[johnd]

Just an update of my adventures with Bonsai. I'm using Bonsai on my WM6.1 device daily and sync'ing to my WinXP sp3 netbook and the attached error has been my constant companion. I can count on seeing it more than 60% of the time when I connect the device.



If I remember to close Bonsai on both ends and soft reset the WM device I can get the percentage down to maybe 40% of the time.

I do find that it takes a long time for outlines to open on the device but I'm assuming this is related to it being beta / debugging code. (I hope I hope I hope). I also would like to be able to sort the lists on the device (especially useful for finding something in a huge perpetual grocery list). I'm also hoping that there will be a toolbar with definable buttons so I can set filters without having to click through the menus all the time. Or, some other method of easily changing filters without having to stop and pull out the stylus would be appreciated.

The only other issue I'm seeing is on the PC side: I still lose changes fairly often when Bonsai does sync'ing in the background. It seems to update the changed (though unsaved) PC version of the outline with the version from the WM device.

As I mentioned, I am using Bonsai daily and over all it's been working well for me.

Thanks!
John

[Richard Murphy]

Thanks for the feedback. So you know, the ActiveSync unresolved status can be ignored for now. I'll try to get this fixed but this is not necessarily an indication that you really have unresolved data. Bonsai manages syncing outlines itself and then reports status back to ActiveSync. While I thought this issue had been resolved, apparently there must be cases yet that the status reporting is not correct.
The current beta is geared for SmartPhone users (devices without touch screens). We will add toolbars and such later in the beta.
As for the lost changes you reported, the sync should force the saving of modified outlines on the desktop and handheld so I am not sure why this is not happening.

• Are you saying you are losing unsaved changes that were made to the PC outline?
  
• Are you running the latest beta v4.2.8.2961?
  
• Any idea what is triggering the sync to occur? The only time the outline should sync is when the device is first connected (and the outline has been modified) or when the outline is saved on either the handheld or the PC.

[johnd]

Richard Murphy, on Jan 9 2009, 11:47 AM, said:

Thanks for the feedback. So you know, the ActiveSync unresolved status can be ignored for now. I'll try to get this fixed but this is not necessarily an indication that you really have unresolved data. Bonsai manages syncing outlines itself and then reports status back to ActiveSync. While I thought this issue had been resolved, apparently there must be cases yet that the status reporting is not correct.
The current beta is geared for SmartPhone users (devices without touch screens). We will add toolbars and such later in the beta.

Thanks for the info. I'll keep looking for new updates.

Quote

[*]Are you saying you are losing unsaved changes that were made to the PC outline?

Yes

Quote

[*]Are you running the latest beta v4.2.8.2961?

Yes

Quote

[*]Any idea what is triggering the sync to occur? The only time the outline should sync is when the device is first connected (and the outline has been modified) or when the outline is saved on either the handheld or the PC.

I have Outlook, DayNotez, Bonsai and eWallet open most of the time so it could be any of those sparking the update. I haven't been able to track down exactly when it's happening.

Despite my whining I think that Bonsai is a great product and am finding it very useful in keeping my lists organized. ;)

[johnd]

Going to whine about this again just to bump the issue. ;)

I continue to have the problem where I'm making changes to an outline on the PC while the WM device is connected and the outline will revert to the WM version and I'll lose my changes. Today I did this:

My outline had 4 items unchecked. I checked three of the items then clicked on the remaining item and hit enter to make a new item. I typed new info and hit enter again to add another item. While I was typing the Bonsai interface flashed and the items I had checked off were back and my new items disappeared.

I checked off the old items again and started retyping my new items again. Again the UI flashed and now both the new and old items were gone!

It seems that checking an item on the PC is what triggers the sync'ing to begin and what causes the outline to be replaced with the outline from the device, even without saving.

[Richard Murphy]

Thanks for the detailed report. I still cannot reproduce this problem. Bonsai will only synchronize when the outline is saved so I am puzzled by this. It might be that some other action is causing the sync to run, possibly even external to Bonsai. Even if this occurs, Bonsai will check file dates and should not sync the outline if it did not change which would be the case since you did not save the outline.
Please enable sync diagnostics by configuring "logging during synchronization" to diagnostic on the View/Global Settings menu Synchronization tab in Bonsai on the PC. Then delete the Bonsai sync log (BonsaiSyncLog.txt) and reproduce this problem. The shorter the sync log is, the better chance I have of determining the cause of the problem.
The Bonsai sync log will be found under the %appdata%\Natara folder where %appdata% is the application data directory (defaults to “C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows User>\Application Data” for Windows XP or "C:\Users\<Windows User>\AppData\Roaming" for Vista). Generally you can specify the path with the %appdata% and Windows will expand this for you.
I will also look at changing Bonsai on the PC so it will not reload an outline if it is modified. This should prevent this from happening regardless of how the sync is being triggered.

[johnd]

Richard Murphy, on Feb 6 2009, 06:29 PM, said:

Thanks for the detailed report. I still cannot reproduce this problem. Bonsai will only synchronize when the outline is saved so I am puzzled by this. It might be that some other action is causing the sync to run, possibly even external to Bonsai. Even if this occurs, Bonsai will check file dates and should not sync the outline if it did not change which would be the case since you did not save the outline.
Please enable sync diagnostics by configuring "logging during synchronization" to diagnostic on the View/Global Settings menu Synchronization tab in Bonsai on the PC. Then delete the Bonsai sync log (BonsaiSyncLog.txt) and reproduce this problem. The shorter the sync log is, the better chance I have of determining the cause of the problem.
The Bonsai sync log will be found under the %appdata%\Natara folder where %appdata% is the application data directory (defaults to “C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows User>\Application Data” for Windows XP or "C:\Users\<Windows User>\AppData\Roaming" for Vista). Generally you can specify the path with the %appdata% and Windows will expand this for you.
I will also look at changing Bonsai on the PC so it will not reload an outline if it is modified. This should prevent this from happening regardless of how the sync is being triggered.

I wasn't able to repro this on demand (isn't that always the way?) but sort of replicated it by working in Bonsai when ActiveSync was doing an update because of changes in Outlook. On this occasion when Bonsai 'flashed' items which had been checked off for months were suddenly unchecked ('pet partners for xmas trip' is an example of one item that reappeared). I'll send you the logs separately.