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Some suggestions to improve Easy Install


Anthony Sepulveda

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Hello,

I've just purchased the Essential Collection, and I had a bit of a 'traumatic' experience with having to download 1.8Gb of information across a slow internet connection. In fact, it was impossible to download everything, since the connection relentlessly hangs up on 2 modules: "Altitude Data" and "PhotoGuide 3", which together occupy around 800Mb. Maybe Accordance can improve on the way the files are downloaded in Easy Install, using the technology that download manager programs have (Free Download Manager, for example), by subdividing big files into smaller sections to make downloading more efficient. This would help even those with a quick internet connection, because it reduces waiting time for everyone.

And a corollary suggestion would be to allow the user to select and download specific modules inside a collection. This is already available for the purchased modules (individual or by collection) that Easy Install detects. This time it is just to apply the same principle one level further: to the modules inside a collection. With a slow connection, I am forced to economize: I would rather download first (or perhaps only) the modules that are currently more important to me, than to be at the mercy of a fixed and probably arbitrary order of downloads that Easy Install is set to follow. This option also won't oblige me to download the whole collection in one go, when I know that I won't be needing --at least not urgently-- several of its modules, which I could just download later when I need them (and piecemeal this time around, which takes much less time).

A third suggested improvement would be to allow the user to specify additional proxy settings if need be. As a concrete example, in our department we have a proxy that requires a username and password. I'm using Windows 8, and although I can use Firefox and IE10 Desktop to browse normally (they recognize the proxy, and ask the username and password before connecting), Easy Install says that I do not have internet connection, without allowing me to specify further options [N.B: The same thing happens to Windows 8's Metro UI, which they say they'll fix with the 8.1 update: but the thing is that with my slow connection, the 3.6 Gb download also fails every time I try]. If the proxy options can be specified in Accordance itself, then Accordance doesn't necessarily have to depend on whatever system settings it can find, which at times doesn't correctly reflect the network's working configuration (Accordance probably followed Metro UI's settings, and not those of Firefox or IE10 Desktop). I got this idea from AdMuncher and Free Download Manager: if these programs can't manage to connect using the system settings they find, it allows the user to manually specify additional proxy settings.

Well, that's it. I hope these aren't too difficult to implement. I think these will greatly help Accordance users who don't have the luxury of a high-speed internet connection.

Thanks,
--anthony

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I apologize about your traumatic experience!

 

The handling of very large collections in Easy Install is always an issue - do we show the user every option, meaning they select hundreds of items (as the iOS does it), or do we give them each package, so one or two simple downloads, that are larger? Or, do we do a fancy combination of the two? Obviously the latter is the ideal choice, but we have to balance all work priorities.

 

As you've noted, with an unstable internet connection, there can be issues downloading a larger package. However, downloads should resume if interrupted (just begin the download again), and already-downloaded items should also be able to be installed. Were these options not working for you?

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Hello Joel,

Well, I think the combination would be a better idea. The user doesn't have to see the hundreds of submodules immediately. It can be displayed as an expandable checkbox list, something similar to how the modules are shown in the library window (but this time, with the checkboxes beside the module names). If the user checks the Collection name, then all of its corresponding modules will be downloaded, without showing the particulars: but if the user expands the checkbox list, then the user may choose which modules _not_ to download. Inversely, if the user unchecks the Collection name, then none of the corresponding modules will be downloaded (again, without showing any of the submodules): but if the user expands the checkbox list, then the user may then choose the modules _for_ download. (Of course, for all of these, the checkbox disappears for modules or collections that have already been completely and correctly installed).

I'm using the Windows version of the program, and what I notice is that the resume feature only works sometimes. In particular, for these two huge modules that I still can't download up to the present moment, the resume feature doesn't work: the download always starts from zero each time I retry. Is this a bug in the Windows version? I hope this resume feature does work well for all download attempts, since I could still have the hope of finishing these huge downloads little by little.

 

Thanks,

--anthony

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One workaround is to ask the sales department to post the components of the large Collection in your account as separate items. Obviously they cannot break it down to each module, but they can post smaller groups, and the items that you most need or would like to try as separate downloads.

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Hi Helen,

 

Good idea. Now the only thing left would be how to possibly download the huge modules with a slow internet connection. Could these also be broken down into smaller chunks? Joel also told me that in principle the unfinished downloads ought to resume when the user tries again. But in the Windows version this doesn't seem to happen with regularity; resumed downloads only work sometimes. Could this be a bug in the Windows version?

 

Thanks,

--anthony

Edited by antxon
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  • 8 months later...

Can easy install be broken into multiple downloads that run in the background? My phone has to sit untouched for over an hour to receive everything. Couldn't each download take place one at a time, rather than as a big single download? I would imagine something like a download queue... The first three pieces download, then on to the next pending downloads. And they would all have status bars so the user can know where they are in the download process.

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We have a friend who used to have a very, very slow connection. When things on his laptop needed updating, he'd take it to a cafe 40 minutes from home and do his downloading there. Works fine for a laptop. Not practical for a desktop.

 

The kind of install selections we have when syncing an iOS device with a computer, broken down by category – Texts, English Tools, Greek Tools, etc., – would work well for incremental downloading.

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