I realize this is a topic that has been discussed under other forum posts but none of them directly address the situation I am working with so I will pose my scenario and hope there is a workable solution or a viable recommendation. I have a client for whom I do consulting work who needs to have a single database consisting of many thousands of documents (including email) that is accessible using DTPO on two different computers (office, mobile). Only one computer will access the database at any point in time but the two machines need to stay in sync when he changes from laptop to desktop machines (which can be multiple times throughout a single day). The web server built in to DTPO is not realistic due to the port forwarding requirement and lack of assurance that when using the laptop he will always have access to a WiFi connection. Additionally, he needs to have complete access to the full database structure and documents (not just lookup searches) when on the road, even if he has no internet access. I am considering a couple different solutions and would love some feedback on their respective practicality. Because of the indexing feature in DTPO I wondered if uploading all the original documents onto his iDisk account and creating the index from the “online” files would work. Because iDisk creates a “local” copy of itself for offline use, would the DTPO database look to the local iDisk if he was offline with the laptop. iDisk would then take care of its own syncing for files that have been added when online or offline. Presumably after the initial database was built on one machine the DTPO database would need to be copied a single time from the primary computer to the secondary computer and subsequent DTPO syncing from each machine independently would incorporate new files added to the online iDisk folders. This scenario keeps all the files as independent as possible to keep iDisk syncing performance at the highest possible speed. However, the question this also raises is what about DTPO’s performance when reading and accessing files from the iDisk. If access is from the local iDisk file it should be fine. If it is from the online files I am sure it could be pretty dismal. Another iDisk option would be to keep the entire IMPORTED database online on the iDisk, but does DTPO only upload the new files added to it’s package struture or would the iDisk sync perceive that the entire package had changed and try to upload the entire thing when only a few documents had been added to it’s local copy.
If the iDisk scheme would not work at all, is there a way to easily sync the database structure (including imported and/or indexed files) between two computers to insure that they always match up using a third party application like Chronosync. Would all the internal links be correct with the documents being potentially added from two different machines into their respective local database (residing on the two different computers) and then sync’d between each other?
In either of these scenarios how are email imports from Apple Mail handled (or are they)?
Sorry for the length of this post but I am at a crossroad of whether DTPO is the way to go for this client (I hope it is because it’s functional attributes are perfect for what this client needs to do with his data). Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Gary