Briefcase Replacement?

[ITconsultant]

Hopefully won't be too long-winded, but I want to lay out a scenario to see which, if any, of the SB software would fill the need.

Windows 10 just completely removed the Briefcase functionality, and I have a client who utilized it extensively. He had folders set on a shared network drive attached to a Win 2008R2 server, and briefcases to those folders on his laptop. He also had other users in the same network making changes within those folders, who were using Windows 7, 8, and 10. The primary connection was between himself (Win10) and the server share drives (Server08R2). The other users made changes directly within the shared folders, not as briefcases. He takes his laptop out on a regular basis, and works on those briefcase files. They are (were) then synced when he returned to the building.

It looks to me like a simple single free license for his computer, and an SB SE license for the server would be the answer. I only need the synchronization process, and I prefer it to be continual, and also not to continually blow up if he's not on site for the sync to take place. Will my proffered option serve this need? Thanks in advance for the responses, and for your time

ITC

[ITconsultant]

So.... 22 views and noone thinks this makes sense or is nonsense?

[cliffhanger]

See this first viewtopic.php?f=16&t=13017&p=49294&hili ... ase#p49294

Some hints:

• You do not need (and cannot use) two copies of SB to achieve this. By 'cannot use', I mean multiple installs of SB (on different machines) do not talk to each other.
• You need a Intelligent Synchronization profile (not available in Free) on a copy of SB on the laptop, talking directly* to the server via the network
• You probably need a mode called Silently Fail (do a SB Help search) to avoid it complaining if 'out of range' (off the LAN)
• Lite, SE & Pro support Intelligent Synchronization, but only SE & Pro support Silently Fail.
• Another SE/Pro-only function (When > Changes) can detect changes to files in scope and react to them (trigger the appropriate profile), but if the laptop is not on the network (server not reachable), it will (Silently?) fail, and discard the previous triggers (it doesn't keep a list of changes (or the fact they happened), or auto-trigger another run at some future point). You would therefore need some regimen to trigger a profile run when back on LAN, and there is no automated detection of 'connected to office network - run profile/s' (AFAIK because Windows doesn't provide a useful API to leverage the way it does if you insert a USB drive - see When > Insert in SE/Pro-only). You may need to agree/set up some kind of regimen when back on site (or simply rely on hourly Schedules or similar)

* connecting to the server over the LAN would normally require the usual set-up pain (sharing, ACLs, passwords, etc) although you have probably done this already. You may still wish to explore the possibility of ('instead') using the (SE/Pro-only) Touch server on the 2008R2 machine which runs under the SYSTEM account and can do handy tricks like read in-use files on the 2008R2 (not normally possible from a different machine). See the KB for the main Touch article and others (search KB On 'Touch'), You can use two instances of Touch free with a single SE (or Pro) license.

[cliffhanger]

...if the laptop is not on the network (server not reachable), it will (Silently?) fail, and discard the previous triggers (it doesn't keep a list of changes (or the fact they happened), or auto-trigger another run at some future point)...

Do not let the above persuade you that SE/Pro will never process those 'unresolved' changes (except if you never run the profile/s again...). Any subsequent profile run that succeeds in connecting to the file server will detect the outstanding changes (Differences) when it scans each side, assuming the differences still exist. What SE/Pro can not do is 'make a mental note/list' of what those (series of?) unresolved changes were, and/or self-trigger another profile run (when able) because 'some changes remain unprocessed'. You need some trigger of the profile/s (that succeeds in connecting/processing the changes). This could even be the next successful When > Changes run, because it will scan both sides anyway (and detect the outstanding differences), but you may prefer to arrange some other 'earlier' fallback trigger such as Scheduled run/s

[ITconsultant]

Thanks for the replies Cliffhanger. Digging thru now to see if I can make sense of this. It looks a little more complex than I anticipated, with "profiles" and "triggers", but maybe I can sort it out. Seem to be having issues finding something that "just works" synchronizing changed files between two computers.

[ITconsultant]

@Cliffhanger
Ok, spoke with my client, and he's ok with running the process when he gets back in the office, and when he sees a need to sync.
I went down this morning and installed the SE version and we walked thru a few folders and the options, and he's adding more folders now. We'll give it a spin for a couple of weeks and see if it will fill his needs, and make a purchase if so. thanks for the help


ITC