One Way Folder sync

[Kajeana]

Need to find code for one way folder sync. I deliver a flash drive to users with an html front-end, leading them to the pdf file they need. I am creating a web site for the user to go to, click on a button and have them down load updated files to thier flash drive.
I am a beginner web developer with not much code experinance, but able to build a site in Dreamweaver and enter code where I am told to. Not sure how to store the updated folder on my web site. Any help is greatly apprecated. I have been researching this for a few weeks and keep hitting brick walls. Tried working with drop box and it is to involed for my users. Needs to be user friendly as possible.
Thanks,
Kajeana

The download destination will be under the control of the browser/user. You can however check for new files by creation or modify date on the server. Your problem is checking old files on the client and whether or not they need updating. For that, you'd need php on the client to access the local files to check whether they need updating. You can get easyphp and similar packages that install to a memory stick. That may be one way to do it.

http://www.easyphp.org/download.php

Anybody else?

[chrishea]

My concern would be your statement "I am a beginner web developer with not much code experience". This isn't a beginner project. If you can download a full folder and just have them start using the new version that wouldn't be too hard. If you want to update the existing folder with the new versions from the server that have changed, then that is more complicated.

There is a reason why services like Drop Box and Mozy have a local client that communicates with their server. As Ardav indicated, you need something on the local machine that has access to the local file system. If it was up to me, I would build the local client using Autoit and I would have a PHP program on the server that it can talk to. I would run the process from the PC end starting the program manually or with a scheduler. I have built a couple of processes like this and it works quite well. Autoit has some unique capabilities, it is relatively easy to learn and the syntax is quite similar to PHP. As I said at the start however; this isn't a beginner project.

[Kajeana]

Thanks for the link and for your honesty. The more I have reseached this project the more I am learning how complex it is. I agree with you, the easist to set up at this point is to download the files. But I will strive to make it better for my users and look into Autoit. It will be a challege, but I love a good challege!

@chrishea - thanks for the heads up - will look into Autoit myself.