Due to a silly mistake on my part Iris hasn’t shipped with any help files. Sorry.

We have a script that runs in Xcode as part of the build process. It does some processing on the Help files and then copies them to the application bundle. Unfortunately it doesn’t work properly when we flip the switch to build the release version of an app. We think no one noticed because of the caching Apple Help does.

The misbehaving script caused problems with Interarchy 9.0 too. I fixed the script for Interarchy 9.0.1 but I didn’t push the changes to Iris. Again, sorry.

We are working on Iris 1.0.1. It will ship with Help.

Some people are experiencing screen update issues. We think this is an incompatibility between some optimisation we have done in 1.0 and the video cards that ship with some Macs. We are investigating and hope to have this fixed by the time Iris 1.0.1 ships.

If you are having an issue with Iris please contact us. We can’t fix what we don’t know about. Please let us know.

I am very pleased to announce the release of Iris 1.0, an all-new image editor for Mac OS X.

Iris has been created for previously overlooked Mac users who simply wanted an accessible and easy to use image program that provides professional results, without the professional price tag.

Iris takes a different approach to traditional image editors like Photoshop. Instead of spewing confusing palettes everywhere Iris presents everything in an elegant one-window interface.

Iris requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later. Mac OS X 10.5.3 is strongly recommended.

You can download a free trial of Iris 1.0 here.

A nice update to the best macro program for Mac OS X.

Auto Uploads

An Auto Upload is a mapping associating a local folder with a remote folder. When you drop a file or folder on to Interarchy (that is, on to the Interarchy application icon of the Interarchy Dock icon), if the file is inside an Auto Upload local folder, it will automatically be uploaded to the appropriate location inside the remote folder.

Think of an Auto Upload as a smart Droplet.

To create an Auto Upload, choose File » New » Auto Upload…, enter the location of the remote folder and select the corresponding local folder. Make sure the path specified exactly corresponds to the remote folder (although the contents do not need to be identical as would be the case for a mirror).

When you drop a file (or folder) on to Interarchy, it will check whether the file is inside an Auto Upload. If so, it will find the relative location within the Auto Upload folder, and then upload the file to the correct location within the remote destination as specified by the Auto Upload.

The uploaded file or folder is merged on to the remote site, so nothing is ever deleted, although remote files may be overwritten with new data. All files in an uploaded folder are uploaded, no mirroring happens.

You can view or edit your Auto Uploads in the Auto Uploads collection.

Note that since any changes you make and any Auto Upload that happens will not be noted by any existing mirror or Net Disk, when you next sync a disk or run a mirror it will appear as if both the local and remote files have changed, so depending on the type of mirror, the local files will be uploaded again, or the remote files will be downloaded, or (for Mirror Both Ways) Interarchy will try to guess which of the two is more up to date and transfer. As such it would be best to only use an Auto Upload together with Mirror Upload.

Uploading to Multiple Destinations

If you regularly upload the same file (or folder) to multiple destinations you can use Auto Uploads to automate the process.

Create an Auto Upload for each remote destination you want to upload to. The key step is to select the same local folder for each Auto Upload that you create.

Now, when you drop a file (or folder) on to Interarchy, it will check whether the file is inside each Auto Upload you have created. If so, Interarchy will upload the file to the correct location as specified by the Auto Upload.

Many applications take advantage of special contextual menus. You can use these menus to quickly choose commands or perform actions specific to the current selection.

Different items appear in contextual menu depending on the context. To see the contextual menu for an item hold down the Control key and click the item.

The Interarchy Contextual Menu plug-in allows Interarchy to add items to the contextual menu of other applications. For example you can use the Interarchy Contextual Menu plug-in to:

• Upload a file from the Finder.
• From Safari, send a URL to Interarchy to download.
• Mark a file or folder to be ignored when mirroring.

To install the Interarchy Contextual Menu plug-in go to the Advanced Preference Pane and click the “Install Interarchy Contextual Menu” button.

Not every application supports contextual menu plug-ins, but great ones like BBEdit and Path Finder do. If an application doesn’t support contextual menu plug-ins you might find solace by using the Services Interarchy provides.

The Interarchy Contextual Menu plug-in is installed in

~/Library/Contextual Menu Items

To disable the plug-in simply remove it from this folder and restart your Mac.

Amazon S3 is a web service that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data which gives developers access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites.

Interarchy provides direct access to this service, allowing you to upload or download files just as if you were accessing an FTP or SFTP site. You simply select the Amazon S3 protocol and use your AWS Access Key ID and AWS Secret Access Key just as you would your FTP username and password.

You must create an Amazon Web Services account, and Amazon S3 bandwidth and storage costs will apply.

Interarchy allows you to create buckets and directories, upload or download files, and set permissions (Private, Public Read, Public Read/Write, and Authenticated Read). You can even use a Mirror or Net Disk directly to Amazon S3.

The following are some technical notes on Interarchy’s implementation of Amazon S3 access. For normal use, you probably never need to know any of this, Interarchy makes your Amazon S3 storage look just like nay other file system.
Amazon S3 file paths can be anything at all, there is no requirement for any kind of directory structure. For example, a valid Amazon S3 file might be found at http://s3.amazonaws.com/nolobe//./..//. The Key would be /./..//. However, Interarchy simulates a directory structure based on slash (/) delimited paths. Interarchy does not support such unusual keys.

The top level (root) directory in Amazon S3 is a global name space of “buckets” which is shared by all Amazon S3 users, so you cannot create a top level folder that is not unique to you, nor any files in the root directory. Also bucket names must be 3 to 255 characters long and can contain only ASCII letters, numbers, underscores and dashes. Further, you are limited to 100 buckets. So you should generally create a top level directory named after your name or domain name (eg “nolobe.com”) or containing your Amazon Access Key ID and then do your work in there.

Amazon S3 has no concept of directories, so Interarchy simulates them. If a file like http://s3.amazonaws.com/nolobe/folder/files/file.txt exists, then Interarchy simulates directories for /nolobe, /nolobe/folder and /nolobe/folder/files. If you create a directory in Interarchy, it actually creates a zero length file with a name ending in a slash. For example, if you create directory http://s3.amazonaws.com/nolobe/folder, Interarchy actually creates a zero length file with bucket nolobe and key folder/.
If you create a directory in the root, Interarchy creates a bucket for you, if available. Buckets are world-global, so they disappear almost as fast as .com domain names.

Amazon S3 does not support renaming. Because of this, if you duplicate a folder, Interarchy will prompt you for the new name.

Interarchy supports Amazon S3’s “Canned Access Policies” (Private, Public Read, Public Read/Write, and Authenticated Read). You can configure the permissions for uploaded files using the Permissions Preference Pane, or set them afterwards using the Get Info Window.

If you are after an old version of Interarchy the place to look is ftp.nolobe.com. You should be able to find every version of Interarchy and almost every version of Anarchie.

We are missing is Anarchie 1.0 through 1.5. If you happen to have any of these versions please let us know.

If you want new tabs and windows to open with an empty listing instead of asking you to create a new connection do the following.

1. Choose Interarchy » Preferences, and then click General.
2. Choose “Empty Listing” from the “New windows and tabs open with” pop-up menu.

That’s it.

You also have the option of new windows and tabs opening with your Bookmarks.

Interarchy 9.0.1 is now available. It address a number of small bugs and issues with Interarchy 9.0. Detailed release notes can be found here.

The handling of file editors is much improved in 9.0.1. You can once again change the editor for a file type via the Get Info window. You can also change editors via the Always Edit With menu (open the File menu and hold down the Option key).

Interarchy 9.0 uses the system wide Launch Services database. Most of the time this is a good thing. If, for example, the Finder opens .txt files with BBEdit, Interarchy will also use BBEdit. However if you wanted the Finder to open say .html files with Safari and Interarchy to edit .html files with BBEdit you were out of luck. Interarchy 9.0.1 solves this. When you change the editor for a file type Interarchy will ask you if you want the change to be local to Interarchy or global across all applications.

9.0.1 also allows you to set a universal editor. If you always want to use BBEdit, regardless of file type, have a look at the Editor popup menu in the Helpers Preference Pane.

Fans of spatial navigation should be happy with 9.0.1. It once again does the right thing.

“Out of the box” Interarchy will work in browser mode. To activate spatial behaviour go to the Tabs Preference Pane. You should check the the “Always open folders in a new window” and “Select tabs and windows as they are created” checkboxes.

Enjoy!

Oh no! Spy shots of our booth at Macworld have leaked out. I’ll have to call in the lawyers.

Seriously, we are in the South Hall, right behind Apple, in booth #1338. If you are lucky enough to be at Macworld please drop by and say hi. We would love to see you.