Is CHS "Dropbox-friendly?"

[kunkel321]

I've used Clipboard H+S off and an for years now, and have always been impressed by it.  The main reason I keep straying away from it is because I really need something that can let me easily access my clips whether at home or at work.   i.e. Is Dropbox-friendly.  If it was portable, I could (?) "install" it in my Dropbox folder, then it wouldn't know which computer I was on.  I would just need to make sure I didn't have both computer running at the same time.  I've been doing this successfully with the portable version of ClipMate.  Unfortunately, ClipMate seems like it might be abandonware now.  Plus I want to use CHS simply because I have a vested interest in DonationCoder.  (And CHS has a better quickpaste menu.)

The new Ethervane Echo seems to handle the dropbox issue pretty well.  I like CHS better though, because it handles pics (and for a couple other reasons; Though Echo is awesome in it's own right).

I'm surprised that searching the CHS board for "dropbox" yields zero results.  Surly I'm not the first person to think of this. 

Extra notes: I know I can export when shutting down, then import when I start the other computer, but I don't really  consider this a viable option (I"m just too darn lazy!)  Also, having a list of friends on a network and network passwords, etc etc like Ditto is overkill IMHO.  It would be okay if it could monitor for any changes in the database, but mostly I just need the portable bit.

Thoughts?  Comments?  Thanks. 

[dhays]

While I have the backup folder pointing to Dropbox, I didn't find a setting in the options where I could set the active database. There are other applications I use where I have the data files in DB, such as RightNote and EssentialPIM. To date, I have never had any problems in using these programs. (To be fair, I do backups to a thumb drive and the DB folders are backed up via CrashPlan).

/dennis

[lanux128]

i don't use CHS but i believe that it has a Portable mode as most mouser's software come with a portable setting which can be activated via editing the ini. look for a file called "ConfigDir.ini" and change the following line "// PORTABLE=TRUE " to "  PORTABLE=TRUE ".

[kunkel321]

That's right!  Thank you!    I knew I remembered see it someplace.    
I also changed CONFIGDIR = %My Documents% to CONFIGDIR = %C.... Dropbox/...%.
I'll report back later with how much success I have with this.  

EDIT:  Methinks I shouldn't use "%" symbols it's an actual path... 
Here is the more correct version:

CONFIGDIR = C:\Users\kunkel\My Dropbox\CHS\MyConfigDir
PORTABLE=TRUE

 

[superboyac]

I've used Clipboard H+S off and an for years now, and have always been impressed by it.  The main reason I keep straying away from it is because I really need something that can let me easily access my clips whether at home or at work.   i.e. Is Dropbox-friendly.  If it was portable, I could (?) "install" it in my Dropbox folder, then it wouldn't know which computer I was on.  I would just need to make sure I didn't have both computer running at the same time.  I've been doing this successfully with the portable version of ClipMate.  Unfortunately, ClipMate seems like it might be abandonware now.  Plus I want to use CHS simply because I have a vested interest in DonationCoder.  (And CHS has a better quickpaste menu.)

The new Ethervane Echo seems to handle the dropbox issue pretty well.  I like CHS better though, because it handles pics (and for a couple other reasons; Though Echo is awesome in it's own right).

I'm surprised that searching the CHS board for "dropbox" yields zero results.  Surly I'm not the first person to think of this. 

Extra notes: I know I can export when shutting down, then import when I start the other computer, but I don't really  consider this a viable option (I"m just too darn lazy!)  Also, having a list of friends on a network and network passwords, etc etc like Ditto is overkill IMHO.  It would be okay if it could monitor for any changes in the database, but mostly I just need the portable bit.

Thoughts?  Comments?  Thanks. 

-kunkel321 (January 21, 2012, 12:49 PM)

I've been trying to figure out a good solution for this sort of thing as well.  I haven't found anything yet.  There are a lot of complicating factors.

Ideally, when you update a file (say the CHS data file) and you are using it in portable mode away from your home computer, how can the update be made seamlessly?  The problem is you also have CHS running at home, so when you update the portable file, how does everything stay in sync.  So, the easy way is to update the portable file (probably on USB stick or dropbox), but then how are those updates ADDED to the existing CHS file at home?  perhaps you use to files, an away file and a home file...but ideally, you want one file with everything in it.  This is true for a lot of portable programs I use.

I've tried doing a variety of things...dropbox, super flexible file synchronizer with ftp to monitor in real-time changes in files and send them via ftp to update at home...but none of the solutions are seamless.  The most difficult part is updating remote files in realtime.

If I'm in a remote location and use a portable file called mydata.chs, how can the mydata.chs file that's at home get updated also?  And will the program recognize the update, or will I have to shutdown/restart the program to see the changes.  And is it dangerous to make changes like that to a program that already has the file open?

If anyone can find a good answer to this problem, it would be an amazing thing.  And if you can do it without cloud services like dropbox, now we're really talking.

[kunkel321]

My thought with going 'portable' is that since all of the files and such would be in the Dropbox folder (and not in the Registry, etc) then the app could be used on different computers.  The way I'm imagining this, however, I think you could only have one computer running at a time--AND Dropbox would have to fully sync before CHS opened.    I find that I am now having problems with the second requirement.  Sometimes my work computer takes a while to get online, and sometimes Dropbox is blocked altogether--which makes my use-across-both-computers system not feasible. 

Regarding 'databases' in general; I'm not a programmer, but I think it is possible for an app to share a database, but only it it was designed to do so.  For example FileMakerPro or Microsoft Access can have multiple users simultaneously working on the same database.    The application just has to make sure that each file (in this case, each clip) in the database has a unique ID #.   Also, if a file is already in use by another user, then it can only be opened as "read only."

I'm not sure how all of this would apply to CHS, or if it would even be possible.  I guess each clip would need to be locked by default, as soon as it's captured.  If you wanted to edit a clip, CHS would try to unlock it (and only be able to do so if it's not already unlocked by another user/computer.)  But what would happen if you browse to the folder that contains the captured PNGs??  Would those also be locked?  IDK.