Hi Jon,
I'm trying out the sync option and it works great! Thanks for putting it in. Very useful!
But I am wondering is there an easy way to sync also the attachments as well? or am I doing something wrong here?
Thanks,
Maarten
Sync attachments
Re: Sync attachments
Hi,
Bookends does sync attachments in the sense that the name of the attachment will be made the same in both database. But the physical attachment is not sent, for a number of reasons. However, if you email or copy the attachments from one computer to the other, and drop them in you default attachments folder, they will automatically be recognized by the synced database.
Jon
Sonny Software
Bookends does sync attachments in the sense that the name of the attachment will be made the same in both database. But the physical attachment is not sent, for a number of reasons. However, if you email or copy the attachments from one computer to the other, and drop them in you default attachments folder, they will automatically be recognized by the synced database.
Jon
Sonny Software
Re: Sync attachments
If I'm not mistaken, BE doesn't sync the attachments, but it does sync the symbolic link to the attachments. This is probably fine if you are using the default attachment folder, but if you are not—and you have attachments in different places on different computers—then it's not fine at all.
What BE seems to be doing in my case is syncing the database with an attachment filepath on Computer A. On Computer B, the link won't work, so I would have to re-attach the file. Of course, that link won't work when I sync back to Computer A, so I'll have to re-attach, and there will be a new link. This could go on forever.
Maybe I'm wrong about how this works, but it seems to me that we need away to not sync attachment links.
What BE seems to be doing in my case is syncing the database with an attachment filepath on Computer A. On Computer B, the link won't work, so I would have to re-attach the file. Of course, that link won't work when I sync back to Computer A, so I'll have to re-attach, and there will be a new link. This could go on forever.
Maybe I'm wrong about how this works, but it seems to me that we need away to not sync attachment links.
Re: Sync attachments
Bookends does not sync attachment paths (there are no such things in Bookends). Bookends remembers folder in which there are attachments. It just stores the file name. When you try to open an attachment, it looks for a file of that name in the default folder paths. If not found, it scans for a file in any folder in which you have made attachments. There are no hard links at all.
Jon
Sonny Software
Jon
Sonny Software
Re: Sync attachments
Well, I don't care what you call it, the behavior is the same. Let me spell it out for you.
Create Reference 1 in BE on Computer A. Attach file. Sync.
Open BE on Computer B. Sync. Open Reference 1. Try to open attachment. BE offers to reattach and finds the file (this works on only one of my computers; the other just opens the BE doc folder, and you have to find the file yourself). Attach file. Sync.
Open BE on Computer A. Sync. Open Reference 1. Try to open attachment. Guess what, it's not there anymore, because the sync put a new link/filename/whatever into the database. Re-attach file. Sync.
Open BE on Computer B. Sync. Open Reference 1. Try to open attachment. Oops—not there, since the sync put the link from Computer A into the database. Re-attach. Sync.
Continue ad nauseum.
I guess you could say that this is what BE is supposed to do and call it a feature, but to me it's a nuisance and a bug. I want Computer A to have a link/filename/whatever to the attached file on Computer A, and Computer to have a link/filename/whatever to the attachment on Computer B—and I want to be able to change one without changing the other.
If the databases can't be synced without the attachment link/filename/whatever, the usefulness of sync (and/or attachment) is greatly diminished.
Create Reference 1 in BE on Computer A. Attach file. Sync.
Open BE on Computer B. Sync. Open Reference 1. Try to open attachment. BE offers to reattach and finds the file (this works on only one of my computers; the other just opens the BE doc folder, and you have to find the file yourself). Attach file. Sync.
Open BE on Computer A. Sync. Open Reference 1. Try to open attachment. Guess what, it's not there anymore, because the sync put a new link/filename/whatever into the database. Re-attach file. Sync.
Open BE on Computer B. Sync. Open Reference 1. Try to open attachment. Oops—not there, since the sync put the link from Computer A into the database. Re-attach. Sync.
Continue ad nauseum.
I guess you could say that this is what BE is supposed to do and call it a feature, but to me it's a nuisance and a bug. I want Computer A to have a link/filename/whatever to the attached file on Computer A, and Computer to have a link/filename/whatever to the attachment on Computer B—and I want to be able to change one without changing the other.
If the databases can't be synced without the attachment link/filename/whatever, the usefulness of sync (and/or attachment) is greatly diminished.
Re: Sync attachments
Please read my post again. I was explaining how Bookends works.
As long as the attachment *name* is the same, Bookends will find it on both machines (assuming the attachment is in the Bookends default attachments folder or a subfolder -- if the attachment is in a unique folder outside of these it may not be found on the "other" machine. If it's different on one machine than the other, than after a sync it may not be found.
I sync all the time and have no problems with attachments. If you have specific examples that you think should sync based on the information I've provided, contact me directly for tech support.
Jon
Sonny Software
As long as the attachment *name* is the same, Bookends will find it on both machines (assuming the attachment is in the Bookends default attachments folder or a subfolder -- if the attachment is in a unique folder outside of these it may not be found on the "other" machine. If it's different on one machine than the other, than after a sync it may not be found.
I sync all the time and have no problems with attachments. If you have specific examples that you think should sync based on the information I've provided, contact me directly for tech support.
Jon
Sonny Software
Re: Sync attachments
Read my post again. I was explaining why the current sync system on BE puts you in an endless merry-go-round if you don't use the default attachments folder.
And even if the filename is exactly the same, the path would be different on the two machines (unless the two machines were clones, down to the names of hard drives and users). So I don't see how you would avoid this, even using the default folder. With every sync, the attachments would break on the other machine. You'd have to re-attach, and the cycle would start all over again. Maybe that's your intended behavior.
As for finding attachments in the default folder, my experience is just the opposite: on my primary machine, which uses custom attachment folders, BE was able to find the file, but on the machine that uses the default folder, BE could not find the attachment.
Since I have years worth of attachments on my primary machine that do not use the default folder, BE sync pretty much wrecks attachments for me.
And even if the filename is exactly the same, the path would be different on the two machines (unless the two machines were clones, down to the names of hard drives and users). So I don't see how you would avoid this, even using the default folder. With every sync, the attachments would break on the other machine. You'd have to re-attach, and the cycle would start all over again. Maybe that's your intended behavior.
As for finding attachments in the default folder, my experience is just the opposite: on my primary machine, which uses custom attachment folders, BE was able to find the file, but on the machine that uses the default folder, BE could not find the attachment.
Since I have years worth of attachments on my primary machine that do not use the default folder, BE sync pretty much wrecks attachments for me.
Re: Sync attachments
As I said, if you have a situation where sync should work (i.e. the files are in the default folder) and it doesn't, you need to contact tech support.
If your attachments are in arbitrary folders, Bookends should still find them *if* you have manually attached one file per folder on the non-main machine (so that Bookends on that machine knows to look in those folders for attachments).
Follow up with tech support if this isn't clear.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2038
Jon
Sonny Software
If your attachments are in arbitrary folders, Bookends should still find them *if* you have manually attached one file per folder on the non-main machine (so that Bookends on that machine knows to look in those folders for attachments).
Follow up with tech support if this isn't clear.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2038
Jon
Sonny Software
Re: Sync attachments
You're missing the point.
Sync is an endless merry-go-round if you are using custom folders. You're constantly syncing the same changes back and forth between two machines, because there is one field that will always be different. That's not useful behavior.
The solution: an option to exclude attachments from sync.
Sync is an endless merry-go-round if you are using custom folders. You're constantly syncing the same changes back and forth between two machines, because there is one field that will always be different. That's not useful behavior.
The solution: an option to exclude attachments from sync.
Re: Sync attachments
I understand the point. As I explained above, Bookends does not sync an attachments path, just the file's actual name, the name you see in the Finder. But if I am missing something and you won't contact tech support so we can go through the specifics, we won't be able to resolve this.
Jon
Sonny Software
Jon
Sonny Software
Re: Sync attachments
And I understand your point. There's no further issue to resolve. I just want to be able to exclude attachments from sync (Sente is already doing this).
Re: Sync attachments
Bookends doesn't need to do that. Attachments will survive sync if the pdfs are in the default folder or if they are in a folder you have identified in the target volume as one that has attachments.
Jon
Sonny Software
Jon
Sonny Software
Re: Sync attachments
Well, if you don't think it's ludicrous that BE syncs the same filename back and forth ad infinitum, I don't know what to say. But I for one don't care to sit through the endless dialog boxes telling me about it.
End of discussion.
End of discussion.
Re: Sync attachments
I honestly don't see what the problem is. The only think I can think of is that when you reattach, that resets the modification date so when you sync in the other direction the reference will sync again, but this should only happen once. The fix for that would be to have the reattach feature not update the modification date. Does anyone else have a problem syncing attachment names? If so, please contact tech support and I'll try to reproduce the problem you're having.
Jon
Sonny Software
Jon
Sonny Software