Bookends On Tap and iCloud drive sync

[suavito]

The user guide for the new 12.7 version of Bookends says:

The reference information in your libraries will be seamlessly transferred between all Macs on which you use Bookends. For libraries (databases), Bookends uses Apple's iCloud Drive […].

Syncing via iCloud Drive works "between all Macs". So the big question is: Is a new Bookends On Tap coming up that will sync as seamlessly as with iCloud drive? And if so, will that be a totally new version of Bookends On Tap or a free update for the existing one?

[Jon]

It's under development in a new version.

Jon
Sonny Software

[michaelward]

Could I ask if there is an ETA on iCloud sync yet? It's the lack of cloud sync keeping me using Papers for my current reading at the moment...

Cheers

M

[Jon]

Soon. I won't give a specific date (we're testing/debugging now), but soon.

Jon
Sonny Software

[joao]

Great to hear that.
If you don't mind, I would like to add a couple of 'syncing' feature requests for the new version of BoT (nothing big):

a) Syncing of groups and smart groups (as an aside, I thought that BE smart groups were meant to turn into static groups in BoT during syncing, but I'm not getting that behaviour).
b) Syncing of label names (I've given names to the label colours so I know what they mean in BE). At the moment, we can use labels in BoT, but they're shown as colours rather than by their names.
c) Have BoT remember last read position on pdf, and also, a smart group containing the last few pdfs being read (i.e. files that were opened, but not necessarily changed). With iCloud sync, I imagine this smart group could contain recently opened files in BE too.

Giving a use-case for b) here so you can understand:
- In BE I label the colour labels as 'To Read', 'Urgent', 'To get', etc....
- I then have smart groups corresponding to each of these labels.
This basically mimics a feature of Sente I quite enjoyed (status labels). Doesn't really work in BoT cos I forget what colour means what....

As an aside, my iPad gets a bit hot while reading pdfs on bookends. This doesn't happen when browsing safari.

Joao.

[Jon]

Cloud sync will be very different and not as flexible as wifi sync due to the nature of Apple's iCloud APIs. I wouldn't assume anything about what will and won't be possible. As for your presumption that the PDF reader on the iPad uses a lot of CPU, we use a third party API that will be updated. Maybe that will deal with it.

Jon
Sonny Software

[joao]

Ok. Will just have to wait and see whats cooking.
I assumed BoT used Apple's pdf framework (curious as to why not), so perhaps the new update will help. These are book-sized or high-res pdf scans though, and sometimes osx Preview uses a lot of cpu as well.

[michaelward]

Good to hear. I'm getting a lot of weirdness with Papers imports to Bookends - I think the Papers library export is getting corrupted somehow with lots of attachments that turn out to be completely unrelated to the reference. So the sooner I can move everything to Bookends the happier I'll be.

I would agree with Joao - his usage mirrors mine with regards to the labels. I too was used to tracking status in Sente and I too forget what the colours mean without labels!

cheers

M

[benjaminpelissie]

+1 on the usage of labels!
Ben

[Jon]

BOT already has color labels. It's just that the label definitions (in words) are stored in Bookends.

Jon
Sonny Software