IMPORTANT UPDATE: We’re releasing the first important fix of the 1.5 beta. We received reports that the file list sometimes freezes, and will not refresh no matter what. We’ve now fixed that, and decided to release it right away. A great many thanks to our beta users for their contributions.
So, it’s time for you to find out what we’ve been up all these long and dark winter nights, and to tell us what you think of it.
ATTENTION: Bug reports will be rewarded with the feeling that you have done something useful to improve the software you are using 
So where’s the download link already?… here you go, enjoy!
And a few words about the release: 1.5 of course is the Leopard version of ForkLift, but beyond that, it contains like a hundred new or modified features. Major parts of the code have been rewritten, workflows were redirected, and new parts of the OS have been incorporated. These being the first ones to come to mind:
>obviously, the beautiful new UI, thanks to Cocoa-master Mudi Dandan
> obviously, the new sidebar. The sidebar now lists shared volumes of the local network in a separate group item, and will also recognize the computers on the network just like Finder does (with the funny little PC icons et al). It also allows you to create Favorite Groups, and to edit Favorites directly from the context menu (does not support local favorites, only remote).
> there is now a single Connect panel (from the Go menu), which groups FTP/SFTP/WebDav/S3/Bluetooth connection functions. It also has an option to add a new connection directly to the Favorites.
> mudi rewrote some part of the copy engine – it should now be about 10 times (!) faster, as FL can now use multiple channels for moving data. The improvement will affect all copy operations, over FTP, SFTP, S3, bluetooth, etc. It means ForkLift is now one of the fastest ftp clients on earth. A Word Press upgrade that took us 60 seconds now takes a mere 6 secs!
> the new copy engine also fixed a problem that was reported by many users. Namely, that copying a folder to a remote filesystem where a folder with the same name already existed wiped the original folder, instead of merging the contents of the two folders. As we have explained, this was not a bug, but we did give some thought to the problem, and found out that it’s not an impossible request. So FL will now ask you if you want to replace or merge the directories – please test this very thoroughly, as strange filenames, foreign character sets etc can still give us some surprises.
> the new preview panel is just great. It can be resized to any size, it is capable to display pdfs, and it now reads Spotlight comments as well.
> thanks to mudi, you also have Quick Look in FL. just hit [space] as in Finder
> running tasks are now grouped in a single activity window
> on top of each panel, you will now see a path browser to help navigating within the selected volumes. double clicking anywhere in the path navigator will jump to the given folder.
> we’ve reviewed and corrected the menu items and panel texts. should be nice an clean now
> if you’re attentive enough, you will have noted the new application icon. Thanks bubu for the nice 3D job. There are also a couple of new toolbar icons.
> you can now rename folders and files directly by clicking the file/folder name, like in Finder
FIXES:
> bluetooth null connection error now fixed
> slow copy bug on local copy of large amount of files now fixed
> filters did not work on extensions, fixed
> type ahead bug on localized folders is now fixed
> bug where drag and drop did not work into empty folders is now fixed
> droplet growl support is now fixed
IMPORTANT: Droplets created with 1.2 may no longer work once 1.5 BETA was installed.
Well, I hope we have everything there.
The BETA period will end on February 29.
PLEASE use our support page to report all bugs, and reserve the blog for non-technical comments only. Don’t forget to select the 1.5 BETA option when submitting your bugreports.
Thanks to all for your help in testing this beta.
Good nights everybody.
BinaryNights
Fantastic! I am loving FL (picked it up in the MU Promo Bundle) and the remote editing feature is amazing! I can’t wait to see what you have done with 1.5… I’m off to play!
Could you perhaps post some screenshots for us poor Tiger users?
Oh, that is one sweet looking app
Off to do some testing…
Is there a way to make it use space bar to select files? (more like NC)
FINALLY
GREAT! You made my day, guys!
Is there a way to buy ForkLift without PayPal? Using CreditCard?
You forgot to mention a new feature: “Sync Browsing”
SWEET!!!
[...] in all, this is a really nice update. You can try the ForkLift 1.5 Beta, ForkLift 1.2 for 15 days, or purchase it for just $29.95. Bulk discounts [...]
Hey, VERY nice!!!
How can I change the FONT? Text is a bit small for my old eyes
Thanks for great BETA release, I believe ForkLift is now best alternative for TotalCommander for switchers as me and I’m so far quite happy that I’ve purchased the license.
Yet I don’t want to be annoying but here’s the full list of bugs and features that are really missing for ex-Total Commander users. I’ve sent you feedback reports for them but since there’s no mail confirmation or tracker I don’t know what happened to them.
Note that those bugs and those missing 4 keyboard shortcuts (features) are real show stoppers to FL especially when you use keyboard a lot for file navigation.
BUGS:
– Target name is shown instead of symbolic link name, so link created with “ln -s /User/ono MyHome” will show “ono” not “MyHome” in the list
– PageUp/Down (Fn+ArrowUp/Down) on MacBook scrolls the window by one page but doesn’t move the selection focus (while it should), also Cmd+Up/Down should IMHO got to beginning/end of the list (very annoying for navigation)
– When I press Opt+Cmd+F for spotlight search, then I Tab to the results, then I press Delete to escape results I don’t get to former pane folder but its parent folder
– No way to rename favorite pointing to local path
– When I calculated folder size in the list, then I remove other folder or copy file into the pane folder, the folder size is removed while it should stay untouched if the file operation isn’t relative to it (does not change its content)
– File size & date fields should be aligned to right not left (can’t compare numbers with left align)
– Calculate folder size should invalidate sort by size after it is done, try to sort by size, then select all and calculate size, order doesn’t change while it IMHO should
FEATURES:
– Shortcut: (Opt+Cmd+ArrowLeft/ArrowRight) Open focused folder in opposite (selected by arrow) pane
– Shortcut: (Opt+1…9) Sort using field, Opt+1 for name, Opt+1 again for name desc, Opt+3 for size, etc.
– Shortcut: (Opt+Cmd+C) Copy selected file path
– Shortcut: (Opt+Cmd+S) Calculate size of all folders in the list
– Connect to server using Samba/CIFS, NFS and AFP like in Finder Cmd+F (this is really crucial for administrators)
– Also let SMB, NFS, AFP connections be added to favorites (and when path is already mounted, cd to it not mount it again)
– An option to specify font size for the list? (Those fonts are bit too small for me)
– Way to clone headers size or order in one pane to 2nd pane, way to move divider back to exactly 50%
– Allow to modify file extended attributes in File Info (Cmd+I) such as Invisible, Hide Extension, .. etc (as in SetFile command)
– Allow to modify existing archives, so files can be copied into them, renamed, as they were normal folders (I know this isn’t easy)
– An option to explicitly set a displayed file size unit to one of: byte, KB, MB, instead of using scalable display
What about cost to upgrade from 1.2? I picked up Forklift from MUPromo Dec 10, 2007 will I have to pay to upgrade?
@Dennis
It’s been discussed in earlier posts, that’s why it was left out, but here it is: 1.5 will be a FREE upgrade.
We are in no hurry to get rich.
@Joe
Yes, hang on a couple of days more, and you’ll be able to use Visa/MC/AmEx to purchase FL
@Ian
thanks for stepping in for us, when our memories hit a blank spot. Of course we do have synch browsing now.
Now you’re a real attentive lad..
@Adam
Thanks for all the feedback, but rest assured, the reports you’ve sent us earlier were not lost – it’s just that we only reply in mail when we require more info, whereas your requests were pretty clear. I won’t give you any immediate promise of getting these features done, but we will try to accomodate for the needs of the TC-fans such as yourself, once the core features are stable.
thanks for all the kind comments, and please remember to send us your bugreports/recommendations using the form on our support page.
and a nice day to all
FL was already great and is now looking even better, congratulations!
There is still a bug whith FTP/SSH connections using id_dsa public keys, though… This is the only reason why I have to use Fetch instead of FL sometimes.
MacUpdate lists this as being compatible with Tiger. You might want to fix that.
[...] letölthető a Forklift OS 10.5-re optimalizált béta verziója, rengeteg újdonsággal. Letölteni és bugreportolni a fejlesztők oldaláról lehet jól. Amikor megláttam az új sexy designt és az újradesignolt Forklift ikont, azt mondtam: Fuck me [...]
Sorry for the, probably, dumb question. But I am trying out the beta and was wondering what Transfer Concurrency is in the preferences pane?
Will any of the new features be made available to Tiger users or will we be forced to update to Leopard just to take advantage of them?
hoooray!!!!!!!
I really love this new bet, the new look and feel is GREAT
Where is the Tiger Version 1.5?
Is this only for Leopard? (I’m on Tiger)
Jeremy: what I assume transfer concurrency is are the number of connections used to a server. This increases the parallelism of a transfer (though not it won’t necessarily make it go faster as you still have the same bandwidth).
However, one thing is not really working. In an FTP server that accepts multiple connections, I’d like 1 connection for navigating, and the rest used for transfers. This would mean I can navigate at the same time as copying something. Forklift fails to do that even though it seems to now allow more than one connection. This means Forklift blocks everytime you move something from an FTP server…
Mattias & Hanjo: 1.5 is Leopard only as is stated above.
@Ian. Thanx man.
Would it be possible to save the state of the left AND right pane in a favorite ?
- For FTP use, it is annoying to always have to navigate to my local folder. If I could save the two panes (local and remote dir) that would be so much more productive.
- Also a sync dir command would be very welcome.
- also the sync browsing command is a step in the right direction, but it needs to be a little smarter, i.e. if it sees an identical file and folder structure in both panes, it should sync browse or dual browse. At the moment this is still left up to the user, i.e. set both panes, enable sync browse and start browsing. If this command could just recognize the file and folder structures and pick up from when they are identical it would be better (when enabled ofcourse).
YummyFTP does all of the above in a very elegant manner, have a look at their implementation.
sorry, to elaborate on sync dir, I meant synchronize directories, with the option to include subdirectories, and to update local or remote files (or update left or right pane).
With the option to look at differing file size, creation date, modification date…
The only application I really miss from Windows is FlashFXP, but ForkLift is getting better and better with each new version. But there are a couple of FlashFXP’s features that I still miss on ForkLift:
- Some kind of skip list (it would be very useful to have a skip list of filenames/directories, files with zero size, etc. to avoid when mass downloading).
- FlashFXP’s queue was great. If ForkLift gets something like that it will become, by far, the best downloading tool for OSX.
Very nice; thank you
it’s an usefull software… and the best ftp client, better than transmit !
kr3at0r — I’ve posted an enhancement request asking for a shelf/dropbox/queue too; this makes more complex file management far less hassle, and shouldn’t be to difficult to implement (it is just a fancy clipboard after all
)
Also posted, but I’ll mention it here too, for Quicksilver users, it would be awesome if Forklift would expose its selection to being passed to Quicksilver. Here is what the QS user manual says:
“The Current Selection proxy object gets the selection from the
frontmost application. It uses a service internally so it only works
with Cocoa applications (e.g., Safari, Mail, Preview, iWork, etc.).
That’s most modern Mac apps but the notable exceptions are MS
Office and Firefox (try Camino instead). Still, it’s remarkably useful. “
[...] letölthető (OS X) A tegnapi napon megjelent a legjobb (!) os x fájlkezelő, a ForkLift új bétája. Több újdonságot is tartalmaz az előző verzióhoz képest, amik [...]
excellent work!!! can´t wait for the final release of 1.5.
Wish you could add a “New Tab” button to the tool bar, that would be very useful. Congrats.
first off, your new method of navigating the pane’s path is freakin genius. the way it expands each section on mouseover is really a great use of space AND usable.
i second ian’s request to navigate while ftp transfers are occurring. perhaps this is something that’s still being worked on, as forklift 1.2 is able to do this. it’s very handy.
1.5 seems to have taken a step back w/ the keyboard interface for stop/skip/resume/replace dialog. (it used to default to replace, the most common use, and you could just hit space to select it.) i’d also like to reiterate my request for “_A_pply to all” so you can hit alt-a to select it in this dialog. would be great for keyboard users!
i have to say that i enjoyed the old icon. altho it was kinda close to Transmit, it looked much more iconic than the new fancy-rendered 3D forklift. a small point, but the new icon doesn’t have the same fun feel and polish, nor does it show up as well in the dock or cmd-tab interface (the cage is darker and thinner).
all said, tho, the new version looks awesome, and is easily my fav OSX app next to TextMate!
I just spotted very unusual behavior (BUG), I don’t know if it is something wrong with me, but when I request MOVE the folder in 1.5 is does COPY instead of moving the folder.
How do it move the folder then?
Also in certain situations when I do copy on network drives Forklift takes 100% CPU.
While in other situations when I work with mounted CD volume Forklift caused Finder to take 100%.
In both situations closing Forklift makes CPU to go back to normal state.
I did a ForkLift process sampling when it it was sucking 100% cpu, here’re results:
http://pingu.ii.uj.edu.pl/~ono/download/forklift_perf_1.txt
http://pingu.ii.uj.edu.pl/~ono/download/forklift_perf_2.txt
How works SyncBrowsing?
Hello Everybody,
Thanks for your enthusiasm in reporting bugs – we’ve received like six-hundred emails in the last couple of days. That’s partly the reason why we may be lagging behind replies…. But we’ll eventually get to each and every bug report we receive, so keep the coming in.
To Ian – thanks for answering the others’ questions when we’re not around, or sleeping on our jobs
I just want to confirm everything you said is perfectly right.
Looking through the comments we’ve read so far, it looks to us like we’re heading in the right direction. Thanks for the praise.
We will very probably be releasing an update to the beta in a few weeks, so please conserve your energies
Good nights everybody
p.s. Please make sure you post all bug reports on our support page as well
My 1.5 installation crashes reliably, about 3 secs on every launch. Corresponding Console entry reads
Terminating app due to uncaught exception ‘NSInvalidArgumentException’, reason: ‘*** -[NSCFArray initWithObjects:count:]: attempt to insert nil object at objects[0]‘
Here’s the relevant CrashReport entry:
Thread 2 Crashed:
0 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0×95c45114 ___TERMINATING_DUE_TO_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION___ + 4
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0×9599a09b objc_exception_throw + 40
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0×95c37ee7 -[__NSPlaceholderArray initWithObjects:count:] + 247
3 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0×95c3ae63 +[NSArray arrayWithObject:] + 67
4 …ights.ForkLift.ForkLiftCore 0×000f5428 -[FLSharesManager _ipForNetBiosName:] + 393
5 …ights.ForkLift.ForkLiftCore 0×000f4ef9 -[FLSharesManager _sambaBrowser] + 1217
6 com.apple.Foundation 0×945dc04d -[NSThread main] + 45
7 com.apple.Foundation 0×945dbbf4 __NSThread__main__ + 308
8 libSystem.B.dylib 0×962a5075 _pthread_start + 321
9 libSystem.B.dylib 0×962a4f32 thread_start + 34
The crash seems to be related with Windows share: I’m running 10.5.1 in a predominantly Windows-only environment (> 100 Windows machines,
r.e. #34 — Indeed it *looks* as if it is copied. But actually the problem is Forklift is failing to refresh the panel, this makes it look like a COPY not MOVE. I’ve tested this using the updated beta build 3566, which was supposed to refresh bug but obviously not under all conditions. I’ll post a bug on this.
Hello Everybody,
A little update on the fixes:
We’re working on a fix for the move/copy problem, and the refresh problem on the panels.
We’ve fixed some GUI stuff, broken buttons and low contrast buttons.
Well, that’s about all we did today. Keep those crash reports coming in, they are a great help, and also make great bedside reading
Good Nights
What’s Quick Look UI? I can’t start FL anymore
Jan 25 23:01:27 Simpolblu crashdump[325]: ForkLift crashed
Jan 25 23:01:27 Simpolblu crashdump[325]: crash report written to: /Users/abe/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ForkLift.crash.log
dyld: Library not loaded: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/QuickLookUI.framework/Versions/A/QuickLookUI
Referenced from: /Applications/ForkLift.app/Contents/MacOS/ForkLift
Reason: image not found
@42 – The framework for Leopard’s QuickLook…. You’re not trying to run 1.5 on Tiger (OS X 10.4.x) are you?
I beta tested the first version of FL, and it was so wonderful that I bought it almost right when it came out. I still think it’s great and continue to plug it over other OS X file managers. I just happened to stumble upon this beta tonight, and you guys are doing awesome. The UI was functional before; now it is functional and beautiful. The breadcrumb that expands like Finder’s is a very welcome addition, the preview pane is great, and of course Quick Look integration is just perfect. Great work, look forward to this version going final, and thanks for keeping it a free update. I know I would’ve paid for this.
@43 – Oh I didn’t read 10.5 was required…. not optional?
@43 – Silly me… the third sentence when you enter the website says it
Ok I just read what I was interested in:: new version 
Hi, my ForkLift crashes every time i wake my computer from sleep. Does this happen to anyone else?
Platform: MBP 3,1 Leopard 10.5.1
Also, i think that button “replace” in replace dialog should be default (focused) button, because now i need to use mouse to click on replace button. I think that would help users who prefer keyboard than mouse.
Thanks,
Goran.
Hi! Thanks for this great beta! Here are my issues. Some of it has been said before, so I’ll just mention it again to stress the importance IMHO.
Bugs & Usability issues
- When selected, invisible item’s font should change color to white or very bright grey (the current grey is not readable over the blue bar)
- After a popup (like, “The document could not be opened”), give the focus back to the panel we have been last
- When pasting a file, the pasted file should be focused because I want to review the name. At the moment, it’s even hard to find the file, so it’s hard to tell whether the pasing worked.
- The black area (details) is quite big, for what it shows. Especially the space between the lines. It thinks it’s handy but a little waste of space, maybe the room between the lines could be less.
- ForkLift alway says “there are unfinished tasks in progress” when I try to quit, and I have no idea what that could be.
Critical Enhancement Requests
- A shortcut to toggle selection on the focused file, as the “Insert” Key in total Commander.
– Confirmation when pressing F5, F6, or F8, with an option in the settings to switch it on / off
– Shortcut: (Opt+Cmd+C) Copy selected file path
- Shortcuts: cmd+Down: go to last entry, cmd+up: go to first entry, wih shift: mark until first/last entry
– Shortcut: (Opt+Cmd+ArrowLeft/ArrowRight) Open focused folder in opposite (selected by arrow) pane. If the focused file is not a folder, do the “clone pane”
– Shortcut: (Opt+1…9) Sort using field, Opt+1 for name, Opt+1 again for name desc, Opt+3 for size, etc.
– If I do not have the rights to perform a some operation, ask for the admin password (like in Finder)
- Shift+F5 for duplication a file in the same folder (a dialog should open to enter the new filename).
– Allow to modify file extended attributes in File Info (Cmd+I) such as Invisible, Hide Extension, .. etc (as in SetFile command), also being able to change “open with” as in Finder
Other enhancement requests (most important first)
- A shortcut to focus the Devices list and another one for the Favorites list, so that I can select favorites with he keyboard, up/down and return (without having to use the mouse)
- Flat view (with sub-folders)
– Shortcut: (Opt+Cmd+S) Calculate size of all folders in the list
- Select all files of the same type with a customizable shortcut (e.g. Alt++, Alt+-)
– Allow to modify existing archives, so files can be copied into them, renamed, as they were normal folders (I know this isn’t easy)
– An option to specify font size for the list? (Those fonts are bit too small for me)
– Connect to server using Samba/CIFS, NFS and AFP like in Finder Cmd+F (this is really crucial for administrators)
– Also let SMB, NFS, AFP connections be added to favorites (and when path is already mounted, cd to it not mount it again)
Thanks,
david
First, you guys are doing a great job – the new interface and features are excellent, and I’m delighted to hear that the upgrade from 1.2 will be free.
There is one thing I’d like to request: I’d like to be able to see a folder’s size (the total size of the files and subfolders in a folder). I hope that will be possible with the final release of 1.5
to: Marko
There is option to calculate folder size: just select folder, right click (or ctrl+click) and select “Calculate folder size”. FL will calculate folder size then. Unfortunately it will be gone, once you will navigate away from that window. I already sent this feature request and answer was that FL would consume a lot of resources, if they would make FL calculate sizes dynamically. However I still think, that it would be nice to keep calculated sizes in XML file, so they wouldn’t be gone in case you navigate away from window by mistake, for instance.
I am using the beta 1.5b2 so far, great tool! Cosidering to buy, how about the version, I am buying a license for 1.2? Where can I get the “old one” then. Or should I wait till 1.5 is final?