The iOS version of the Rainbow – Best Cloud Storage Manager application has an easy to use interface to transfer files and folders. The main item in that interface is a basket, and a user transfers a file or folder by dropping it in that basket. There is no limit on the number of items (files or folders) that are in that basket. Also, those items can come from different Cloud Service Accounts. The Rainbow application will transfer all of them in the order that they were added.
Add Items to the Basket
The first thing that we need to do, is to switch to the “Browse” screen. For that we tap on the Rainbow logo icon, at the top right corner, and from the left menu we select the second line.
The Browse screen displays the list of all connected accounts, grouped by service name.
In that screen we see the basket, but, currently it is inactive. It becomes active as soon as we start browsing an account. We browse an account by selecting it from that list. A new screen appears which displays the contents of that account. The items in that list as sorted alphabetically, but we do not mix folders and files. Thus, we first see the folders and we then see the files. We browse a folder by tapping on it.
Note: If the basket was active at the screen with the connected accounts, we would then be able to copy (or delete) an entire account. What do you think of that feature?
We add an item to the basket by slightly long pressing on its line and then dragging our finger towards the basket. Once we reach the basket a menu appears.
That menu has 5 buttons: Cancel, Copy, Share, Delete and Add to Favorite. The Cancel button dismisses that menu, and consequently it cancels the process to transfer the selected item. On a different article we will focus on the buttons to Share a file and Add an item to Favorite.
We select to copy that file. Thus, we tap on the 2nd button, and immediately two things happen: 1. The menu disappears, and 2. The label for transferring items is updated (the other label is for Sharing files). At the right end of the line we see an icon with the selected action.
We may try to add that item in the basket for a second time. But, if we choose the same action (i.e., copy), we see a message saying that that item is already added in the basket. If instead we choose to delete that item, the icon for the selected action is updated to reflect that change.
At the bottom of the screen we see three buttons: Add all, Delete all, and New. The last button is used to create a new folder or a file (text, photo, video) in that folder. But, the first two buttons add all items in the current folder in the basket and either copy them or delete them.
We can keep adding items to the basket. We are free to go back to the first screen and browse another account. Once we have selected all items that we want to transfer, we double tap on the basket.
Transferring Selected Items
Up until now we have been adding items to the basket. None of these items is transferred (copied or deleted) yet. Once we have finished adding the items that we want to transfer, we move to the next step, which is to select the Service Account and folder that we want to transfer these items to. For that we double tap on the basket.
The new screen has a list of the selected items grouped by service. Next to each item there are two buttons: Copy and Delete. The one in black color indicates the selected icon. If we tap on the other button, the color of that button will change to black, and the previous one to green, indicating the new action that is now in effect. At the left end of each row we find the remove button. If we tap on it, we remove that item from the basket.
At the top of the screen we see three buttons: 1. The left arrow will close that screen, 2. The “Remove all” button will empty the basket and close the screen, and 3. The “Next” button will takes us to the next screens to select destination service and folder.
Note: If we select to delete all items, the Next button will start the process. Since we are deleting item there is no need to select a destination service.
We chose to transfer the items to the Local filesystem. Since there is no folder to select to, in the 2nd screen for selecting the destination folder we tap on the “Next” button. Immediately we return back to the first screen, the one that displays a list with all connected accounts, so that we can start this process over, and transfer more items.
Each time we transfer some items, the Rainbow application creates a task. It is possible to add more tasks before the first one is finished, and we can monitor the progress of them. But, more about it in a different article. When a task is finished, a dialog appears from the top to inform us that it is finished. That dialog is dismissed after a few second.