Under development. This page is an overview of the main components of RsyncOSX and RsyncUI. The development of the apps has been an evolving process. The open source community has been and still are a great resource for ideas and how to solve specific tasks. Both apps today are stable and in a state of maintenace. Some numbers:

Some building blocks

The following addresses some of the main building blocks of both apps and the main difference between them. The MVC design pattern is the basis for both apps.

RsyncOSX vs RsyncUI

RsyncOSX and RsyncUI shares most of the code for the model components. RsyncOSX is a pure Swift and Storyboard based macOS application. RsyncUI is a pure SwiftUI and Swift based macOS application. Both apps utilizes another great declarative library Combine developed by Apple. As well as JSON files for storing tasks, logrecords and user configuration. The main difference between the two apps is the UI and how the UI is designed and built.

SwiftUI is the latest declarative framework developed by Apple for views, controls, and layout structures for user interface.

RsyncOSX and Storyboard

RsyncOSX utilizes Storyboard, which is a tool for graphical design of views. UI components like buttons, tables and other UI components are added and placed within the view by the developer utilizing Xcode. After design all UI components are connected by creating bindings to Swift code. The developer manually adds a reference to the Swift source code for every view within the Storyboard. If the developer misses to bind a UI component, the app will crash with an nil pointer exception every time that view is exposed.

Storyboard for the tab views: Storyboard for the sheetviews:

RsyncUI and SwiftUI

RsyncUI utilizes SwiftUI for the UI. UI components are views, which is a value type struct and not a reference type class. UI components are added to RsyncUI by code. Example of a view is the Details view selecting the DryRun button.

The details view:

A property within a value type can only be modified by a mutating func. In SwitfUI there are special property wrappers like @State and @Binding for local and private properties and properties for transferring data between views . These property wrappers enables to modify a property within a SwiftUI view. There are property wrapper like @StateObject which are of reference type. The latter property wrapper is initialized in the view as a class of type Observeable object. And there are many other property wrappers to be used within SwiftUI. RsyncUI utilizes only a few.

Every time like a property wrapper is changed the view in a SwiftUI based app is recreated by the runtime. The internal model for creating views is a kind of complex and it is superfast. The cost of creating a value type vs a reference type is way more effective.

Asynchronous execution - boths apps

Asynchronous execution of tasks are key components of both apps. Every time a rsync synchronize or restore task is executed the termination of the task is not known ahead. When the termination signal is observed some actions are required. Some actions are like stopping a progressview, send a message about task is completed, do some logging and execute next synchronize task.

There are two methods for asynchronous execution. One is utilizing callback functions or completion handlers, which trigger next action when task is completed. The second is utilize Swift´s async and await utilities for asynchronous execution. Utilizing async and await makes the code simpler and cleaner. The need for completion handlers are reduced. And lesser code is better code.

All code which utilizes asynchronous execution are shared between the two apps. The Process object is where the real work is done. Input to the Process are the command to execute and the parameters for the command. The Process object utilizes Combine for monitoring process termination and output, when needed by the apps, from the command. There are two versions of the process object:

• the process object
• the async process object

The difference between those two objects are minor, the async version marks the function for execution with keyword async. Calling the async require the await keyword.

• the await keyword

Combine - boths apps

Combine, a declarative library by Apple, makes the code easy to write and easy to read. In the Combine code for encode and write data to JSON file, the publisher require macOS BigSur and later. Combine is utilized in the following parts of RsyncOSX and likewise for RsyncUI.

• read user configurations from permanent store
• read and write configurations
• read and write schedules and logs
• the process object, executing tasks
• preparing the output from rsync process

How to start the apps

There are different ways of starting a Storyboard based app vs a SwiftUI based app.

Start of RsyncUI

The start of RsyncUI conforms to the App protocol. There is only one entrance point @main in RsyncUI. The @main initializes the app, setup of the menubar and open the navigation bar which is the main user start for the app.

Start of RSyncOSX

The start of RsyncOSX starts with the attribute @NSApplicationMain which kicks off everything. Within the Storyboard the entry point is marked and the view is binded with MainWindowsController.swift. The Toolbar is programmatically constructed which makes it more easy to change vs designing it the Storyboard. But all the details how this actually work is beyond me, but it works.

The model

The model is not equal for the apps. The concept of model is the same, but there are some differences due to the fact that SwiftUI views are value type (structs) and not reference type (class) as for Storyboard and Swift. The model is also responsible for informing the views when there are changes to the model. But both apps share the basic functions like read and write data from store, functions for updating the model and so on.

The memory footprint about tasks is minimal. Data for tasks are kept in memory for both apps during the lifetime of the apps. The memory footprint for logs will grow over time as new logs are created and stored. But logs are only read from store when viewing logs or updates. When data about logs is not used, the data is automatically released from memory to keep the memory as low as possible.

Model for RsyncUI

Data for tasks are read from store and made avaliable for all the views by an Environment property. The RsyncUIApp is the main entrance point for RsyncUI. After the app is initialized and started it opens the main navigation view (RsyncUIView) and read tasks for the default profile or other profile when selected. Data about tasks (RsyncUIconfigurations) is made avaliable for all views by the .environmentObject property.

The data about tasks is read into a object of reference type which conforms to ObservableObject. Any changes to the model is published and the subscriber will be notified. This is an asynchron publish and subscribe feature which is enabled by the declarative library Combine which is a important part of SwiftUI.

Data about logs are only read from store when needed. After operation on logs the memory is automatically released. The SidebarLogsView takes care of reading data for logs when the user select viewing logs.

Data used within RsyncUI views are either an EnvironmentObject or a StateObject, which both are reference types which conforms to ObservableObject. Data is read only within a SwiftUI view. The only way to change data within RsyncUI , e.g. add or delete, is to make the reference to the data avaliable for a Swift object of reference type. This object takes care of any changes.

Any synchronize task is executed asynchron. The process object, which is responsible for executing the external rsync tasks, is listening for termination of the external process. Here is an example of one class which does the real update on data is created within this SwiftUI view.

A StateObject which is created when a SwiftUI view is created, is updated as progress of task. The update causes the StateObject to publish a change message which again trigger an action like all tasks are completed, saved to store and a new of data from store is requiered.