I have DT databases where many files are duplicated, primarily because I need them to have different file names for purposes of sorting in different groups and reference in written documents. This sorting and references have to be permanent, e.g. I need to keep track of what a file was called a year ago even if today it needs to be called something else in another group. Obviously, the solution of using duplicate files increases the database size.
Is there a way to give replicants different file names? Or any other way to have one file which is assigned different file names and other data?
I believe this question has come up in the past on the forum, but wonder if anyone has thoughts about how to address it.
Thanks for any ideas.
Ramón
Would an Alias solve it?
Or a custom metadata field?
No replicants cannot have different filenames as they are instances of each other.
I’d go for the custom metadata field Rkaplan suggested.
You could set up a field called “Original File Name” or something like that and a Smart Rule triggered On Create/On Added/… to automatically add the original file name to every item. Or maybe a Created/Added Is After 1 Hour/Is Today… trigger would be better because it allows you a certain amount of time to give the file the final original name. Because misspellings happen or you consider an automatically generated file name unsuitable. (Of course you could always manually alter the original file name if you wish.)
Another advantage of the custom metadata field is that you can work with it later on. Say, you create a group or set a color label for files with file name ≠ original file name.
All this goes for one original file name. If you wan’t to keep track of all the file names a replicant has in different locations you would have to alter your approach.