things like "#Logs" files, etc.... stuff where a user isn't going to experience "loss". Also for Flight Trails -- those are already time stamped to make their naming unique -- so they are safe.

So I think this may ONLY apply to Flight Plans -- and if so, then that narrows the scope and makes this easy to do, without worries of unintended side-effects/etc. It would become a Flight-Plan-Only data protection feature.... file by file - we compare "same names" and then report to the user "which like-named flight plans" will cause this data loss, and provide them an option to: "Not Copy" or even to "Rename" (prefixing those with the source device ID). Something like that.

 

[Cobra]

Cobra, you mentioned flight plans specifically here. Does this apply to much else?

Well, I was trying to keep the example to the currently-released version, since this is part of the public forum. But since you explicitly asked, I am thinking of the soon-to-come Checklists feature. A person may put a lot of work into a checklist, and with the current "silent overwrite" behavior, could easily lose their work.

So I think this may ONLY apply to Flight Plans -- and if so, then that narrows the scope and makes this easy to do, without worries of unintended side-effects/etc. It would become a Flight-Plan-Only data protection feature.... file by file - we compare "same names" and then report to the user "which like-named flight plans" will cause this data loss, and provide them an option to: "Not Copy" or even to "Rename" (prefixing those with the source device ID). Something like that.

I think FPs and Checklists, at a minimum, would be a good start.

 

[MDreger]

Just off the top of my head, I would think it would/should apply to checklists, flight plans, and custom waypoint names. All of these things could be accidentally named similar to ones you have used in the past, and perhaps forgotten about. "$100 hamburger run". "Great Breakfast", "Cheap Fuel", "ORD-HND", "Waypoint 1", "Waypoint 2", "C172 checklist", etc.