CintaNotes Forum

Hello folks,

sorry for keeping you in the dark for quite awhile regarding the new version.
Now I'm finally ready to name the date. The new version is going to come out on March 15th.
I know it is much later than you expected, well it is also later than I expected myself.
(Migrating to SQLite turned out to be way more difficult than I anticipated, because of all the tiny
nuances. I had to completely rebuild several modules of the app and also do some performance
optimizations because the old code just assumed that everything was in the memory.)

Somewhere around March 10th there will be a preview version to collect some early feedback.
I would appreciate it very much.

The following features will make it into 1.0:

- SQLite as the note base
- Note sorting
- Automatic notebook reloading.

Thanks for all the patience, we are now on the finish line

Eagerly awaiting it
Thanks for the update
Nod

Brilliant news Alex, Can't wait

Fantastic! Thanks for all the hard work.

Thanks Alex - really looking forward to it even though CN is nearly perfect already !

Thanks for you work

Hi Alex

That's great news. We really appreciate all the hard work that you're putting into Cintanotes.

Looking forward to the new version.

Cheers,
Mick

Alex

Can you explain how CN v1.0 used by 2 PCs over DropBox will work?

Can I assume that CN doesn’t lock the data file, thereby allowing others to write to it, and when CN need to write to the data file it opens and reads first (to pick up possible changes from the other PC).
Thus simultaneous changes will not work, but practical use by one person, when the time moving from one PC to the other allows for synchronisation, will mostly be ok.
Or is my assumption all wrong?

Plus, can you say more about “But it's best to put the backup folder outside (of DropBox) because of file version conflicts”. Does this refer to the hourly etc backups? Maybe the computer name could be appended to the filename to avoid such conflicts?

Thanks, Nod

Nod,

your assumptions are mostly correct. The main principle is the following:
CintaNotes 1.0 uses a file system listener to monitor the data file change. Each time the file is externally modified, CintaNotes reloads it (I guess "reconnects and refreshes the view" will be more correct here: CN doesn't load the file into memory as a whole any more). And if you're curious, external modifications are differentiated from internal ones as follows: CintaNotes knows when last data modification was made and ignores data file change notifications which come within some grace period after that [currently 15 sec]. All notifications after that period are considered external.

So the data file gets locked only during writes, but not during reads. And CN doesn't wait till the next write for file reloading, so you're able to see the notes taken on other PC as soon as the data file gets synced.

This allows for synchronization of several PCs for one person, even when all CN instances remain running.
I think you already understand that this scheme is not reliable when two or more people use CN with synced data file simultaneously.
It is also important not to move from one PC to another too fast (i.e. faster than it takes DropBox to sync the data file on both ends). Otherwise the following can happen:

1) You take a note on PC-1.
2) CN-1 updates the database file.
3) Dropbox starts syncing the file.
4) Before sync is complete, you go to PC-2 and take a note.
5) CN-2 updates the (old) database file.
6) Dropbox registers a conflict and the file from CN-1 will be saved with "(conflicted PC-1 version)" suffix. Your note from step 1 won't be completely lost, but you will have to get it out of this "conflicted" file manually.

Plus, can you say more about “But it's best to put the backup folder outside (of DropBox) because of file version conflicts"

This is due to the fact that CN doesn't check if the backup file has been written externally. So CN-1 creates a backup, and CN-2 creates a backup before the backup from CN-1 is synced in. DropBox doesn't care and even if the files are identical, there still will be a conflict. Since this happens hourly, these conflicted files can pile up.
So by following this advice you save the disk space and also DropBox bandwidth.

Moreover, in 1.0 you will be able to specify the path to the data file in cintanotes.settings. This means that the best practice will be to place only the notebook data file in the DropBox folder. (I used to get frustrated that I couldn't have different font and window size CN settings on different DropBox-synced PCs, now it will be a no-issue).

Alex

Thanks for that quick and comprehensive explanation

What you have described is just what I wanted – well, better that I wanted, really.

And I like the aim to reduce DropBox bandwidth.

Nod

Sorry if I'm late to the party, but I was hoping that clipping and storing "images" would also be possible in version 1.0.

Has the priority for this feature been postponed?
Glen

gcoulthard wrote:Sorry if I'm late to the party, but I was hoping that clipping and storing "images" would also be possible in version 1.0.

Has the priority for this feature been postponed?
Glen

Picture clipping was never planned for the free version, only for the commercial.

CintaNotes Developer wrote:
The following features will make it into 1.0:

- SQLite as the note base
- Note sorting
- Automatic notebook reloading.

Thanks for all the patience, we are now on the finish line

What about password protected notes?

What about password protected notes?

Sorry but it's not coming just yet. This is also planned for the commercial version, and I've somewhat de-prioritized this feature because there are some easy workarounds, namely 3rd party programs that would encrypt any folder of your choosing.

I'm rather late to the party, but I can't pass without felicitating Alex for the awesome news...

The eagerly awaited version 1.0 will naturally be a major landmark for CintaNotes and its small community. Well done!