Multi-user office file server with access control

DEVONthink Scenarios
1

Hi it’s my first post here.
I’ve been looking for ways to use devonthink as remote file server for my small office. I put all office files into several devonthink databases. What i want was every one can use their devonthink (Mac & ios), sync to the same syncstore such that everyone can access the office files on devonthink anywhere anytime.
Everything works as expected if there’s only one database in the syncstore. However, devonthink does not natively have access control to individual database within same syncstore. It means that if there’re A, B, C databases (in my case, each database is one project) in one syncstore, i cannot limit user 1 access to database A only.
I’ve been looking into this and figured out a workaround recently. First, i hosted my own office WebDAV server for the syncstore. Then i go into the syncstore content where i see folders matching each database (though their folder names are encrypted). The trick is to set the access right of each individual folders for different users.
I’ve been using this trick for office file server with multi-user access control for a few months now, and it has been working like a charm. Since this involves messing with the syncstore, hopefully further devonthink update won’t break this trick. (Finger crossed)
Also, i really hope the devonthink team can look into this usage in next major release. This file server is very powerful in way that:

  • everybody can access to files on-demand remotely and instantly (almost)
  • the file / item links never break, means that i can easily send a link to my teammates and ask them to view the same page of any files remotely.
  • needless to say the powerful search
  • there’s not a single competitor has any solution (cloud or not) even close to this remote file server functionality and capacity.
    If anyone wants to know the exact details of how the permission can be set, please leave a message here.

Cheers! :wink:

2

Thanks for the info. Go ahead and PM me on it.

3

Hi all,

this is also my first message here.

If I understand this configuration correctly, it is a way to make multiple databases available with a generic sync-store Server, but still MacOS Platform dependent when using the Information in it.

I read somewhere that DEVONthink has an internal Web-Server. Is there a way to perhaps use a Linux environment to host the DEVONthink web application? If so, the access control with LDAP and Linux ACL’s could be a possibility to host various Databases.

I have been looking for a Document Management System with high encryption. The current php/Java Systems on a web server are mostly not so securable, but they are OS-Neutral. This is a main problem with the DEVONthink system.

As far as I see from the whole System, the DEVONthink Pro Office is only usable by the MacOS (OS X) platform.
It will be fine if the main working platform is Mac, but the mobiles should be able to get to the documents and information from DEVONthink. Although we use MacBookPro’s, our mobiles can not be limited to iOS.

As the MacOS/iOS platforms are *Nix derivatives from BSD, are there some Usage Scenarios that allow information sharing and editing by at least Linux/Android systems? We do not need any Windows connectivity, just more *Nix possibilities. This will allow us to migrate our whole document vault and scattered information we have to a DEVONthink research base.

Regards