ExpanDrive 1.3.2 is a highly recommended bug fix release, fixing many FTP compatibility issues as well as SFTP stability. For anyone who was trouble connecting to a specific FTP server, please give this release a try. If there are any remaining problems, we’ll sort them out!

In addition, there are also some small new features to increase usability.

Release notes are below, or here as always.

    New Features

• Global Drive Manager shortcut – you can now bind a global shortcut that brings forward the Drive Manager no matter what application you’re in. This makes using ExpanDrive a mouse-free activity!
• Drives will now be revealed in Finder upon connection unless disabled in preferences
• Drives can now be duplicated in the Drive Manager
• Ability to set up ExpanDrive as default SFTP/FTP client
• Added Dutch, Swedish, and Simplified Chinese Localizations
• GUI now responds to ftp:// and ftps:// URLs and can receive SFTP/FTP/FTPS urls that are dropped on it
• Apple-f now brings focus to the filter bar in drive manager
• SSH Channel keep-alives are now sent to ensure active connections

    Fixes

• FTP compatibility dramatically improved
• Updated the documentation to better reflect the 1.3 feature set & look
• Support for iLife ’08 and a number of other bug fixes
• Much better MacFUSE installation detection & cleanup
• Orphaned mount points in /Volumes are now much more aggressively cleaned up
• Many small bug fixes and performance improvements.
• Fixed a number of memory leaks
• Applescript name matching on connect bug – fixes issues with the expan script

TextMate is one of the most popular editors to use in conjuction with ExpanDrive. TextMate does not have SFTP support built in, but with ExpanDrive you can edit remote projects directly from within Textmate, as if they were on your hard drive. There is no distinction between what is local, and what is remote.

TextMate has an interesting habit of refreshing the metadata on every file in a current project every time the window regains focus, even if the file isn’t open. It is checking if a file has been changed or deleted by some external process. When those files are on local hard disk, you don’t notice this additional overhead. However, on a higher latency drive, like a network drive, it has the effect of sending out a request over the network for each file checked. If your project has a large number of files, there is a noticeable delay in gaining window as Textmate issue hundreds of requests that get piped over a network.

ExpanDrive employs a variety of caching techniques that alleviate this delay. However, if you have HUGE projects, like an entire rails tree, even ExpanDrive might show a small delay. In this case, consider installing the Ciarán Walsh’s ReMate plugin. ReMate allows you to selectively disable the automatic refresh when gaining focus, effectively removing any delay you might experience.