Snippely is an AIR application from the guys behind MooTools to help developers organize all the little snippets of code they have lying around their machines. From their website:

Snippely is a basic text and code organizational tool. Instead of storing bits of code, quick notes, and memos in text files all over your hard drive, this application will let you save and organize “snippets” in one convenient location. A snippet is a collection of one or more pieces of code and notes. Snippets are stored in groups for organization and quick retrieval.

The interface is slick and has a definite Mac / iTunes feel to it. It has syntax highlighting built in for several languages (with more to come) and it is super-simple to use.

All sounds great so far and alot of people think it is and contrary to the title of this post I’m one of them…sorta. The problem is that Snippely is missing some key features.

Running multiple clients

I have two main machines I use for development, my laptop and my PC in the studio. But I can’t access my snippets saved on one machine from the other. When I save some new snippets at work there is no easy way for me to access those new snippets on my laptop. If I do want to keep both clients synced I have to manually locate the database file which is buried away in a hidden folder, email it to myself, download it onto my other machine and then copy it other the top of it’s database file. Not exactly the most user friendly process.

It would be so much easier if it had a import / export functions built in or (and this would be amazing) the ability to save & retrieve snippets from a remote location. No more hunting for hidden files or remembering to export / import my database everytime I added a new snippet on another machine.

Sharing Snippets

Ok so the whole import / export thing wouldn’t be my first choice for keeping clients synced but I would be great for sharing snippets with other people. Say I’ve got a great collection of Javascript snippets I should be able to export that group and send it to another developer. They can then import that file (with the option to create a new group for the import or to append them to existing groups) and have access to all my Javascript snippets as well. At the moment to share snippets I’ve got to c&p them into an email and then the other developer has to manually enter them into their own copy of Snippely. Doesn’t make sharing easy!

Sub-Groups

The current group system could do with an overhaul as well. Grouping is great but I want to create sub-groups. I want a top-level group PHP with sub-groups codeignitor, ini settings, regular expressions, etc

This would make it so much more organized, at the moment I have to pre-fix the snippet titles with CI, INI, REGEX, etc so that they appear grouped in the list. But it just doesn’t look neat.

Encryption

In a perfect world this would be on a group by group basis but I would be happy with the ability to password protect the application as a whole. Not only would you be sure that any sensitive snippets were secure but it could also be used as a basic password manager.

These missing features are deal breakers for me which is a real shame. I love using Snippely, it looks great and what it does works really well. There is nothing else out there for storing snippets which looks as well or is as simple to use.

This is why I hate Snippely, I think it’s great and I do try to use it but everytime I go through the database hunt-email-replace dance I am reminded about how much better it could be. So I go looking for a snippet manager that does have multiple client support (the main deal breaker for me) and I can’t find one that I like using as much as Snippely. It’s given me a glimpse of what I really want but can’t have, which sucks!

If the guys from MooTools are reading…I love hate you! Now go add those missing features, I promise I’ll buy it