Issues with session save and session management (fixed)

GSimard · Jul 23, 2014#12014-07-23T15:52+00:00

I have multiple folder trees between 2 computers that I want to compare. Each folder tree have a unique list of folders I want to ignore.
I am using an evaluation version of UC and so far I have not been able to figure-out whether it is possible to define many different sessions with customized properties and hand-pick which session I want to load the next time I start UC.

Is it possible to save/reload sessions?

Mofi · Jul 23, 2014#22014-07-23T16:24+00:00

There is the setting Reload sessions previously open on startup at Options - Configuration - Sessions. For your purpose it is better to uncheck this setting to get control after startup which sessions you want to reload.

If you have a comparison sesssion already running, you can click on Save Active Session in menu Session or on Group And Save All Sessions to save multiple sessions in a group. With opening Session Properties from same menu you can also change the name of the session to something useful for you.

After restart of UltraCompare, open the view Explorer and Sessions which is usually docked on left side with auto-hide feature enabled. Move the mouse pointer over the tab of this view to get the window displayed. If you don't see a tab for this view, click on Show Explorer & Sessions in menu View.

Switch to tab Sessions in this view. You see there the saved (grouped) sessions. Double click on a session to reload it. Then click on button Go (green arrow symbol between file/folder names) to run the comparison again with the reloaded options.

There are also the IDM power tips

Session Manager
UltraCompare Sessions (not up-to-date for latest version of UC Professional)

GSimard · Jul 23, 2014#32014-07-23T16:34+00:00

I overlooked that "Explorer & Sessions" docked tab which is exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks for the PowerTip URL.

Jul 23, 2014#42014-07-23T17:02+00:00

Each time a make a session setting change, UC saves a new copy of the session under the "Sessions" tab of "Explorer and Sessions".
The same session name is re-used on each save which results in multiple sessions of the same name. Hard to tell which one is the most recent when I restart UC.
Is there a way to instruct UC to overwrite a session of the same name when it saves the settings?

Mofi · Jul 23, 2014#52014-07-23T18:22+00:00

I would rate this behavior as a bug in UC v14.00.0.1003 which should be reported to IDM support by email using email us directly at top of this page. I have done this already, but the more users report this issue the higher becomes the priority on fixing this issue.

In the meantime until a version of UC Professional is released with a fix for this bug (in my point of view), I suggest to delete a saved session already reloaded and with modified session properties before using Save Active Session.

Jan 01, 2015#62015-01-01T15:49+00:00

There have been several session management issues fixed in UltraCompare Professional for Windows v15.0.0.1006 and some enhancements have been made, too.

There is now the command Save Active Session As New in addition to Save Active Session in menu Session and in context menu of the Sessions pane of Explorer & Sessions view in comparison to UC v14.00.

The commands Save Active Session and Save Active Session As New in menu Session do the same for a new session. Both just add the new session to the list of saved sessions with asking the user to confirm this saving process if there is by chance already a session saved with same name as the new session.

Of course the user can decide to cancel the saving process to first give the new session a different name in the session properties dialog before adding the session to the list of saved sessions.

A new session is always added by both commands to the list of saved sessions even if the session name is not changed by the user. An existing session in list of saved sessions is never overwritten by a new session.

Renaming the session can be done also after saving the new session via Session Properties in menu Sessions or by right clicking on the session on Sessions pane in Explorer & Sessions view and clicking in context menu on Rename Session.

For a session loaded before from the list of saved sessions the command Save Active Session just results in saving all properties of the active session. The command Save Active Session As New can be used to add a copy of a loaded session to the list of saved sessions after confirming to save this copy with same session name as the already loaded session.

The session name of this copy should be next changed either via the Session Properties in menu Sessions or by right clicking on the session on Sessions pane in Explorer & Sessions view and clicking in context menu on Rename Session

For a session loaded from the list of saved sessions all changes made on the properties are written back immediately to saved session silently.

So if a session is loaded and something is changed either via the Session Properties dialog or the Legend & Filters view (only for a folder comparison/sync session) or the file/folder fields above the comparison panes, those changes are always saved immediately into file %APPDATA%\IDMComp\UltraCompare\UCSessions.dat resulting in a permanent update of the loaded session.

The view Legend & Filters does not contain any option on a text comparison which is stored in a text comparison session. Just the Legend & Filters view of a folder comparison/sync session contains also session properties which can be changed and are saved immediately after making the change for a session loaded before from the list of saved sessions.

For adding a new session to the list of saved sessions based on an already saved session it is necessary to

load the session,
use command Save Active Session As New and confirm adding the session with a name another saved session already has,
use command Session Properties to change the name of the session and other options including file and folder names.

It is currently in UC v15.0.0.1006 with the updated session management not possible to use a loaded session for various files/folders with no other options changed, or with just a few options changed, without overwriting the saved session automatically on every modification done via the user interface.

Setting the read-only attribute on file UCSessions.dat in directory %APPDATA%\IDMComp\UltraCompare\ is no workaround as UC does not load the sessions from the file if read-only attribute is set on this file.

So a saved session cannot be really used with UC v15.0.0.1006 for having a template not automatically updated on a properties change for various file or folder comparisons.