In the short few weeks since Portal was born, it has constantly been evolving. The most visible side of this evolution has been the steady stream of mockups that have been produced by myself and others. As the look and feel of the app has gotten sharper, the feature list has gotten a lot fuzzier.
To bring the actually tasks Portal is intended to do back to the forefront, I’ve put together a feature roadmap for versions 1.0 through 2.0+. Enjoy!
1.0 - These are features that needs to be ready to go at the launch of the app.
- Drag-and-drop file and folder sync between two Macs (with Bonjour)
- Drag-and-drop syncing of ’select’ applications (start with solid support for the big names, like Mail, Firefox, iCal, etc)
- Sync with multiple Macs with custom settings for each
- Option of creating Groups of Macs, with standard settings (Ad Hoc groups, etc.)
- Animate the syncing process with flashy Core Animation graphics (scalable from small progress bars to full screen wormholes!)
- Support for Mac OS X 10.4.x and 10.5.x (Portal should degrade gracefully on older systems)
- Full file/application backup and restore supported by Time Machine (on Macs with Leopard)
- Full Growl support for notifications (when syncs start or end, when file conflicts occur, when new Macs become available, etc.)
- Quicksilver plugins so you can add files to the sync queue quickly and easily
- Dashboard widget and Ground Control module ready to go
1.5 - These are features that are important to me, but might not be necessary for the initial release.
- Available plugin API for the graphics with support for Core Animation, Flash, and Quartz (so that third parties can develop cool new animation styles)
- Support for any arbitrary application syncing (warnings flash for those apps not tested or known to break)
- “Pro” features for managing file syncing to more than 10 Macs on a regular basis (simple workgroup and classroom management)
- Sync to Server/FTP (plugin for Transmit, Fetch, etc so Portal can sync files to servers through your favorite FTP client)
- Sync to USB (so you can keep the latest versions of your files ready to go on your USB flash drive)
2.0+ - These are the other ideas that came up that might not be that easy to implement, but we should try for anyway.
- Limited file merge capability (as well as finer granularity in application syncing)
- Support for Wide Area Bonjour (sync over internet) for remote access to files
- Sync to PC/Linux (limited support for sharing files to non-Mac systems)
- Sync to Disc (for routine backup of important files to disc, as a redundant system to compliment Time Machine’s external hard drive backups)
This list is my own personal plan, but I have no idea what features are really feasible for the developers in any given timeframe. Feel free to rearrange the list or simply let me know what you want added in!
——————
Note - I’m really happy that Portal has made it this far into the competition, and I know that I owe everything to the people who have been kind enough to offer their advice and criticisms. Thank you very much! I hope that I can continue to evolve this idea to the point where it might be useful to more than just me. Judging by how amazingly well Portal did this last round, apparently I’m not alone in wanting a better way to keep my Macs in sync!
