Backups in same package

I still wish for the day that the Destination box was not greyed out and an auto backup to another volume could be implemented.

Just to be sure: does it make any difference where the Pro-database is located on the HD? Can you store it in any folder you like?

And do I understand well that the structure of DT Pro 2.0 will be similar to that of an application like iView? In other words, is it correct that the database of DT Pro 2.0 will be just a kind of catalogue, containing only glossaries, metadata etc.?

Use one of the Backup scripts in Scripts > Export. Backup Archive produces the smallest possible file size.

You may locate the database where you wish, e.g. Documents, Desktop, etc.

The revised database will be pretty much as you noted, except that files will be stored inside the database package in a Finder folder structure corresponding to your groups.

Thanks, Bill; but … … wouldn’t it be more convenient to store all the DT files outside the package, simply in the Finder just like the files of any other application? This would for instance solve once and for all the delicate problem of synchronizing different versions of the same file, inside and outside DT, because in that case the package of DT would consist only of the database engine and the database shell (glossaries, metadata etc.), not of the database itself. It seems to me that a similar approach, which is adopted, as already told, by an application like iView, has some clear advantages. But perhaps I’m missing something.

This sounds like a good question…

For many people, the ideal structure of a database would make it easily portable between computers, without having to worry about whether or not all the files are present in the database.

If you copy all files either into the database or its Files folder during import, the current structure pretty much lets you do that. But many of the files are not stored in the Finder but in the monolithic database file, including text, HTML and some others.

Version 2 will carry that a step further. All of the database content material will be stored in the Finder, with a folder organization corresponding to the organizational structure of the groups in the database. Except for those files the user has chosen to link to externally, all the content will be available in the database package. Remember, a package is a folder that doesn’t look like a folder. You can easily open it in the Finder.

Thus, the database becomes highly transportable. At the same time, all the content will be easily accessible and recoverable in the event of database corruption, as the copying and management of content files is a Finder operation. And all the content will be indexable by Spotlight.

Even if the DT Pro database files consisting of glossaries, etc. were to become corrupted, one could simply create a new empty database and do a Files & Folders import of the content files within the package. This would recreate the organizational structure of the original database – obviously saving the user’s investment of time and effort in the organizational structure.

I think there are some obvious advantages of that approach over the iView approach.

But if you want to, you will still be able to index files and leave original linked PDFs, for example, scattered all over the drive. :slight_smile: