[Files] Latest Dropbox synchronization method: please discuss...

[Midas]

After testing and re-testing with various methods and results, here's my most recent proposal...

CAVEATS:
a. This method asks for installation of a 3rd party utility (HLSE, see below), which isn't always viable, but which has system wide usability advantages that much supersede its particular CintaNotes utility;
b. It only works if both your CintaNotes and Dropbox local folders are located on the same NTFS formatted disk.

1. Go to http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html and download the latest version of the "Hard Link Shell Extension" (HLSE, currently up to version 3.2.2.4, dated 21-FEB-2010; version 3.3 is due soon) and install it on your system;

2. Place your full portable CintaNotes installation folder inside the Dropbox local folder -- usually located somewhere along the lines of C:\Documents and Settings\USER\My Documents\My Dropbox -- so it will get synched normally to all your dropboxes;

3. Now copy this folder elsewhere -- in my case it is located at D:\Progs\#Text\CintaNotes;

4. Delete both 'cintanotes.db' and 'cintanotes.exe' from the folder referred in 3.;

5. Go to Dropbox folder (see 2.) select both 'cintanotes.db' and 'cintanotes.exe', right-click one of them and choose "Pick Link Source" option (which is provided by HLSE);

6. Go to your local CintaNotes folder (see 3.), right-click anywhere on the white space and choose "Drop Hardlink" option.

7. For consistency, repeat (except for 2., obviously) in every computer you use with Dropbox.

That's it! You should now have the two missing files in there, properly marked with the arrow shortcut overlay (but colored red, courtesy of HLSE). This is the version of CintaNotes you should always run, while the one in the Dropbox folder is the one you want to backup and update.

PROS:
- One step backup and update, regarding CintaNotes main database and executable files.
- Local CintaNotes options are preserved.
[This is important for me, as I run CintaNotes at least from a 19" wide-screen desktop, a 13.3" wide-screen laptop, and a 7" square touch-screen UMPC, which will never be compatible in terms of display options]
- Consequently, CintaNotes automated backups as per "File | Backup" configuration are created locally so no more collisions and enhanced safety.

CONS:
- Complex procedure.
- Synching issues unresolved.
- [Your call...]

[CintaNotes Developer]

Midas, thanks for the tip. Very interesting indeed.
I've done all the steps, but the sync seems to work unreliably. After clipping some notes DropBox still complains that it can't sync cintanotes.db.

I guess it's still easier to wait till the 1.1 version, where the DropBox issue will be finally closed.

[Midas]

Bollocks! I'm sorry to hear that, although I haven't observed it (yet?)... I'll keep checking.

[Noddy330]

It all sounds very complicated to me.
Maybe life will be easier when DropBox offers selective sync.
Nod

[Midas]

It all sounds very complicated to me.
Maybe life will be easier when DroBox offers selective sync.
Nod

You surprize me, Nod.

I made an effort to clearly detail every step of this procedure for the sake of a general audience, but in fact it all boils down to placing your Dropbox & CintaNotes folder on a NTFS disk, delete 2 files, download & install HLSE, right-click here, right-click there, and you're done.

Not for everyone, I'll admit -- most will be happy with running the vanilla installation. But there are several advantages to the procedure, foremost for me the local settings. Usability takes precedence over synching, I must confess -- not that I have had any problems with the later in real life conditions, as I already told, and with this I am able to serve both masters.

Let me state here again: I have been using Dropbox one way or another for CintaNotes synchronization without any troubles up to the moment, and I sometimes keep the same database open in several computers at once. The automated backup files created by CintaNotes inside the Dropbox folder were the only issues I experienced, since they sometimes didn't synch untill CintaNotes was closed locally...

[CintaNotes Developer]

Midas,

I wonder why don't you take advantage of the new "notebook.file" setting? This way you can keep all CintaNotes files except the notebook itself out of the DropBox folder.

[Noddy330]

Midas, thanks for the tip. Very interesting indeed.
I've done all the steps, but the sync seems to work unreliably. After clipping some notes DropBox still complains that it can't sync cintanotes.db.

I guess it's still easier to wait till the 1.1 version, where the DropBox issue will be finally closed.

Alex, What will 1.1 bring to the party?
Nod

[CintaNotes Developer]

Alex, What will 1.1 bring to the party?

Nothing all too breathtaking, more tidying up some loose ends. Here is the list from my tracker:

- Auto-scroll long notes when searching
- Ability to exclude tags from search ("-tagname" syntax)
- Disconnect from database after idle period (for Dropbox sync)
- Search highlighting should support extended query syntax

[Noddy330]

Alex, What will 1.1 bring to the party?

Nothing all too breathtaking, more tidying up some loose ends. Here is the list from my tracker:

- Auto-scroll long notes when searching
- Ability to exclude tags from search
- Disconnect from database after idle period (for Dropbox sync)
- Search highlighting should support extended query syntax

Alex
Sounds good - thanks
Nod

[Midas]

Another bummer: it seems that CintaNotes keept the database file locked for updating and that prevented Dropbox from synching at least on one occasion since my post above.

And a word of caution: after reading extensively on Windows "reparse points" -- which try to emulate unix file system linking -- it appears the solutions are mostly poorly documented hacks and thus fail at various points without giving notice to the user. The best summing up I've found is in the following article:

Windows Symbolic and Hard Links
http://shell-shocked.org/article.php?id=284

It also seems that Windows could be made to distinguish between the proposed Hardlinks and the weaker and more adequate (for my purpose here) Symbolic Links, but I found no way of creating the later in XP. I discovered also that some applications (Keepass v.1.x, for instance) are able to break the hardlinks, substituting them for a newly created file. So all this was hopeful, but didn't last long.

@Alex: I see no reason why path setting in settings.dat shouldn't work; I'll have to look into that, it's a new option, it just didn't settle in yet...

[Noddy330]

What about something like this?

- Wait for DropBox selective sync (on folders only?)
- CintaNotes keeps data I want to sync (exe & db) in top folder
- CintaNotes keeps data I dont want to sync (backups & settings) in subfolders
- I set up DropBox only to sync the top CintaNotes folder, excluding sub-folders

Nod

[CintaNotes Developer]

Guys, there is no need to wait for DropBox selective sync.
You just place CN into say c:\apps\cintanotes and put cintanotes.db into c:\my dropbox\cintanotes. After that you specify
in cintanotes.settings: notebook.file = c:\my dropbox\cintanotes\cintanotes.db
That's it.

[Midas]

Thanks, Alex. Will do...

[CintaNotes Developer]

Guys, please check this out.
This version of CN releases the file after 30 seconds of idleness and lets DropBox synchronize it.
You can set the timeout in the cintanotes.settings file: "notebook.disconnect.timeout.seconds".

[CintaNotes Developer]

Also this version supports the "-i" command line switch to allow multiple instances of the program.
I mostly did it for myself to be able to use and develop CintaNotes simultaneously. I use note color to quickly distinguish between instances. But I think it might as well come in handy for someone else.

WARNING: Be careful for the multiple instances not to share one notebook file. It might corrupt your data.

[Noddy330]

Also this version supports the "-i" command line switch to allow multiple instances of the program.
I mostly did it for myself to be able to use and develop CintaNotes simultaneously. I use note color to quickly distinguish between instances. But I think it might as well come in handy for anyone else.

WARNING: Be careful for the multiple instances not to share one notebook file. It might corrupt your data.

Thanks - I'll give it a go
I like the colour scheme idea - any chance the colour scheme can be extended to all the window and the icon?
Will it be a big overhead to set timeout below 30?
Nod

[CintaNotes Developer]

I like the colour scheme idea - any chance the colour scheme can be extended to all the window and the icon?

Yes, I guess this can be done, if there's a demand for it.
But I'm talking more about the icon here, having the main window all in one color is questionable. And this interferes with my plans for using different colors for note categories.

Will it be a big overhead to set timeout below 30?

You have to decide for yourself. If you often take notes at several PCs at once, it might be useful to set the timeout very low, such as 5 seconds.
But each time CN reconnects to the database there's a small delay. It becomes noticeable once the note count goes above 5000.
And the delay is longer if sorting is set to Title or Size.

This is why I've built in the possibility to disable disconnecting. You shouldn't pay for what you don't use.

[Noddy330]

Guys, please check this out.
This version of CN releases the file after 30 seconds of idleness and lets DropBox synchronize it.
You can set the timeout in the cintanotes.settings file: "notebook.disconnect.timeout.seconds".

Alex
I’ve run this for a while on two PCs without problems.
Both PCs ran CN at the same time, sharing settings & backup, but I left a >30sec gap before moving to the other PC.
It seems to take a long time (>6 mins) before a change made on one side is seen on the other – when nothing else is going on in CN - this can be accelerated by pressing insert and cancel.
Nod

[Noddy330]

Also this version supports the "-i" command line switch to allow multiple instances of the program.
I mostly did it for myself to be able to use and develop CintaNotes simultaneously. I use note color to quickly distinguish between instances. But I think it might as well come in handy for someone else.

WARNING: Be careful for the multiple instances not to share one notebook file. It might corrupt your data.

Alex
I’ve not used the –i param, but wondered if it a testing tool or if it will it be formally released.
If the later, I would prefer if it could test for the file already being in use and not allow the same database to be opened twice.
Nod

[Noddy330]

I like the colour scheme idea - any chance the colour scheme can be extended to all the window and the icon?

Yes, I guess this can be done, if there's a demand for it.
But I'm talking more about the icon here, having the main window all in one color is questionable. And this interferes with my plans for using different colors for note categories.

That's OK. It was just a thought. Do future plans allow for mutiple instances? Nod

Will it be a big overhead to set timeout below 30?

You have to decide for yourself. If you often take notes at several PCs at once, it might be useful to set the timeout very low, such as 5 seconds.
But each time CN reconnects to the database there's a small delay. It becomes noticeable once the note count goes above 5000.
And the delay is longer if sorting is set to Title or Size.

This is why I've built in the possibility to disable disconnecting. You shouldn't pay for what you don't use.

Sounds sensible to me. I'll probably try sub 30 secs sometime. Nod