I’m a journalist using DT as my research database. As my projects often goes into each other (people, articles, notes) and I therefor want everything searchable from one place I have one database where I keep all projects. The problem is that some of the files are very big so the db keeps growing.
Is there a way to archive a folder/file outside of the database/in another database and still keep the meta information within my research database so it still appears in searches? Much like indexing files in the Finder, but I would like to store the file on an external disk or NAS.
It should be possible to create a text record with some of a given record’s information via AppleScript. What “meta information” do you want to include?
Maybe meta information is the wrong term, what I mean is the information DT uses to fint a file in a search. Maybe index information or something like that would be more correct. What I want is kind of on alias for a file with enough information to it so I can find the original file wherever I store it. I only guess this is how indexed files works.
Best would be if I can find it by anything, like I can find files (often PDFs) – that are in the database by name, content, creation date etc. I just don’t want a big PDF using hundreds of MB on my HDD when that project is done – I want to archive the PDF and only keep the “alias” in my database.
There is probably a way, and the folks here are likely to find it … but, with disk storage (on spinning, SSD, USB, etc.) so inexpensive these days … why not just store the “hundreds of MB” on another device, not your computer’s hard disk. I have a 5 TB disk (yes, I know way too big) just for that purpose (and other stuff).
That’s a good idea but as I use the database every day I don’t want to connect an external drive every time I need to find a document, and to carry that drive wherever I go.
Oh. I thought you were talking about archiving the metadata without the document … To me archiving meant that it would only occasionally be referred to. In the past when I had the urge to archive, I simply created a new DEVONthink database and moved stuff over there. Kept the file on the local Hard Disk but did not open. When it occured to me that I hadn’t used the archived file for a long time, I move the file to long term storage off the local Hard disk.
Well, is “hundreds of MB” really a limitation? Just asking. In today’s world it’s not much. You have a small disk on your mac I guess? I guess I’m lucky having a 1TB disk on my MacBook, so space rarely an issue despite GB’s of stuff. Do I need all that stuff? Probably not, but it collects!
Ah, no, I want the metadata serarchable within the database so I can find the document stored somewhere else.
A single PDF would of course not be a problem, but 100 PDFs 200 MB each makes 20 GB. And then there is video, audio, etc. So yes, it’s a problem for sure, although it might seems strange for the reasons you point out.
Ok, sorry if I’m being unclear. I want all metadata to be searchable. And I’m not sure if metadata it the right word as I want to find the document by all it’s content, things like date created as well as the text within it.
So what I want to keep in the database from a scanned PDF: all metadata and the OCR text.
What I don’t want to keep in the database: the images/scans that takes up a lot of space.
Just occurred to me, but you may still not like the idea. But in the spirit of keeping things simple (short and long term) drop the archived databases off to an external SDD drive. I travelled (hardly can remember what that is anymore!) with a Samson Portable T5. Very small and light. Hardly a burden. Put all your archived stuff on something like that.
This script creates a text record with the following properties of a selected record
comment
creation date
custom meta data
label
modification date
plain text, plus
name
kind
URL
state
tags
Reference URL
It first searches for a text record whose name is the selected record’s name plus (Plain text and some meta data) - if you want another name change this before you start to create your “alias” records.
If no record with this name exists it creates one, if it exists it updates all listed properties.
Click the “alias” record’s URL to open the original record.
There’s a part in the script that opens the “alias” record if only one record was selected - this is just for testing, comment it out or remove it (see script).
Note: If you select a text record the script does nothing but displaying a notification (doesn’t make sense to create an “alias” text record for a text record …).
-- Create or update text record with plain text and some properties of a selected non-text record
tell application id "DNtp"
try
set theRecords to selected records
if theRecords = {} then error "Please select some records"
set theTab to (ASCII character 9)
repeat with thisRecord in theRecords
set theType to (type of thisRecord) as string
if theType is not in {"text", "«constant txt »"} then
set {theName_original, theSuffix} to my recordName(name of thisRecord, filename of thisRecord)
set theName_plaintextAndSomeMetadata to (theName_original & space & "(Plain text and some meta data)") as string
set theResults to search ("name:" & theName_plaintextAndSomeMetadata & space & "kind:text") as string
if theResults = {} then
set thePlainTextRecord to create record with {name:theName_plaintextAndSomeMetadata, type:text} in root of inbox
else
set thePlainTextRecord to item 1 of theResults
end if
tell thePlainTextRecord
set comment to comment of thisRecord
set creation date to creation date of thisRecord
try
set custom meta data to {}
end try
try
set custom meta data to custom meta data of thisRecord
end try
set label to label of thisRecord
set modification date to modification date of thisRecord
set theText to (("Name:" & theTab & theName_original & "." & theSuffix & linefeed & linefeed & "Kind:" & theTab & (kind of thisRecord) as string) & linefeed & linefeed & "URL:" & theTab & theTab & (URL of thisRecord) as string) & linefeed & linefeed & "---" & linefeed & linefeed & plain text of thisRecord
set plain text to theText
set state to state of thisRecord
set tags to tags of thisRecord
set URL to reference URL of thisRecord
end tell
else
display notification "This script doesn't work with text records"
end if
end repeat
-- Comment out this part by prefixing each line with # (or simply remove it)
if (count theRecords) = 1 then
open window for record thePlainTextRecord
activate
end if
on error error_message number error_number
if the error_number is not -128 then display alert "DEVONthink" message error_message as warning
return
end try
end tell
on recordName(theName, theFilename)
set theSuffix to my getSuffix(theFilename)
if theName ends with theSuffix and theName ≠ theSuffix then set theName to characters 1 thru -((length of theSuffix) + 2) in theName as string
return {theName, theSuffix}
end recordName
on getSuffix(thePath)
set revPath to reverse of characters in thePath as string
set theSuffix to reverse of characters 1 thru ((offset of "." in revPath) - 1) in revPath as string
end getSuffix
But finding it by what? By name? By text? By creation date?