On Linux: you can start SparkleShare from the Applications menu. It can be found under the Internet category. After you've started SparkleShare for the first time, it will start up automatically next time when you login to your computer.
On Mac: you can start SparkleShare by double clicking its icon. It may appear in the Applications folder if you've previously put it there. You can set SparkleShare to start automatically on login by right clicking the dock icon and selecting Options and checking Open at Login.
On your first run, SparkleShare will ask you for your Full Name and Email Address. This is all the personal information needed to get started. Then click Next to add projects to SparkleShare.
This is still a bit of a tedious process at the moment, but we are working on an easy solution. We've written a short page about it.
Github and Gitorious both are project hosting solutions that provide free space if you work on Free and Open Source Software projects. We recommend signing up for one of these services if you work on such projects or if you'd like to test SparkleShare before setting up your own host. Please be aware that everything hosted on these websites is public on the free accounts, so be careful with what you put on there.
First off, get an account on Gitorious if you
don't already have one.
From your Dashboard, click Create a new project.
Fill in the required fields. After that Gitorious will ask you to create a repository. We will refer to the name of
this repository as the Folder Name from here on.
Now we will have to upload your key
so that Gitorious can recognise your computer..
SparkleShare has already created one for you if you have filled in the First Run Screen.
You can find it in your SparkleShare folder and looks like Your Name's key.txt, but ofcourse with your name filled in. Copy the contents of this file.
Go to the Dashboard again. Click Manage SSH Keys.
Now click Add SSH Key. Paste the contents
of the file you just copied into the text field and hit Save.
Now we can tell SparkleShare to sync with this folder. Click SparkleShare's
Notification icon and
select Add Remote Folder.... Select Gitorious
as your host and enter the project and folder
name in the Folder Name entry.
Now click Sync to start syncing!
Your collaborator will have to get an account and add his or her key as described in the previous question, but can skip the project creation. Once that has finished you can easily add the person through the
Gitorious web interface.
On Gitorious, go to Teams and click Create a new team. This should be straightforward.
You will be presented with a team overview. Here you can add members. Click Add new member to search
for your collaborator's username and add him or her to the team.
Now you have to transfer ownership of your project to the team, so everybody on the team can sync with it.
On the Dashboard, select the appropriate project under Your Projects. Click Edit Project.
At the bottom there will be an entry called Transfer ownership to a group. Select your newly created
team.
Done! Now every user that is part of the team can sync with the folder.
First off, get an account on Github if you
don't already have one.
From your Dashboard, click New Repository. Fill in the required fields. We will refer
to the name of this repository as the Folder Name from here on.
Now we will have to upload your key
so that Github can recognise your computer..
SparkleShare has already created one for you if you have filled in the First Run Screen.
You can find it in your SparkleShare folder and looks like Your Name's key.txt, but ofcourse with your name filled in. Copy the contents of this file.
Go to your Account Settings. Click SSH Public Keys. Now click Add a public Key. Paste the
contents of the file you just copied into the Key text field and give the key a Title. Hit
Add key.
Now we can tell SparkleShare to sync with this folder. Click SparkleShare's Notification icon and
select Add Remote Folder.... Select Github as your host and enter your Github username
and the folder name in the Folder Name entry.
Now click Sync to start syncing!
Your collaborator will have to get an account and add his or her key as described in the previous question,
but can skip the repository creation. Once that has finished you can easily add the person through
the Github web interface.
On Github, go to your Dashboard select the appropriate repository under Your Repositories.
Click Admin and then Collaborators. You can search for your collaborator's username by typing
inside the text entry. Then hit Add to add the person.
Done! Now every user that is part of the team can sync with the folder.
Just put your files in one of your SparkleShare project folders. You can do this by dragging files over or to save from directly from an application. SparkleShare will notice your changes. No manually syncing work anymore!
Not only is everything in SparkleShare synced to your host, it will also automatically with all other clients connected to it. Again, no extra work!
Right click the affected file. There will be a menu entry called Get Earlier Version. From there you can select an earlier version of the file you want to check out. SparkleShare will create a copy of this file in the same folder. This only works on Linux using Nautilus as the file browser for the time being.
If you're running your own SparkleShare host, simply send out an Invitation from the Web Interface. (The web interface is a work in progress)
The answer depends entirely on your computer's hard disk. SparkleShare itself doesn't put any limit on disk space,
the size of files, or the number of files stored. Services like Github or Gitorious may have a limit on these
but if you host your own SparkleShare host the only limits are the disk space on the host and clients.
You can see how much space SparkleShare is using on your own computer by clicking the SparkleShare
icon in the Notification Area.
SparkleShare puts no limitations on the number of people working on the same project.
SparkleShare puts no limitations on the number of projects you can work on at a time. If you want to add another, simply send yourself an invitation, or click the Notification Icon and select Add Remote Folder.... You can even work on different projects that are hosted on different servers.