Cloud Sharing with SyncShell

Cloud Basics

Setting up a Synchronized Folder

After you've set up an account with a cloud service such as DropBox, Box, Tonido or OneCloud, you can usually install a software package that controls synchronization. This software typically sets up a single folder on your local hard drive that is synced to an identical folder structure in the cloud. Every file that you copy to your local synced folder is copied to the cloud, and changes made directly to the cloud are copied to your local disk's folder.

It's often important to create sub-folders within the synced folder for different purposes. One of these, for example, might be public files that anyone you invite to share your cloud can see. Others might contain private information about particular projects; such information should be encrypted to prevent accidental (or intentional) access.

Inviting Collaborators

All cloud services allow you to share information with others. This is usually done in one of two ways.

  • You can invite users (typically by email address) to collaborate in a folder, either as a editor (with read/write/delete privileges) or as a viewer (with read-only privileges).
  • You can send a direct URL to a collaborator allowing that person to see a particular document or folder.

SyncShell is primarily intended for the first approach. After you've invited a user to collaborate in a folder, that user can install the synchronizing software onto her machine to access the folder.

Then you and the collaborator would install and use SyncShell to manage protected access to that shared folder.

Creating a Shared Folder

SyncShell allows you to create sub-folders and set the options for that folder. These options include:

  • Normal treatment: no compression (zipping) or encryption.
  • Compression: files are compressed when copied to the cloud and decompressed when extracted via copy-and-paste to another local folder on your hard drive.
  • Encryption: SyncShell encrypts the files using a password you specify before being placed into the synchronized folder.
  • Compression and Encryption: files are both compressed and encrypted.both compressed and encrypted.
  • "Updates Only". This option allows you to update entire folder trees (sets of folders), overwriting only those files that have changed since the last time you copied the files.

Folder Management

We should emphasize that SyncShell is designed to be used with standard copy-and-paste operations between its folder pane and the Windows Explorer (a.k.a. "My Computer").

It is generally not a good idea to do your daily work directly into the cloud's synced folder. There are several reasons for this:

  • Many applications such as Microsoft Word create temporary files that should not be copied to the cloud.
  • Collaborators will receive email updates about changed files (adds, updates, deletes) while you are editing the files but before your edits are completed.

Therefore the "best practices" of using a cloud imply that you have a "real" master folder for your original work that is separate from the synced folder. This "master" folder and its sub-folders are usually organized in the same way as the cloud folder. When you're done with a phase of work, you then copy this information to the synced folder using copy-and-paste.

SyncShell's "Updates Only" folder option makes this easy, since a simple copy-and-paste operation from the Windows Explorer to a SyncShell folder will update only the files that have changed (note that files you've deleted will not be automatically deleted; this feature may come in a later release).

Exporting Folder Settings

SyncShell has a requirement that you can only change the settings on a folder when it is empty. This avoids problems such as changing the encryption password, which could leave existing files unreadable since they would remain encrypted by the old password.

So how do you share a folder that's encrypted and/or compressed with a collaborator? SyncShell provides a mechanism for "exporting" folder settings into a file which you can email or transfer to a collaborator. She can then "import" the folder settings and correctly access the files.

To create a "Folder Settings" file for export, choose "Export Folder Options" from SyncShell's Actions menu. Select a location to store the file. Then email the resulting file to your collaborator.

Importing Folder Settings

When your collaborator receives the folder options file, she can use the "Import Folder Options" item from the Actions menu to apply the settings to the correct folder in her version of the synced folder tree.  SyncShell will display the original folder location of the options.

So how are encryption passwords protected in this situation? The exported folder options file contains a "hashed" version of the password (using MD5 hashing). When she attempts to import the folder settings, she will be required to enter the correct encryption password. If the passwords don't match, SyncShell will not update the folder's options.

This means that you must communicate the encryption password independently. We recommend that you use a voice telephone call or personal face-to-face meeting for this purpose. This reduces the chance that the password can be "eavesdropped".