Flow: Review and Giveaway
Flow is an application that has been long awaited and much talked about. It was indeed billed as a possible Transmit killer by this very website. So now that it has been released, does it live up to the hype? Will it really be a Transmit killer or does the yellow and purple truck have some mileage in it yet, not to mention the many other Mac FTP applications?
I have spent a while with Flow before it was released and I have begun to build a pretty decent view on the application. It does some things differently from other FTP apps that I believe will ultimately make you decide whether you love it or loath it.
So what does Flow offer that is actually new to the FTP space? Surely it is completely saturated at the moment, right? Well it seems that these are questions the Flow designers have taken to heart when designing the app (and something that the developer spoke about recently in an interview). It is “a fresh approach to an old problem” and that is something that is very apparent as I was reviewing Flow. It felt more like the MarsEdits of this world rather than an FTP application. Its visual footprint is small and it integrates a lot of new Mac OS X features into the application.
We have this new, one-paned interface, which is unlike most FTP apps of today. In Flow there is no more dragging between “your stuff” and “their stuff”; you are now dragging between the Finder and Flow (or vice versa). For me this is brilliant, as it’s what I always did for some reason. Now it just means there is less mess on the screen – I just continue as I was. However, I can see that for some this could potentially be an issue. I don’t see it being a deal breaker, but if someone is very used to using dual-panes it can take quite a while to get out of the habit.
Another addition to Flow is its live editing capability. Here, as opposed to downloading a file, editing it and then re-uploading it to the server, Flow allows you to edit the file on the server itself. Obviously this has its appropriate times and places for use. It is perfect, for example, for tweaking a line of code or the layout on a temporary section of a site. It’s probably not best used live for mission-critical pages.
That being said, the editor is OK, but not particularly full featured. You have the essentials: basic syntax coloring and a live preview. There are no great features here, but one really thoughtful inclusion is the ability to switch the vertical orientation of the preview so you can either have it landscape (pictured) or portrait.
Flow also works hard to integrate new OS X features right into the client. Quicklook being a prime example. It works as you would probably expect it to. Along the bottom of the window there is a Quicklook icon. Click on it (or hit space-bar) and the highlighted item is opened with QuickLook. Of course the files have to be downloaded to be “Quicklookedâ€, so I wasn’t initially sure whether it would really be that useful. However, after a bit of use I found myself using it more often than I originally thought. Don’t expect to be opening big media files though, but text files (which ends up being most of the contents of the server if you are running a website) open fairly quickly. It also helps that there is an indication when a file has been downloaded and ready for Quicklook at the bottom of the screen; the Quicklook icon is not displayed until the file has been downloaded.
I should also point out that all the files are not automatically pulled down from the server, they are only downloaded if you highlight them in Flow, and even then they are only pulled to a temporary location. So you don’t need to worry about your entire website suddenly being downloaded to your HDD when starting Flow.
When Flow was introduced the developer produced some screencasts that clearly displayed Flow having quicker download and upload speeds compared to Transmit. I was fairly amazed at the time, mainly because I assumed that download/upload speeds were mostly dependent on your Internet connection.
Now I am even more amazed to see that it is actually true – there was no trickery involved. I didn’t do any serious benchmarking but I did time both Flow and Transmit downloading and uploading a 23MB file. Download-wise, Transmit clocked in at 9 minutes 16 seconds, whereas Flow completed the task in 7 minutes 11 seconds. 2 minutes 5 seconds in that context is a phenomenal difference. In uploading the same file Flow clocked 9 minutes 17 second and Transmit was done in 9 minutes 46. Admittedly, the upload difference wasn’t as great, but with the only difference being the software, it’s pretty impressive.
So some could argue that you might as well buy Flow purely for the better transfer speeds, although I would like to point out that there are plenty of other FTP clients out there, and if you wanted to purchase Flow purely on that basis you would want to see a benchmark of all of these apps to see which was really the fastest. However, for my money there is a lot more to Flow that would warrant a purchase other than speed.
The interface is one of those key factors when deciding whether Flow is for you. They claim that Flow presents “a gorgeous, yet tasteful user interface†and I am inclined to agree with them. As I mentioned earlier, this feels much more like a modern day “Mac app†rather than an ancient FTP client – something that I, personally, love about this application.
It has a clear layout and one that any Mac user would be instantly at home with; it has the familiar sidebar and toolbar layout that is becoming a great standard for new applications.
Sitting on the toolbar is a lot of functionality, however I am not sure how I feel about the toolbar icons. For a start, it uses a Safari icon for “View the selected item in your default browserâ€. Am I the only person who thinks that using a Safari icon for “your default browser†is just wrong? I am a Camino/Webkit Nightly user and I did start wondering whether that was an “open in Safari†button. Surely the icon of your current browser (something that Adium does really well) would be much better suited to the functionality of the button.
My eyes were then drawn to the rest of the icons and they seemed fine other than “Move†and “New Folder†(pictured).
Although perfectly clear, there seems to be something not very Mac-like about them. I am no icon critic so it was interesting that I would suddenly think that – in fact, I have never had that impression before. It would be interesting to see how other people react to them. In any case, it had no real impact on the usability of the application.
A handy addition (although not exactly new) to the interface is the addition of tabs. These work pretty much as expected, but I wish they worked with the sidebar as links do in most web browsers. I found myself cmd+clicking in the expectation that the connection would be made in a new tab. However, that is not the case. Not a game-breaker, but it would have been a nice inclusion.
When browsing your server you have a small preview section down at the bottom of your window. A simple and useful addition to the interface, it just reduced the amount of “mouse miles†I had to travel to find out the information I needed – there was a lot available to me at a glance.
The section that most people will be spending some time in is the “Transfers†section of the application. Something, again, where the interface and engine in Flow really excel.
The interface is simple and clear. It only takes a glance for you to know the status of all your transfers. It presents the information cleanly and keeps it simple, displaying your transfer data in the same window, unlike some applications. In my opinion it is a very tidy way of dealing with it.
In case you couldn’t tell I really like Flow and it has won a well-deserved place on my dock. It has delivered on its promise and, as a 1.0, it is an amazing platform for the application to grow and mature into a Mac gem. Whether it’s right for you, however, depends a lot on personal preference (doesn’t every app?). It certainly brings something new to a well worn application market. Is it a Transmit killer? Time will tell, but this certainly has a better chance than anything I have seen up until now.
Flow is $29 and can be found at the Extendmac website.
Extendmac have graciously provided us with 5 Flow licenses to give away to lucky MacApper readers. To be in with a chance of winning simply add a comment below with the feature that you would most like to see in Flow. The winners will be announced in a followup post next week.
“In Flow there is no more dragging between “your stuff†and “their stuffâ€; you are now dragging between the Finder and Flow (or vice versa). For me this is brilliant, as it’s what I always did for some reason.”
? Well if this is brilliant, Cyberduck has been brilliant for some years now…
I’d like to see a robust AppleScript dictionary and implementation as well as bookmark syncing via .mac sync services, so I have my bookmarks on my desktop machine and my laptop in sync.
@dex – I was more pointing out the fact that that way of doing things suits me as a personal preference rather than calling the application brilliant just for that reason. I should probably have mentioned Cyberduck though.
I use transmit 3.5 quite extensively, although i am pretty confident of Panic skills to level the bar I have been very curious of flow’s progress and was waiting for a review, i think it’s about time I take a demo for a spin, i hope it has transmit favorites import!
I’ve been very satisfied with Forklift since purchasing a licence, but I feel that the QuickLook integration isn’t as nice as here (Forklift won’t download the files even temporarily to view them in QL, you need to do it yourself), and that if it had a built-in editor like Flow, it would be far better.
I feel that, while the idea of having only tabs and one “single panel” view is good, it has its constraints, and that’s one of the reasons I stopped using Cyberduck a while back. I find it easier to transfer stuff from two separate folders (folder with/a/path/like/this and folder with/a/path/that/goes/like/that) to an FTP server if I can see the “Finder view” of the FTP server in the same panel as the folder (and then, for example, you could switch folders using the tabs! that would be amazing).
I think that if Flow had a built-in option to have a “two panel” view like Forklift and Transmit, it would appeal to more people. Flow would have an edge on the competition, having this possibility of showing both.
Tabs and two-panel view? Heck yes.
i like the overall interface with the Quicklook feature most of it.
I too have used Transmit for years, and wonder if Flow can match it’s well-constructed powerful features. The review has made me curious enough to give it a try.
As far as features — I’ve recently purchased Dragster for my MacBook Air in order to expedite quick transfers from Finder to remote servers (why carry around all that data when it can be put online!!
If Flow has the simplicity of Dragster and the power of Transmit, I might be swayed!
I like flow really much, but there’s one feature I’m missing, built in SSH support. This app would be able to replace Coda if it has SSH support. And I wouldn’t have to open 10 apps to SSH, Code and use FTP.
Integration with .Mac?
I really like flow interface and quicklook features.
The feature i would like to have, is to be able to assign an editor for the live editing capability, like textmate for example.
I’d like to see support for QuickLook when using SFTP.
I’ve been using Flow since it released this week and love the speed and interface. It’s pretty nice!
I tried it out and came to a lot of the same conclusions you wrote in the review. I would like to see a better icon set in the menu bar, especially the toggle for hiding/showing invisible items. The icons seem unfinished to me. It has a very finder-like interface that is both interesting and very un-FTP-like, for lack of a better term. I don’t know if I would buy this app when transmit, cyberduck, and the venerable fetch also do the job. I was expecting a bit more wow from all the hype.
I’d really like to see the Mac OS X Finder-esk Column view. It after all is the way Steve intended us to browse our Mac!
Brian has really done some great work with Flow, it is certainly giving the entrenched FTP applications on Mac OS X a run for their money.
I’d like to see a column view as well.
Maybe you don’t feel the icons are Mac-like because they have that Tiger pinstripe look?
A floppy disk for a save icon seems kind of weird these days, doesn’t it?
The droplet looks like an amazing feature!
Hi!
I would like to see seamless connectivity with the various cloud storage solutions beside regular ftp, like Amazon S3, box.net, Diino etc… Many of these services provide storage at much better prices and general functionality than many ftp hosts. At least in my experience!
/Hannes
I find myself intrigued by the one-pane interface, but not sure if I’ll ever prefer it to the dual-pane.
Flow looks very interesting; I’d love to see the ability to syncronize a folder in the finder to a remote FTP destination, however.
Hi
I would like to have a small image editor
Thanks
I would consider it if it had a dual pane view. I personally don’t like dragging from one window to another.
I’m also for the dual pane/split view. Moving between tabs or windows is not my style. The lack of split view is what made me give up on Cyberduck so quickly.
This looks like a great FTP client for Mac. The creator did a fantastic job.
the one thing that bugs me is the live preview… i often wish to use it with rails apps, or CSS files, which just show up as code in live preview mode… something a-la-CSSEdit there would be nice…
another nice addition would be Browser view… it’s especially nice for navigating back in the hierarchy of complex web apps such as rails apps
I’ve been using Yummy lately, and it’s quite good… but flow looks very good also!
I’d love though, the possibility of the columns view, as in Yummy or the Finder.
Thanks!!
A .dmg download (seems more professional + I often miss zips in a huge download folder!)
A welcome screen (like in pixelmator) to help new ftp users find there way around.
I think it is already a very great app, one thing I would like to see, though I don’t know if it will ever be in there, is syntax highlighting in the editing window.
I’d love to see really robust integration with transferring files over SSH to the iPhone and iPod touch.
@Adam Teece – that is already in the product, as noted in the review.
I (as others have also pointed out) would like to see applescript support. It can help and make things so much easier!
Flow looks great – I think I’ll definitely switch from Transmit. I hope that Flow does not have issues with downloading large files or large quantities of files, as Transmit often does for me. Also, easier permissions editing would be a plus in Flow, although based on this review, I imagine it has upgraded this from Transmit too.
I’d like to see an optional dual-pane view. Messing with two different applications sometimes isn’t too much fun unless the windows don’t overlap.
Growls support would be amazing just simply because you are not always in the same space as it. Also i would be nice to see if they could go more in the direction of Speed Download that would be cool
rmaspero – Growl support is included already.
Perhaps, instead of having a button to view a page in Safari; the page could be loaded on a tab within Flow using apple’s webkit (which has the same rendering engine as Safari). That would save you having to switch to another application.
Flow’s interface is certainly a big draw for me, since I’m just crazy about Leopard Source (Sidebar) Lists. I agree that some of the tool bar icons need changing though.
Syncing of bookmarks with .mac or some other way would be really great for those of us who have to work from different computers during the day.
1. I’d like to see something similar to subethaedit so I could collaborate when editing documents.
2. When double clicking a droplet (rather than dragging a file to it) it would pull up a list of directories to upload to. (without opening flow, similar to how it uploads when you drag a file to it.)
3. Possibly a backup mechanism, to backup files on the server to zip file.
So, I’m trying out the demo now, and first off, it still has some problems. The tab interface doesn’t work like it should. When I close a tab, I get this really big blank space. It looks like half the window is now menu bar, but with no menus. And the transfer queue, when I started second transfer, my first one disappeared. It’s still downloading according to the connection transcript, but it no longer shows it in the queue. So, first off, iron out the bugs.
But, here’s my number one feature request. A way to import Transmit’s bookmarks. Like many others, I use Transmit extensively, and if I were to use Flow, would need an easy way to transfer my bookmarks.
Needs to be be able to allocate an external editor as the default when double clicking files. I really don’t want to have to right click on every PHP file I edit and choose “external editor” every 5 seconds to open BBEdit. Other than that, great tool
Column view, please!
I would like to see a more powerful text editor, or better integration with TextMate.
I’d love to see an option for a two column view, just because it’s something so many are used to. I’d also love synchronization with a remote folder, and bookmarks/favorites!
I’ve been in the Flow beta for a while and the thing I really miss is support for FTP with TLS/SSL, that’s really the reason I’ve come to the conclusion to stick with Transmit for now. It would also be great if the editor supported Textmate bundles so it could support more languages.
I would like to see some sort of finder integration. In other words, I like the ability to possibly open a tab or have a sidebar item that is a folder on my computer so that I can more easily transfer things from my computer to a server.
@Raj – Thats already in there, just look in the preferences.
“So now that it has been released, does it live up to the hype?”
Not really. WHY do Mac devs play the hype game? It’s an OK program, but for crying out loud, it’s an FTP app, not the second coming.
Your speed test seems a bit flawed; it’s actually even more of an improvement. Where Flow really excels is when simultaneously transfering a bunch of files, especially if they are small. File operations are really a lot faster than any other FTP client I’ve tried
Anyway, I’d like to see:
- SSH/public key authentication
- Icons to match the beauty app icon
- Column view
- Keychain integration
I was curious to put Flow through its paces. Even though I already own licenses for a number of other FTP program it’s always interesting to experience a new approach.
The interface certainly is clean and slick – which made a positive first impression. I looked for a way to import my 50+ bookmarks from Transmit, but didn’t see any obvious way. A search for “import” in the help system came up empty. So, I created a couple of bookmarks from scratch. When I accessed the bookmarks I got a blank file list and then the software crashed a short time later. So, it looks like there are still some bugs to be weeded out.
Stability issues aside, I do miss the “Your Stuff” that Transmit offers. One nice thing about having this pane is that I can bookmark locations on my hard disk that relate directly to the bookmark. For example, if the bookmark is MySite.com I often set up a shortcut to a local folder that contains the source for this site.
I’ll keep an eye on Flow as it evolves and may consider it in the future. For now, though, I think I’ll just stick with Transmit.
+1 for column view!
Wow, looks great. Just tried it for the first time. I especially like the info bar at the bottom with the picture preview. Quicklook is really nice, too. I’d like to see FXP and Amazon S3 support in the future.
So, please pick me as a winner for one of the 5 free copies, oh mighty random winner script (or human)
Why? Whyt not! Ha, you didn’t see that coming, now you have to choose me. iGenius.
Hi, i would love to see some kind of history for ftp sometimes i forget some info and haven’t added it to favs
I’d love to see SCP support. This would be a great help for legacy systems that still have not switched to SFTP.
I have used forklift and cyber duck both and am currently sticking to Forklift. In terms of FTP, all the apps out there seem to provide functionality that is quite similar. Ofcourse editing remote files seems attractive(I have used the terminal for this all along), but only time will tell how reliable and useful it is.
Since this space seems pretty saturated, what I would have liked is for flow to have some kind of syncing / alerting capacity via FTP. I would love to know when new lectures are uploaded to our class server (maybe using periodic checks). Also I would love to be able to keep a folder in sync with another via FTP. This would really allow me not to have to constantly update my local folders to catch updates from my friends. Seems a bit beyond ordinary FTP, but may be worth it.
@Bruce A – Because it sells licenses.
@Christian Bloch – I agree with the multiple transfers point, I did concede in the review that I would like to see a proper benchmark of a bunch of FTP applications.
I’d like to see support for 3rd party Language Definitions.
I found the plist dictionary containing every for syntax highlighting for the currently supported languages, but allowing users to download and install ones that others come up with would be great.
Either that, or if the developer does indeed have lots of time, just support for more syntax highlighting.
Flow seems to work very nicely; I didn’t have any issues connecting to my usual FTP/SFTP sites and the interface is very attractive/intuitive. I agree on the criticisms of the icons, but I’ve never understood the allure of the split window format, so I don’t miss it in Flow. I currently use Transmit in single window mode (I get the impression that many don’t know it’s possible, but it is!). Too bad I bought Transmit a few months ago as Flow appears to be better for my uses all around.
Regarding bookmarks opening in new tabs, check Preferences — there’s a check box to “Open bookmarks in new tab”. This may not be ideal for everyone, but I frequently need to access several different folders on a given FTP site at the same time, so navigating back and forth between them in Transmit is a bit annoying. Flow makes this so much simpler with tabs and bookmarks.
The feature I’d really like to see would be access to the droplets through the dock icon. So rather than creating droplets on the desktop (or elsewhere), one could drag the file to transfer over the Flow icon, and a Droplet menu would pop up from the dock icon.
I would like to see some more connection protocols. For editing one of my school’s website, I have to use the WebDAV HTTPS protocol. Whenever I try to connect using just WebDAV, it gives me an unknown error. For now, I will have to stick to Transmit for this website. However, I have successfully connected to other servers I need using SFTP.
Connections in Transmit that are not in Flow:
WebDAV HTTPS
FTP with Implicit SSL
FTP with TLS/SSL
Amazon S3
@Daniel Greg – Because it sells licenses.
You could be on to something there…
I think Flow should add customized syntax coloring. Their current coloring is too weak.
Flow looks great, a real alternative to my current FTP client Transmit.
I would love to have Flow integrated in my finder window; maybe add an “Flow FTP” entry to the sidebar that would work just like a shared computer/data source.
I agree, the icons do look a little strange; the delete icon looks like a “no entry” sign!
Flow looks good!
Feature I would like to see added: syncing of my FTP bookmarks via .Mac, so I can have all my FTP sites on all my computers without any extra work!
There isn’t much i need but here are two.
Mirroring – should be clear or not?
Different display Styles – like in Finder. Every FTP app i know uses lists but it would be great to have something more like “Big Icons”, “List” or “column” or so…
I’ve been a Flow fan for a while now. I love the interface and the performance is great. Its hard to come up with a good feature now because everything I’ve really wanted has been made. But here goes…
I would like to see:
– A Keyboard shortcut to the Search Field (Defaults to the top right)
– Making the Icon in the Info Panel Drag and Droppable. So not only for downloads, but for uploading purposes as well.
– Some different viewing displays, like the Finder has.
Outside of Flow:
– Dashboard Droplet (much like the already awesome droplets)
I also just tried QuickSilver with a Droplet and it worked like a charm. That still needed me to drag and drop a file to the Droplet, but I’ll play around with some tricks.
I’d like to see syntax highlighting for Ruby/Rails.
feature: quicklook button for toolbar
Bonus: server to server transfers(don’t really know if this is possible but it would be so useful)
I would like to see a modfied date. If I set a remote folder and local folder, I would like the program to show me wich of my local files are newer than the ones on the server. This should provide me with a list of local files to upload, and I could submit all changes I have made in one go.
I would love to see amazon S3 support. That is Transmit’s killer feature for me.
I really like Flow, particularly the speed of transfers, but for me personally I’d like the option of a dual-pane view. Sure, leave the option for a single window for people that prefer it, but adding an option for a “your stuff” “their stuff” view would make the app more versatile.
I’ve been looking for a good one-pane sftp client for aaages.
The feature i’m lacking most though, is Finder style spring-loaded folders, along with being able to drop stuff on symlinks, and finding out where said symnlinks point to!
Quite a bit of stuff on my webserver is linked with symnlinks, and it’s slightly annoying to have to drag stuff around manually!
Great product though.
I have to admit, I’d prefer to at least have the option of having a ‘dual-pane’ system. I use Transmit and use it in single-pane most of the time.
However, when I have to transfer a website with a .htaccess file, I need to switch to dual-pane so I can see hidden files. If I don’t, .htaccess files simply don’t get transferred.
I would really like to see an application like Flow integrate Wordpress theme and plugin installation. Some kind of batch process/script would be nice, but I think an interactive dialog would be better. Something that allows you to name the folder the plugin/theme is unzipped to, and what the permissions on the folder should be. That would make setting up a new Wordpress installation extremely quick!
It would be good to have Amazon S3 support, as that is very widely used these days.
I started with transmit and liked it but not having a tree view pushed me to yummy. Personally, I don’t see why more ftp apps don’t have a tree view because when you start building sites in an organized manner (in folders) then the contestant going back and forth between folders is really annoying. That’s why I like yummy.. I can log into my server and choose which site I am working on and open it and then when i make a change i just drag the file to the correct folder without going back and forth through the folders to do it.
Flow seems more like a tool if you just have 1 web site and you don’t organize your site very well and just throw everything into the root.
I love to see an integrated menu icon with basic features accessible from the menu bar. Possibly the list of bookmarks with a shortcut to launch flow and go directly to the selected bookmark.
I’m glad to see the interest in this app. Brian has worked very hard to make it as good as possible, and so far, he seems to have done a good job of that.
I’d really like to see support for both SMB and NFS as well as SCP. I’d like to see flow become a file transfer app more than just another FTP app.
Ben
I would love to see Amazon S3 support and some sort of rsync/backup. These are basic features that are present on other paid apps. Otherwise great looking app.
Wow!!! +80 entries in 1 day???
mine: iTunes style scrollbar and list header, so it will match iLife apps
and yeah, maybe update icon to match Leopard style folder icons (don’t know if the dev prefer oldskool tiger folders)
Unlike some, I don’t like the fact that there is no local view. This is what i would like to see as a future feature.
The single window interface is really nice!
I’d like to see a feature that can automate a copy operation. It would be similar to creating a bookmark, but it would allow for the selection of a source folder and destination folder and the type of operation: overwrite all, copy modified files, etc. Even better would be creation of a droplet so you could start the operation within the Finder. A scheduling feature would be nice, but if the “copy droplet” could be launched through cron, this wouldn’t be as necessary.
Nice app!
How about a Estimated time to completion in the status bar. Semi useful when transferring multiple files.
… I would like to see the ability to change the rights on multiple files and folders. Otherwise Flow is a nono for me.
I agree with many of the comments about the hype that was generated around the product, the closed beta etc.
On first look, it probably won’t have me switching from either Transmit, or Coda, that I mainly use now, particularly with SSH/Terminal access.
Hi there. I’d love the ability to create symlinks. I currently use cyberduck on macosx and it can’t do that, while winscp for windows does it easily. So, if you don’t have that feature, please add it. Most of us have iphones nowadays and we often need symlinks.
Thanks.
I really like Flow because of its interface, url copying, …
Although there are a few things I’d like to see developed in Flow:
– Column View!
– Spring-loaded folders as in the Finder
and maybe a Dashboard widget…
-dimension
A flow dashboard widget would be neat, like cyberduck has. Of course, what I want even more is Flow itself. :p
Some sort of tree view to view folder structure would be useful.
Really nice product.
Ftp with TLS is the most important feature that is missing right now. Otherwise its a really nice client
Three suggestions…
#1. I would like to see a bit more integration into finder, and into the core of OSX. Also, making it more extensible like Interarchy, and supporting all those protocols would be fantastic.
#2. Another thing that none of the ftp clients seem to do that would be cool is, in the spirit of the imedia (iphoto etc) browser built into osx, having a hot key triggered iftp browser would be fantastic…where you could quickly bring it up to post or pull a file off of an ftp, or other type of site like webdav etc.
#3. Also, being able to drop files into a container that is presetup to a certain site, and then it spitting out the url to the file would be immensely useful for bloggers serving images, music, videos etc, but using a server like Amazon S3 or an FTP server for storage.
Quick benchmark uploading a WP install:
Flow ~14 sec
Forklift ~8 sec
Hey Flow, I call that slow
I would love to see a feature like Transmit’s Docksend. This is invaluable to me in keeping my local files in sync with the files on a server. When editing in TextMate, I can press a shortcut key and the file is instantly saved locally *and* uploaded to its appropriate place on the server. This is determined by a Transmit bookmark that defines the local path and remote path. If Flow had that, I’d buy it right away.
Overall, Flow seems very great! The only feature I would like to see added is column view (which is my default view) since I think it is incredibly efficient: allowing you to view the entire hierarchy of a server at one glance.
I would love to see a feature that automatically uploaded to FTP when files are changed in a folder. For example, if I add a new file to a specific folder, it would be cool for the app to see this and upload the new file.
Personally, I think syncing with services like .mac would be a great addition to this app. Excellent review!
Please add applescript abilities and the ability to synchronize iWeb files to a non-.Mac account so uploading an iWeb website isn’t such a pain in the butt.
When viewing a sites image files it would be cool to have a thumbnail preview of the images.
Personally, more than anything I would like to see SSH/public-key support and column view.
Some added functionality with Amazon S3 and automator would be a great feature- the ability to better control off-site backups would really make this stand out!
I’d love to see many things :
S3 support, sync with a specific folder, and search in all the server (by creating an index).
I do like this app, but there are two issues for me.
The first is that I like the lightweight approach to file management – Flow tries to appear like “just another finder window”. I use transmit like this too, but increasingly I’m using expandrive where I want that functionality, as that means I *literally* have another finder window.
The second is that the file editing is funky. Transmit has spoiled me – I say “edit in TextMate” and it does. Flow gets in my way in that respect, which, if they fixed, would really change this from interesting curio to serious competitor.
Of course, they’re also competing with Transmit 4 (if it ever gets out) which may or may not be a moving target compared to Transmit 3. Time will tell, but for now, Flow is on my “one to watch, not to install” list.
I use Transmit for long long years, and when i first discover Coda I though this was time to switch. But despite the fact I consider Coda very heavy for my system, Flow is in between the two coda apps, what’s new so ?
SSH/SCP support?
I would like to have the ability to have several open connections to several different ftp locations at once.
I’d like to see this with folder syncing and applescript. My experience with Flow so far has been bery promising.
lack of column view ends it all for me. will stick to transmit for now.
I would like to see column view, and SSH support.
I would like to see the column view!
What timing! I just got my own website, and am looking for a good FTP app ^_^
What I like most about Flow are its abilities to open a file in Quicklook, and to edit files online. The speed would also be useful, as I have a slow conection and will be uploading many graphic files.
So far what I would like to see in Flow is an option for column view, better syntax colouring, and most of all a tree view, so I can easily navigate to the right file or folder.
I realize this is an unusual feature request for a file transfer utility, but I’d love to see Flow add support for Subversion. A lot of content on remote machines is actually managed through Subverison now, and the Flow GUI would be really well-suited to browsing and manipulating a remote Subversion repository.
HOW DID YOU GET THOSE SPEEDS.
I’ve been using Flow since Friday, and the highest I get is a 46kbps download. My home is on a 12-mbit connection, and my server is on a 100-mbit connection.
Transmit gets great speeds though.
Integration with Amazon S3 FTW!
I’d say compatibility with Amazon S3: that would make it the best of the bunch!
I’d like to see syncing capabilities.
Also, SSH and/or SFTP would be really nice, and seems to be the only super critical feature missing from this software…
I would like to see Growl integration.
This FTP client does not resume downloads but instead erases what you have and starts a new file?!
Other missing feature is que / batch download editing.
What I miss most in version 1.0 is the ability to synchronize two folders (local and remote). AppleScript certainly is a requirement for any mature Mac OS X application as well, but I don’t expect this before a 2.x release.
Cool. I was helping beta test Flow, and I was so used to the dual pane setup that it wasn’t quite what I wanted. Still, I liked some features of it, and I didn’t get a chance (or think of) comparing download speeds.
I love the look of this and would like to switch to it, but I can’t switch to an app that doesn’t have the two column view. FTP/SFTP is something people often use for work…usability trumps eyecandy. I’m amazed a commercial app doesn’t at least have that option…that is how most people use FTP.
If the developers are reading this, please add that.
i love flow but dont own it yet, nice review
I love the exclusion of the ‘My stuff’ pane!
I will look closely at flow as it might replace my fateful Transmit as my new favorite FTP.
I think for a version 1.0 its good, but not great. On the other hand I think when it gets to the version that is equal to transmit it will be far superior and will be the number 1 Apple FTP app around and for years to come.
I download the Flow demo as soon as I heard that it was out and I was amazed at how slick it is. As far as graphical coolness (is that a word?) the one thing that stuck in my mind is the little bar at the bottom that has your current directory path, it is animated and when you navigate it “flows” into the new location. Really cool.
Hey guys,
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Am I the only one who wants bluetooth obex support. the apple version doesn’t allow easy file transfer and only forklift does this at the moment.
FYI, Daniel Greg, there’s no way to select a de-facto default editor. You can choose to edit files “in their default application” which is different.
For instance, if I double-click a .css file, it’ll open in CSSEdit. If I double-click a .php file, it’ll open in TextMate because I’ve set it as the default in OS X for .php files.
But if I open a .htaccess file it opens in TextEdit (not Mate) because I can’t set a default editor for .htaccess files in OS X because they’re invisible.
Nice icon, poor editor (it is better to use external one).
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