Export/Import Settings vs Backup/Restore User Customizations

[Philip_Sharman]

What is the difference between (a) "Import Settings"/"Export Settings" and (b) "Backup/Restore User Customizations"?

(These are on the Advanced menu.)

It seems as though import/export settings is a subset of what you can save via "Backup/Restore User Customizations". Is that correct?

"Backup/Restore User Customizations" seems to give finer control over what you restore. Is that the only difference?

Thanks,
Philip

[patrickdrd]

no, "Backup/Restore User Customizations" backups only menus, toolbars and specific files I think,
while "Import Settings"/"Export Settings" backups settings.ini

[Mofi]

Well, these 3 menu items should be really better explained in help. I also don't know exactly the difference. I can only write here what I can see.

Export Settings creates a copy of

• my currently used INI - exe-name.ini is default (uedit32.ini);
• my personal keyboard configuration file - ini-name.uek since UE v12.20 (uedit32.uek), previous versions have had the extension kbd;
• my currently used menu profile file - ini-name.mnu (uedit32.mnu);
• my currently used popup menu profile file - ini-name.pmu (uedit32.pmu);
• my currently used toolbar profile file - ini-name.tbr (uedit32.tbr);
• my currently used self-made (customized) toolbar configuration file Personal.tfg specified in the current INI;
• the 6 standard menu, popup menu and toolbar configuration files Advanced.* and Basic.*.

Import Settings overwrites the current INI and the other files with the files/settings in the specified folder.

I don't know if there is a difference for users who have specified to save all their settings in registry instead of the INI. Maybe Import/Export Settings is mainly written for those registry using users.

---

Backup/Restore User Customizations was introduced much later than Import/Export Settings with UE v12.10 on 2006-05-15.

It gives the user more control over what is backup/restored. It offers also to backup/restore all the standard and currently used menu and toolbar profile files, but additionally also all files in the program directory of UltraEdit.

I think, it is most helpful for IDM support and developers, beta testers and power users which sometimes have to switch between different versions of UltraEdit (hotfixes for example). Well, I currently don't use it, because I have to switch often also to older versions which don't have a backup/restore user customization feature. But using this feature before installing a new version is always a good idea.

Main difference of Backup/Restore User Customizations in comparison with Import/Export Settings is that all selected files are stored in a single file and so a folder can have dozens of UltraEdit or UEStudio backups which makes it much more easier to manage the backups.

Either Backup/Restore User Customizations or Import/Export Settings should be used in a fixed interval by all users which use UltraEdit or UEStudio daily just for security of a data/settings loss as sometimes happens by accident or faulty hardware.

[mbuhl]

I tried using the backup/restore technique to copy my settings to all my computers. I am mostly concerned about my toolbars, which take forever to customize now that the available buttons are no longer sorted by menu, but sorted alphabetically.

Unfortunately, I cannot get the transfer to work. I backup *everything* and I see a list of files that were backed up. I go to the target machine and do a restore and request everything be restored and choose the file I created earlier. I am told the files were restored, but my toolbars are still set to the default. I tried restarting UltraEdit, but that doesn't help.

Does anyone know how to push out setting to a bunch of computers?


Marshall

[scallanh]

I also tried the "Backup/Restore User Customizations" recently but couldn't get the restore step to work no matter what options I selected. Like you experienced, even though UltraEdit sometimes said the customizations had been restored, nothing was changed. I think it's probably a bug and I'll be reporting it to support@idmcomp.com. I'd suggest you do the same.

FYI, I'm using UltraEdit 13.00a+2 on Windows 2000.

[scallanh]

I forgot to update this thread when I originally got a response from IDM, but here's what they wrote:

> I can't get the "Restore User Customizations" function to work no
> matter what options I select, and despite the fact that it sometimes
> says it worked even though none of the customizations were actually
> restored. I'm using UltraEdit 13.00a+2 on both Windows 2000 and
> Windows XP.

I'm sorry for the trouble you are experiencing. There is an issue in
the v13.00 - v13.00a release related to the restore customizations. The
developers have addressed this in the v13.10 release which is currently
in BETA.

> A related issue is that the "Backup/Restore User Customizations"
> options are confusing and aren't covered in the help file:
>
> 1. Are there any functional differences between the "Export
> Settings" and "Import Settings" functions and the "Backup/Restore
> User Customizations" function? (besides the fact that the "settings"
> functions manipulate individual configuration files while the
> "customizations" function manipulates a single backup file)

Yes, there are functional differences. The Import/Export is only for
the uedit32.ini, which handles a majority of your customizations, but
not all. It was designed for the purpose of exporting your .ini for a
user who was switching from UltraEdit to UEStudio.

The backup/restore will export ALL of your settings: .ini, toolbar/menu
configurations, key mappings, etc.

I haven't tried the "Restore User Customizations" function since then to see if was actually fixed in version 13.10.

[embedded_tom]

I just tried to restore settings for V13.20+2 and it did not work. Import settings were screwy too.

And it seems to me that the backup/restore function needs to include things like the wordfile, templates and macros too (also htmltidy & taglist if you use them).

Did it manually using Mofi's excellent explanation found here: viewtopic.php?t=2404

(Mofi is so good that he goes back & updates old topics when new info is available!)

Guess I'll stick with the manual method!

tom

[scallanh]

Tom, if you haven't already, I'd encourage you to report this bug to IDM by email so they can fix this properly. From what they told me this was supposed to be fixed in v13.10 but obviously it's still a problem.

[steje]

FWIW, I found the 'Restore' part of Backup & Restore does not work either, though at the time all I noticed was that the uedit32.ini file did not seem to get completely restored... I had no changes to my toolbars before and after the restore... all I noticed was that the 'golden' backup file that had NO recent file history, search history, etc etc did not get rid of all the history related stuff I had built up.


Weird, don't see why there are so many clumsy attempts at config mgmt left in the product. It should be simple enough to have one method that can support old and new version conversion. Also not enthised that it's a binary file... it IS nice that it's a single file... but it could have just been a zip file like many other apps out there use.

Also agree that the 'other' REALLY important data like the wordfile and templates should be included. That's the stuff that I bet changes the most frequently once users get their application specific settings set the way they like. I'm often trying out new macros and tweaks to the wordfile, etc etc...

[steje]

Ah, well I've relocated my wordfile to the 'HomeDir' where the uedit32.ini and toolbar files are, and the 'Backup & Restore' feature now catches that in the .UEC file. Just upgraded to 13.20a also, but not sure if the 'restore' works yet... Will try it.

One thing I've noticed while looking at this that is quite irritating... regardless of which method you use to backup your settings:

Each time you load UE, it (seemingly randomly) 'moves' stuff around all over the place inside the uedit32.ini file. This is simply loading and closing, and not making any changes at all to UE... this makes it a real PITA to 'compare' configuration files to see what you may have changed.

[Mofi]

UE v13.20a just runs a simple not case sensitive sort of the settings inside a group to make loading the settings next time faster. If you do not change the sort order manually you can easily compare different versions of uedit32.ini. Some previous versions even resorted the groups for faster loading but that was not a good idea because it could damage the INI file when multiple instances are opened or closed at the same time.

However, I have written a macro which can sort INI files of any program with a very high sophisticated sort algorithm. That gives me and any user which uses it the power to easily sort 2 versions of a program INI and then compare them. See topic Macros for sorting INI and REG files.

[steje]

This does not seem to be the case in UE 13.20a... the app is DEFINITELY re-sorting things between opens, and not just inside INI group/section [headers]... it's entirely 'moving' some of these sections around in the file. The [Function List-SCBar-427] section is being replaced by the [Print Settings] section, along with over a dozen other Language, TBCFG and Toolbar sections...

Very oddly, this behaviour flip-flops back and forth between sorting of the file between loads. After opening and closing the app ONCE, things are switched around. Then after opening and closing the app a SECOND time, things are switched BACK to the way they were. Opening a THIRD time, things are switched around in the same pattern as the first time...

...seems silly. But it's nice that I can just resort the list myself using your macro, and I just realized UE has it's own sort button, but OMG it seems you cannot 'UNDO' a sort performed by the button! That's not cool.