I’m pretty durn happy about the near convergence of DTTG’s arrival and the new Scrivener 2.0 that is forthcoming.
Scrivener will now include a “folder” sync option that will sync files to a set of folders.
I can then go over to DTP and index those folders.
What is totally bliss is that I think I can then have my scrivener project on DTTG (nice!) that way I can clip on the go and associate the research to the active writing project!!! wow
my question is this: If I merely index the scrivener folder, will DTP sync to DTTG include the files on DTTG?
Or, will I need to find a way to have Scrivener sync into a folder within the DTP database?
What I’d like is to sync scrivener to a set of folders and DTTG have copies of the files, such that, once editing the files in DTTG, they will sync back to Scrivener. Will that be possible through indexing?
It could be interesting if DEVONthink pro could have the same “sync” features as Scrivener 2.0, in other words, allowing the user to edit, rename, move, etc., inside the indexed folder, and then syncing the changes with the external Finder folder.
It could allow a more transparent interaction between the same data and other apps.
Glad you guys jumped on this. I had a similar thought as I’m constantly working between the two. Looking forward to be an exciting month for users of both.
We have thought about this but a) this came out months after we finished the actual sync code and b) is not really user-friendly as we want to make the connection between the desktop and the iDevice variants as transparent and easy-to-use as possible.
Eric, I believe radii0 was referring to two-way syncing between DT and folders on the desktop machine, not necessarily iDevices. I (and, I believe, many others) would be grateful to have the features radii0 listed: “allowing the user to edit, rename, move, etc., inside the indexed folder, and then syncing the changes with the external Finder folder”. No two-way syncing for indexed items is one of the major shortcomings of DT, IMO.
Since DTTG syncing targets the Sync group, I would hope the decisions that DTech made about that do not foreclose the possibility of future two-way syncing on the desktop for indexed items outside of the Sync group.
Yeah, I should spell out what I was thinking could happen so as to make it clear and to give a better opportunity to tell me what hurdles I’ll have.
Scrivener 2.0 will be able to take its internal documents which are arranged into outline form (very similar to the way groups and subgroups work) and export them into a folder in Finder. Within that folder, the working documents are individual text files arranged into folders and subfolders. So, from this point, it is no different than a folder of text documents on the Mac HD.
From there, I was thinking I could index that Folder. This presents a lot of advantages for me in using these tow tools together. Just being able to have DT look at my drafts and use see also and classify on the individual text pieces is a big win. So, I was thinking DT would have an internal representation of the Scrivener text files folder.
That’s when I began to think that DTTG would be able to sync those text files. Once the indexed folder is in DTP, I wondered if using DTP sync groups containing the indexed scrivener folder would cause DTTG to have copies of the text files on the iPad. The hope for this would be that I could edit the text files.
This raises two questions: 1.) Does a DTP sync group containing an indexed Finder folder cause DTTG to have actual copies of the files that are merely indexed in DTP?
2.) If so, would editing that file in DTTG then causes the changes to sync all the way back to the indexed Finder folder?
If the answer to question 1 is no, then I wonder if there is a workaround. Could I create a group in DTP, show that folder in the Finder, and cause Scrivener 2.0 to sync into that DTP group? Scrivener would be working directly with a group folder inside the database package. Is that a bad idea?
It’s not a bad idea, but there are no group folders in the database package. There are folders organized in a somewhat cryptic manner for each type of document in the database (PDF, PPT, doc, etc.) The group structure you see in the DT user interface is not the structure you see in database. Short story: there is no group folder that Scrivener (or any external app) could sync with.
This is why, if DT did two-way synchronization with indexed folders in Finder, there would need to be that intermediary folder in order for DT and Scrivener to work off the same data.
I suspected that the file structure wasn’t possible in the database package but you confirmed.
That leaves my original inkling but I’m having trouble understanding Eric’s explanation and that of Greg jones in another thread.
Greg showed that DTTG does in fact load a copy of the files contained in Finder folders that have been indexed to the dtpo database. That’s a win, a big win. The next question I’m having is whether that file can be edited in DTTG.
I’m not understanding his comment about the effects of editing those documents in DTTG. I think Eric is saying that you can’t edit such a file in DTTG and the changes sync back into the indexed finder folder.
[b][i][size=85]Beware: I made errors below So read this for an update.
korm[/size][/i][/b]
Yes, Eric is saying that. Because DTTG syncs with DT Mac, but DT Mac does not sync indexed documents with Finder. (Except in the limited sense where it does sync Open Meta tags.) It is the latter step that’s needed to close the loop with Scrivener and other desktop apps.
Ok. This is good all the way around, though. It can be solved with a simple AppleScript (who knows when I’ll write it).
I’m thinking that the indexed finder folder will report modification dates. The script can then duplicate the synced files into a native dtp group. From there it should all be gravy on editing and syncing with DTTG.
Then a different AppleScript can perform a recursive comparison between the native DTP group and the indexed group. Tell scrivener to sync (forces local snapshots of revisions). If the mod dates are later in DTP, duplicate the native file back to the scrivener folder. Then tell scrivener to sync again thereby causing the snapshots to update on the latest.
Maybe a little kludgey, but I think this will work nicely.
Korm wrote: “DT Mac does not sync indexed documents with Finder”. Have I understood this correctly? I find that I can index a text file that resides somewhere in my Mac file system, change the text within DT Mac and the changes are synced instantly with the original file.
This means presumably that changes made to a synced text file on DTTG will propagate back to the original in the MAC file system.
You are right - you understood that I misspoke (miswrote?) when I responded earlier in the thread. Double drat.
Of course, from an earlier release of 2.x you can make textual changes to an indexed file, change the file name, change the tags, and all of this gets synced back to the indexed folder.
What cannot be indexed, at this time, is creating a document in DT in a group indexed to a Finder folder and having that document sync back to the Finder folder, without exporting the file to the Finder folder, deleting it from the DT group, and then using File > Synchronize to restore the file to the DT group as an indexed file.
Other things not yet possible: A replicant dragged to a group that is an indexed Finder folder are not copied to Finder as aliases. Synchronization is not a process occuring behind the scenes and must either be invoked explicitly (File > Synchronize), or applying the Synchronize script to an index group.
