Which file stores session info? Would like to keep in Dropbx

[chillrobot]

I would like to keep my session synced across computers. What file stores this info? I'd like to explore ways of putting it or a symlink into Dropbox.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello chillrobot,

I have asked our devs for some help answering your question.
The truth is that the Viewer is storing this session information in the registry:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Documents\LastSession]
And you also need one specific property to restore a session:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Documents]
"RestoreLastSession"=dword:00000001

But I do not think you can realize sharing such settings stored in the registry via DropBox.

Best,
Stefan

[chillrobot]

I'm tempted to use the portable version to get this functionality. In what file does the portable version store this info?

The downside of using the portable version is that the Viewer could no longer be my default PDF reader.

[chillrobot]

I can't find the portable PRO Viewer on your site any more. What happened?

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi

the Viewer really only has 2 versions, installable and portable. The 'Pro' name simply means that a serial key has been used to unlock it and enable the 'Pro' features. The download you want is on the Viewer page or the downloads page: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/downloads "Portable ZIP | 7 MB "

All the settings are in a file called settings.dat that is created the first time you use the Viewer and save settings. You could try syncing that, it is written to on closing the Viewer.

[chillrobot]

This is very promising, thank you.

btw, the Portable option radio button didn't show up when I entered "portable" in your site search.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

btw, the Portable option radio button didn't show up when I entered "portable" in your site search.

Thanks chillrobot,

we'll look into that.

[chillrobot]

Unfortunately, my test using the portable version with a shortcut named "Settings.dat" (linked to the actual Settings.dat saved in my Dropbox folder) fails. When I launch PDFXCview.exe, it appears to have default settings (indicating it couldn't find the actual Settings.dat), and when I quit, there is a 10kb Settings.dat alongside my shortcut.

Any advice?

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi chillrobot,

I've never used Dropbox so I'm not sure how it works so I'm not sure why there would be a shortcut. You will want to copy the file. If the Viewer finds it missing it will write a new one. It lookslike that may be what is happening. I'll take a further look tomorrow.

[chillrobot]

Dropbox is a cloud-based backup service with storage quotas. To avoid wasting quota, I wanted to keep the Portable exe out of the filetree managed by Dropbox. This leaves three choices:

1) Keep the original Settings.dat in the same folder as the Portable exe, and put a symlink to it in the Dropbox folder tree. Downside: Dropbox relies on subscriptions to folder changes to detect which files to upload to the cloud, but Windows symlinks don't provide such updates. So this method doesn't allow auto-updating and syncing of PDFXC settings.

2) Move Settings.dat to Dropbox's folder tree, and put a symlink to it in the same folder as Portable exe. My experiment shows this doesn't currently work, but perhaps a small code change in PDFXC could detect that Settings.dat is a symlink and dereference it.

3) Rely on a third-party app like SyncToy to maintain identical file copies in the Portable exe folder and in the Dropbox tree. I will try this next if you have no advice.

On a different approach, do you have any plan to offer an option to keep settings and session in files (not requiring manual export/import) for the non-Portable version? As a PRO user, may I log that feature request?

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello chillrobot,

The portable Viewer is designed to be, well .. portable
And as such it is storing all it's needed files in the same location, and was never designed to recognize links, or try to retrieve the information from where a link is pointing - I am not aware of any application able to do so - search for a "moving" file with resources it needs based on a link in it's own folder.

So seems like you will need to try your third option.

Please let us know how it goes.

Best,
Stefan

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

What happens if you copy settings.dat to it's own folder you could then then sync that folder to Dropbox. When you return to the PC resync the folder with Dropbox and copy it back to to the portable Viewer folder. This could be scripted so it's quick to do when you walk away from a PC.

I hope you appreciate that this is not something that we are formally supporting. I think it's a cool idea and am interested in seeing how this works for you.

[chillrobot]

Hi Paul: Your suggestion sounds like the SyncToy option I listed as #3; let me know if you think it's different. Thanks for the tip.

Although it may not be common for apps to save their settings in files instead of the registry (although the most popular Notepad replacement, Notepad++, does), and it may be even less common for apps to check if their settings files have a .lnk extension and need dereferencing, I have a strong feeling that this will become a big trend. I've had laptops die recently, and need similar setups between office and home; I have notes on 21 apps I need and how to install them. The best options I've found are:

1) Keep notes on all apps to be installed and all their particular settings. This is quite a bit of manual work, and still doesn't provide session syncing.

2) Use portable apps when possible. On the surface, this requires sacrificing "default app" status, which doesn't seem like a big thing at first but I've found it a pain. One can get around it by tweaking file associations on all machines. The inconvenience of having it all on a vulnerable Flash drive or external HD can we worked around by putting the entire install in cloud-based sync (but chews up quota fast); there is also the problem of drive letters and folderpaths differing on the machines that are synced.

A much more elegant solution, it seems to me, would be if apps by default saved settings and session to files, and the paths to these files could be configured via preferences. We're half-way there with the sort-of common practice of keeping settings in %APPDATA%.

I don't see any benefit to keeping settings and session in the registry, but I'd be interested to understand if there is such a benefit.

[chillrobot]

btw, if you think Chrome OS will gain traction and you want PDFXCV to be an option there, or if you think people will ever want PDF sessions synced across PC/tablet/phone, then implementing the kind of sync support I've asked about would benefit Tracker Software.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi chillrobot,

I would say that the main difference is that I was suggesting that you copy only the settings.dat file into the directory that you sync with Dropbox. The idea there was to keep the quota down as you expressed a desire to do that.

I won't comment on the benefits or other of using the registry, that is a can of worms I'd prefer not to open. There are other operating systems that make extensive use of config files but this is not how Windows operates. Someone reading this might like to comment more on the security aspects of files vs the registry as this is not my area of expertise.

As to Chrome OS, that is likely a conversation for down the road if and when it achieves a significant market share I would think.

hth

[Brad]

It would be great if the last session was stored somewhere besides the registry. It would then be a simple matter for users to manage multiple sessions themselves. Safari does this for web browsing in macosx and it's very useful.
Brad

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Brad,

there is the portable version for that: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFX_Vwr_Port.zip

It uses a file called settings.dat that can be copied.

hth

[chillrobot]

I bought a PRO 4 license so I could get your virtual printer. I also like auto-updating, which I suspect the portable version doesn't do.

Please consider adding an option to your PRO product for saving session info to a flat file (in a directory of one's choice).

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Try this free third-party utility — PDF Session to store unlimited number of sessions in text files.

[chillrobot]

There are two big limitations of that little utility:

1. It doesn't generate the session file itself (nor does it keep current with what's in the Viewer).

2. It requires a full path to each file to be shown in the Viewer. Paths often won't be the same for machines one wants to sync session across; for example, user names will usually be different.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello chillrobot,

We do have a single session in our Viewer. This one is dynamic and will update with any new file you open/close.

All other "sessions" the tool Bhikkhu offered are actually collections of files. So you can always load any of them, make changes to the number of files opened - and then resave it as a new session (or overwrite an old one).

We don't have a multi session implementation at this point - but are monitoring this possibility for ver3 of the Viewer.

Best,
Stefan
Tracker

[chillrobot]

Hello chillrobot,

We do have a single session in our Viewer. This one is dynamic and will update with any new file you open/close.

All other "sessions" the tool Bhikkhu offered are actually collections of files. So you can always load any of them, make changes to the number of files opened - and then resave it as a new session (or overwrite an old one).

We don't have a multi session implementation at this point - but are monitoring this possibility for ver3 of the Viewer.

Best,
Stefan
Tracker

Hi Stefan,

I don't know how "multi-session" came up. I'm interested in syncing a single, dynamic session across all the machines where I've installed my registered PRO or Viewer. I understand it would be hard for a 3rd party to access a Tracker app's internal representation of the current session, so I'm suggesting that this be considered a feature request. All Tracker has to do is add a preference for whether sessions are restored from the registry or from a flat file, and in the case of the latter, what folderpath should be used for storing that file. The sessions file would also have to be monitored by the Tracker app for "touches", in which case the file should be read in again. The actual syncing across machines can be left to 3rd party apps like Dropbox.

Regards,
David

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello David,

Apologies - seems I misread or misunderstood the problem. I am afraid that for now there are no plans to have such a dynamic session which can be stored in a file sharable between computers. Sorry for the confusion my previous post might have caused!

Best,
Stefan

[chillrobot]

Hello David,

Apologies - seems I misread or misunderstood the problem. I am afraid that for now there are no plans to have such a dynamic session which can be stored in a file sharable between computers. Sorry for the confusion my previous post might have caused!

Best,
Stefan

If the EXE from the portable version were used to overwrite the EXE from the XChange PRO Viewer, giving it the same name, would one then have all the benefits of the registry-bound PRO Viewer plus the option of exporting session to a DAT file?

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello chillrobot,

The exe used in the portable and in the installed (32 bit) Viewer is practially the same. The presence or absence of the settings file in the .exe folder determines whether the Viewer will search the registry for it's settings or try to use the ones available in the settings file.

I am not sure you can have both - the installed Viewer and portable settings - but you can try whether that will work out for you.

Best,
Stefan

[chillrobot]

Hello chillrobot,

The exe used in the portable and in the installed (32 bit) Viewer is practially the same. The presence or absence of the settings file in the .exe folder determines whether the Viewer will search the registry for it's settings or try to use the ones available in the settings file.

I am not sure you can have both - the installed Viewer and portable settings - but you can try whether that will work out for you.

Best,
Stefan

I don't expect to have both EXEs, because I proposed overwriting one with the other. I'm hoping to get the combined *features* of both -- particularly the ability to save session that the portable version has -- without losing, say, the app's status as "default PDF viewer".

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello chillrobot,

I would recommend you to test this yourself (make sure to back up any files you are planning to overwrite).
So try to copy the exe from the portable Viewer (along with all the other files) in the folder where you originally installed the stand alone Viewer. The file associations in windows should remain intact, and your settings should now be taken from the data file you copied.

Best,
Stefan

[chillrobot]

I will try and report back here. But I realized since asking that I will either have to turn off auto-updating or risk having my Franken-Viewer overwritten -- both undesirable.

With Windows8 on both laptops and tablets in the near future, it sure would be nice to have this feature ready by their launch, to making syncing across all one's devices as easy as SkyDrive (and iCloud for iOS) promise to be.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello chillrobot,

Please do test and let us know.
As for Windows 8 - it's still in development, and our new Viewer will be released before Win8 - so the tests you are doing now will most likely only be relevant for the current version of our Viewer and the current Windows OS available.

Best,
Stefan

[chillrobot]

Here's what I tried:

1. Quit PDF Viewer

2. Moved C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\PDF Viewer\PDFXCview.exe (non-portable PRO) to my desktop

3. Copied PDFXCview.exe from the portable install to the location above

4. Started the viewer from the Start menu, and opened 2 files in it. No settings.dat nor portable.dat appeared anywhere obvious.

5. Quit the viewer. Still no new .dat files.

So it appears that this won't work. If the EXE had even tried to write a DAT file in Program Files, I should have seen a User Access Control dialog appear, but didn't.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello chillrobot,
Apologies if I didn't clarify this - you should copy both the .exe and the dat file from the portable Viewer folder.
When there is a settings.dat file inside the same folder where the exe is - it will attempt to use the settings from it, and not use the registry.

Another issue is as you have pointed could be the UAC, and the possible restrictions for writing to a file in a protected folder - but you should be able to get over this easily.

Best,
Stefan

[chillrobot]

Here's what I tried:

1a) I had exported my settings from a registry-based Viewer awhile ago as PDF-XChange Viewer Settings.dat, and thinking this would probably be the same format as settings.dat in the portable, I copied it into Program Files/Tracker Software/PDF Viewer.

1b) Launching PDFXCview.exe in that same folder (registry-based v2.5 build 199.0), closing all tabs, opening a different file in a new tab, and quiting, did not result in any new DAT file that might contain my session.

2a) Copied that PDFXCview.exe to the Desktop as a backup.

2b) Extracted PDFXCview.exe and Portable.dat from the portable distribution into the folder described above. Launched the copied EXE from within that folder. Got default settings, not those given by PDF-XChange Viewer Settings.dat in that folder.

2c) Quit EXE and renamed PDF-XChange Viewer Settings.dat to settings.dat. Relaunched EXE and my personal settings are now in force. No session restored.

2d) Opened two new files, then quit and relaunched. Session is restored...great.

I expected Portable.dat to maintain my session, but it's 0kb. How can I be sure my session is now in a file and not the registry? There were no UAC prompts, so I suspect the session is in the registry even though I'm using the portable's EXE.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello chillrobot,

The portable.dat file is just a trigger that tells the .exe to look for it's settings in the settings.dat file instead of the registry. So your session is stored in the settings.dat file and the portable.dat will always be 0 KB.

Best,
Stefan

[chillrobot]

Hello chillrobot,

The portable.dat file is just a trigger that tells the .exe to look for it's settings in the settings.dat file instead of the registry. So your session is stored in the settings.dat file and the portable.dat will always be 0 KB.

Best,
Stefan

Excellent.

I hope your upcoming version adds these supporting features:

1) Allow the settings file to be stored anywhere in the local filesystem (so it can be placed where it will be syncable);

2) Monitor the file for touches, and when touched by some other app, offer to reload it.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello chillrobot,

I am afraid that it's unlikely we will change those two things in particular to accomodate the rare need to sync your settings over dropbox. A settings file is supposed to be used by only one application - so sharing it, or monitoring for changes done to a settings file by another application is not something we should do. Also the location will most certainly remain the same - in the same folder where the .exe resides - as this is a portable application after all - and it's supposed to be easy and convenient to carry around - and if you move the settings file in a separate folder - 1/2 of the "portability" is lost. So I have to tell you that we are not considering any of the two suggestions, but you never know what could change with time

Best,
Stefan

[chillrobot]

Hello chillrobot,

I am afraid that it's unlikely we will change those two things in particular to accomodate the rare need to sync your settings over dropbox. A settings file is supposed to be used by only one application - so sharing it, or monitoring for changes done to a settings file by another application is not something we should do. Also the location will most certainly remain the same - in the same folder where the .exe resides - as this is a portable application after all - and it's supposed to be easy and convenient to carry around - and if you move the settings file in a separate folder - 1/2 of the "portability" is lost. So I have to tell you that we are not considering any of the two suggestions, but you never know what could change with time :)

Best,
Stefan

Hi Stefan,

I suggest splitting session info out of the settings file and into its own, text-formatted file (at least for the standard version and perhaps for portable also).

Although syncing sessions over dropbox might seem like a rare case, for a consumer like me, I see tempting competing products in eReaders and browsers with native PDF support like Chrome, both of which recently added session-syncing features. (eReaders also have the nice feature of rightward scrolling, another feature I suggested here.) Fortunately for Tracker, you wouldn't have to provide the syncing infrastructure to maintain feature parity.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi chillrobot,

I've asked our devs for some comments here, but please do understand that we can't make any promises at this time.

Best,
Stefan

[Vasyl - PDF-XChange]

Hi chillrobot,

I have tested my Dropbox with our viewer.
Before testing I have installed the windows-client of Dropbox to my machine.
I have created new folder in DropBox's virtual directory and extracted all files to it from archive of 'portable' version of our viewer.
After this I launched PDFXCview.exe from this folder and used it. It looks like everything works OK, viewer keeps all settings changes between sessions.

Why don't you use this method ? Is it acceptable for you?

Also, if you want to set pd-associations for viewer on the dropbox - you can use following trick:
1. go to folder with dropbox's viewer and rename the "Portable.dat" file to other name temporarily.
2. launch the PDFXCview.exe from it and go to [Preferences/FileAssociations] and press the "Make Default Viewer" button..
3. restore the "Portable.dat" file here.

[chillrobot]

I have tested my Dropbox with our viewer.
Before testing I have installed the windows-client of Dropbox to my machine.
I have created new folder in DropBox's virtual directory and extracted all files to it from archive of 'portable' version of our viewer.
After this I launched PDFXCview.exe from this folder and used it. It looks like everything works OK, viewer keeps all settings changes between sessions.

Why don't you use this method ? Is it acceptable for you?

Also, if you want to set pd-associations for viewer on the dropbox - you can use following trick:
1. go to folder with dropbox's viewer and rename the "Portable.dat" file to other name temporarily.
2. launch the PDFXCview.exe from it and go to Preferences->FileAssociations and press the "Make Default Viewer" button..
3. restore the "Portable.dat" file here.

This is an inventive option with four shortcomings:

1) I bought a PRO license because I also wanted your virtual printer. The option above seems not to allow PRO users to get all the features of their license.

2) Auto-updating is disabled in the portable version, and I want to keep up with new versions.

3) The session stored by one such install probably won't work on other machines where the install is synced to, because absolute filepaths to the items in the session are likely to be different across machines, if only due to a user having a different userid across machines.

4) Putting the entire installation in Dropbox uses up a lot of storage quota unnecessarily.

I recommended what I believe to be a fairly small change to Viewer in order to avoid most of the shortcomings listed above. My suggestion didn't spell out a solution to #3, but if you allow a text-formatted session file and if you support environment variables in filepaths (particularly Windows standard ones such as %USERPROFILE%), then you could leave the burden of fixing up filepaths to work across machines to technical users. Nontechnical users wouldnt even notice because this wouldnt be the default setting.

[Vasyl - PDF-XChange]

Hi, chillrobot.

My suggestion didn't spell out a solution to #3, but if you allow a text-formatted session file and if you support environment variables in filepaths (particularly Windows standard ones such as %USERPROFILE%), then you could leave the burden of fixing up filepaths to work across machines to technical users. Nontechnical users wouldn't even notice because this wouldn't be the default setting.

I understand you, and thanks for your suggestion.
I think, we can add this feature into the next version of viewer (V3).

Best
Regards.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello chilrobot,

And I created a ticket in our internal system for this FR:
#1333: Viewer V3 FR: "Opened Last Session, macro in document-path, shared settings"

Best,
Stefan

[chillrobot]

Hello chilrobot,

And I created a ticket in our internal system for this FR:
#1333: Viewer V3 FR: "Opened Last Session, macro in document-path, shared settings"

Best,
Stefan

Thank you very much, Stefan.

[John - Tracker Supp]

[quant]

Hello chillrobot,

We do have a single session in our Viewer. This one is dynamic and will update with any new file you open/close.

Unfortunatelly, this is not the case. The session is NOT updated when you open file
Sometimes, my PC is restarted (out of my control)/hangs where the program is open and then my session only contains the files that were open in the presious session! Therefore, I have to close/open the program to keep the session current.

It would be nice if the registry for session is updated EVERY time the file is opened/close to keep up to date. Thanks

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for the comment quant,

I just included that in the ticket - and we will consider it.

Best,
Stefan