I want to sync a bunch of folders containing subfolders and files to DTTG. All my files in DTPO are imported. Say I have a folder, A, in DTPO, which contains a number of subfolders, each containing documents. If I replicate A to the special Sync folder, then A appears as a replicant, but all its subfolders and nested documents are not identified as replicants or even duplicates. Is that okay? Or does everything in Sync need to be a replicant? If so, can I replicate a whole branch of folders and their files in one operation?
Well, I’ll answer my own question. Lost in one of my DTPO databases is the following that I must have copied from a forum post a long time ago:
"The file should only be deleted from its original location if you have replicated the folder. By deleting an item contained in a folder that is replicated, you are indicating that you want all replicants of that folder to be the same. The behavior is the same as replicating a 3 paragraph document and then deleting the second paragraph from one of the replicants-all instances of the replicant will reflect the change.
However, if you create new folders under the sync group and replicate only documents to those folders, deleting a replicant anywhere in the database will delete only the one instance. You can ‘unreplicate’ a folder by deleting it. You can ‘unreplicate’ a document by deleting it. But you must keep in mind that the documents in a folder that has been replicated are not replicants themselves-the folder is. I know this sounds confusing-we discussed this at length during the beta cycle, but it is a logical behavior if you remember that by replicating a folder, the documents contained in it are not the same as documents that are replicated.
I’ve found it safer and less confusing for me to not replicate any folders, but instead create new folders and replicate the contents of the existing folder to the new folder."
I think I get it. Having experimented, I found that if I replicate a folder into Sync and later delete it, then I will be deleting all the subfolders and files of that folder, but only in Sync - not the originals. That works for me, as I’d rather not define a large folder hierarchy in Sync that parallels a hierarchy elsewhere in the database and then replicate tons of files into each of the newly created, but parallel folders in Sync.