7bupstats
=========
Version 0.35 (7 Apr 2011)

Introduction
============

Important: 7bupstats will do nothing constructive by itself. It is
complementary to 7backup (from 7thSoftware) and displays a
continuously updated progress summary of any backup taking place. It
is of most use when 7backup itself is running in quiet mode, and takes
its input from the 7backup$status variable as it is updated by
7backup.

Installation
============

For a new installation, simply drag and drop the 7bupstats application
into the directory of your choice.

If you have a previous copy of 7bupstats you have two choices.

* Move the old version of 7bupstats somewhere safe and replace it with
  the new version

* Simply copy the new version over the old version. Set your filer
  options to Force and Newer.

Basic operation
===============

To run the application, double click on it's icon in a filer window.
By default, the application will be installed on the iconbar. Clicking
on the iconbar icon with Select will open the progress status window.
It will display '7backup is idle' unless a backup is already underway.
Once a 7backup is underway, then the status display will show an
abbreviated version of what 7backup is doing.

Modes of operation
------------------
The application can be made to behave in one of three different ways,
set by options in the choices dialogue (see below).

1.  An icon always on the iconbar. This is now the recommended mode of
    operation.

2.  An icon on the iconbar only when the status display is not open

3.  A status window always, and never an iconbar icon. The mode 3
    behaviour is essentially the same as earlier versions (up to
    0.20a) and is retained for backwards compatibility. In this case
    the iconbar menu can be accessed from this window.

The Iconbar Menu
================

Info - A standard application info box, including a button to go to
    the web site to check for later versions.

Help... - Runs the help file (this one).

Choices... - Opens the Choices dialogue (see below).

Quit - This terminates the application immediately.

Choices...
==========

The three radio buttons at the top switch between the three modes of
operation (see above).

Always an iconbar icon
----------------------
This is used to select mode 1 operation (above), and is the default setting.

Hide iconbar icon when status open
----------------------------------
This is used to select mode 2 (above). If this option is ticked then
whenever the status window is opened, the iconbar icon will be
removed. On closing the status window, the iconbar icon will be
reinstated.

Never install iconbar icon
--------------------------
This is an option for compatibility with the way versions up to 0.20
behaved. The only difference between this mode and previous versions
(up to 0.20) is that 7bupstats will ask for confirmation if you close
the status window when 7backup is active. If 7backup is not active,
then 7bupstats will quit quietly, as if the menu Quit option had been
used. In this mode the iconbar menu can be opened by using the menu
button on the staus window.

Auto open/close status window
-----------------------------
When this option is ticked, and 7bupstats is running with an installed
iconbar icon, then the status window will open automatically when
7backup begins a backup, and will close again when the backup is
finished. You can, of course, always open and close the status window
manually at any time, by clicking on the iconbar icon or the close
icon in the window title bar.

If you are operating in mode 3 (no iconbar icon at any time) 7bupstats
will ask for confirmation if you close the status window when 7backup
is active, since in this mode closing the window will terminate the
program. If 7backup is not active, then 7bupstats will quit quietly,
as if the menu Quit option had been used.

Update time
-----------
Since the object of 7bupstats is to show that 7backup is working away
in the background, the screen display is not updated continuously.
There is a time delay between each screen update, which greatly
reduces the load on the processor. The default delay is set to 0.5 s,
which is a good compromise between seeing the backup progressing and
hogging processor time. The current range of delays is from 0.1 to 1.5
sec delay.

The status or progress window
=============================

The three display fields are used to show the status of the backup
process. The left field shows the action (e.g. copy) that is taking
place. The second larger field shows the name of the file that is
undergoing the action. The text is right justified so you can always
see the file leaf name if the full path overflows in the icon. The
rightmost field shows the percentage completion of the current file
action, and is most useful when large files are being copied.

At the right of the status window is an action button, labelled Pause.
This allows the backup process to be paused. Once paused, the button
text changes to Resume, and clicking the button will allow the backup
to continue. When 7backup is not doing a backup, the Pause button will
be greyed out, but will become available as soon as 7backup commences
a backup process. You must be using 7backup version 1.17 or later for
the Pause/Resume function to be available.

Contact
=======

All communication about 7bupstats should be directed to Chris Johnson
(Email:chris@chris-johnson.org.uk). Suggestions for new features are
always welcome.

Web site
========

Chris Johnson's web site is at
http://www.chris-johnson.org.uk/index.html, with his RISC OS software
at http://www.chris-johnson.org.uk/software/index.html.

Screenshots
===========

All the screen shots in these pages were obtained using Snapper, a
versatile screen capture application.

Snapper is available from
http://www.chris-johnson.org.uk/software/snap.html

This document last modified on 7th April 2011

