Briefcase 1.2 has made its appearance in the App Store. I've code named it Snow Briefcase.

When Apple announced the successor to Leopard, they named it Snow Leopard because it didn't have enough user visible differences to warrant a whole new cat. Most of the changes where fundamental architectural changes.

In much the same way, Briefcase 1.2 is outwardly similar to 1.1. But, it boasts some significant changes under the hood (note: there are a few new features as well, but more on those later).

The first major change is that we completely swapped out the SSH connection library for a different, more robust implementation. If you are connecting to a Mac over a WiFi LAN, you probably won't notice the difference, but those connecting to different OS's using more complicated networking arrangements should experience improved reliability.

Secondly, we changed how Briefcase manages information about the files it is storing. Briefcase maintains a database of metadata about each file, such as its modification date, thumbnail, server of origin, etc. When I wrote Briefcase, I thought of it as a way to take a handful of files with me. I didn't anticipate that some users would try to copy over gigabytes of document files. Briefcase used to load the whole database into memory on startup, which was not a grand idea. In version 1.2, Briefcase handles the database much more efficiently and only loads data when it is needed. This means that Briefcase should be able to handle very large numbers of files without lag.

We did manage to squeeze in few new features on top of the architectural changes. We've added support for RTF and RTFD documents, and we've even thrown in Open Office ODT files for good measure. There is one limitation though. You have to download the files from a Mac. The reason is that we use Apple's support for RTF and ODT on the Mac to do the conversion. The conversion is done in the background during download, so you won't notice a thing.

We've also added support for syntax highlighting for most common types of source files.

I should note that the new features are only available in the full version of Briefcase, which will be our focus going forward. However, we will keep Briefcase Lite up-to-date with all of the bug fixes, performance improvements, and other tweaks that are common.

One other thing worth mentioning is that we've tweaked the UI in the document viewer. The UI elements no longer hide automatically. You have to tap the full screen button at the top left. The reason for this is that the auto-hide feature interfered with the ability to tap on links in documents. When the UI is hidden, there is a floating button that will allow you to bring the UI back. If the button is in the way, just drag it to a new spot!

There's a long list of other minor changes and tweaks. You can check out the full list here if you are interested.

Thanks for the great feedback to date!