There’s now an Alpha version for people that are feeling brave and would like to help out and test SparkleShare. Please be aware that this is a development release and therefore should not be used in production environments. It could crash, destroy your data, computer, eat kittens, and then crash some more.
Get it here.
the README file has some instruction on how to build and install SparkleShare. If you don’t have a git repository yourself, you can create one on Gitorious or GitHub for free and upload your public key there (these are public repositories, so careful with what you put on there)
If you have questions, feel free to drop by in #sparkleshare on irc.gnome.org.
Update:
Bug reports can now go under ‘sparkleshare‘ in GNOME Bugzilla. 
The idea behind this project is very interesting. However, I’m sorry to have to say this, but it doesn’t work at all (for me). I would report bugs, but it seems, there isn’t even a bug tracker. Please don’t take this personally, I just think you released the software too early. If you release software, at least the core feature should work–i.e. the one that you wrote the software for. Even in an alpha. SparkleShare, however, isn’t even able to push my files yet. For the future you should probably keep software in that state to yourself and wait till it’s at least a little usable.
Also, I know you’re tired of hearing it, but I think Mono isn’t a good choice for that kind of software and here’s why: I don’t care about all the legal stuff and that C#/CIL is from Microsoft. But IMHO software, that’s supposed to start with the session, should be written in a language that compiles to native code. Every new runtime, interpreter and such adds startup time to my session. It’s not about chosing modern high level languages over old school C (see Vala), it’s about caring for your users’ time and battery.
Despite the ranting above, please keep up the work. With a bit of work I see a sparkling future for this project.
Alpha version has worked for me like a charm. I was able to successfully sync with my github repo. So, the problem seems to be on a previous orator’s side.
So, yes, give us a bug tracker to take care of such issues.
whats the plan for windows verison? will you work on it parallel with the linux version?
Yes, please make sure the core features of your software works for everyone everywhere before releasing your first alpha version. If you haven’t tested on my machine, what’s the point of letting me download it?
Also, please write native applications for Linux, Mac, and Windows without using a compatibility layer, as my extra minuscule start-up time for your free software is more important than you being able to code and troubleshoot quickly so we can actually see a working product.
First of all, thanks for the great work, I flattrd you!
As there is no bugtracker yet, I’ll report a bug right here:
- First of all, it’s not exactly clear that, when you select “github” the directory input box should contain your username and the repository (for example: frenkel/sparkleshare-test/). I found that out by looking at the log btw.
- Next, SparkleShare didn’t want to push changes at first. I saw this in the log:
[18:52:29][Git][sparkleshare-test (1)] Pushing changes…
No refs in common and none specified; doing nothing.
Perhaps you should specify a branch such as ‘master’.
error: failed to push some refs to ’ssh://git@github.com/frenkel/sparkleshare-test’
[18:52:31][Git][sparkleshare-test (1)] Changes pushed.
Therefor, I did a manual “git push origin master” and after that, SparkleShare started to work correctly.
Keep up the good work, and one advice: open up a bug tracker
If it works with the gnome accessibility framework, the Ubuntu Menu Bar, and RGBA translucency, it’s probably native enough.
I haven’t had problems with mono apps. Banshee is Ubuntu native.
OpenOffice and Firefox are another story.
Most interesting OS project at the moment. Groove that ass
@Michael I don’t agree. I’ve been testing this for a while now along with a couple of other contributors and it seemed to work. The only way to see if it would work for others too is to release a development release.
Mono was the best choice for this project in terms of maintainability. I also suck at C or anything low level and I think it’s a waste of time for a project like this. Short startup time is nice but it isn’t everything. If you need the speed and want to port it to C I encourage you to do so or hire someone to do it for you, it’s a Free Software project after all.
@urza it will be done after the first stable release.
@Steven
@Frank Groeneveld Thanks! there is a bugtracker now as you can see above.
Look awesome!
Just wondering. What is the difference between Novell’s iFolder from ifolder.com and SparkleShare? Other than of course iFolder is in C#, which is very likely an IP trap.
Are they the same, but this is just a real free and open source version of iFolder?
@Michael - Mono has an ahead-of-time compiler available, so it ought to be possible to compile SparkleShare to native code if that’s what you want. The startup time / memory usage is not going to be significantly different to any other platform in that regard, but of course if you have other Mono apps (tomboy, etc.) you’d probably actually lose out with native code.
@Louise SparkleShare is written in C# too. It’s 100% FOSS. I think the main difference is that iFolder is harder to set up, and SparkleShare is made to “Just Work”.
Looks promising, but total lack of documentation and sensible error messages casts off. Do I need to prepare git repo manually? What “went wrong” when connecting to remote directory? Where is remote directory placed?
In other word, I’ve installed it, started, put my server name and /tmp/test directory in and got some unknown failure with option to get it again.
Are there any hidden debugging switches in SS?
I’ll give it a try and look forward to the final release.
@11 Okay, so this is also written in C#. Aren’t you concerned about the lock down Microsoft can enforce on Mono?
They can at any time declare that Mono infringes on their proprietary C# intellectual property, and force Mono from being distributed.
Or if anyone uses a library/module that infringes on one of their patents or again intellectual properties?
According to FSF and Red Hat that is Microsoft’s plan. Get open source programmers to use it, and then collect royalties. Nothing prevents Microsoft from doing that, and they haven’t promised not to sue or collect royalties at some point.
@Louise That is true for every piece of software unfortunately. Everything infringes some stupid patent.
I don’t know about Microsoft’s internal plans, but they did promise not to sue anyone using the standardised parts (http://www.microsoft.com/interop/cp/default.mspx).
I’m also not using any parts that are known to be patent encumbered.
So no, I’m not afraid of that.
@Tomasz indeed. I haven’t had the time to write up some proper document yet.
Will there be a web interface for files?
@JasonCook599 yes
When this is done, this will be sooooo awesome.
A local Dropbox !!!
I’m very excited to see more in the future, maybe i will help with some C# code, but we will see
Downloaded, compiled and got it running today. Works like a charm; no problems (except some caused by git that I was able to fix) whatsoever. My main concern, though, is local disk usage. I am using sparkleshare on a laptop with limited disk space — owing to git’s habit of keeping a full copy of the repository locally, directories in sparkleshare now take up *twice* the amount of disk space :-/
Hi Hylke,
I am very exited about this project, cant wait till the windows beta comes out
if you need a windows beta-tester, please let me know!
Groetjes, Roland de Goeij.
@Christian That is true. It’s a downside when you’re just using it for static files. For project files, for which the program is designed, it’s an advantage.
You should mention that the sparkle created SSH key has the password of the email address. At least in our case it asked for it and I had to check the source.
We also have the problem that some externally added files to github do not show up. The fetch seems to not find them. This might be a branch problem with GIT, not an expert here. “git fetch” in the sparkleshare directory does not download them.