OmniFocus sync Using webDAV
 

Hi :O)

I am an avid newbie OmniFocus user and experienced .net web developer. I have been toying with the idea of writing an online GTD system as was disatisfied with NOZBE.

After finding the amazing OF - I'm very keen to go ahead with developing such a system and to be able to synchronise my OF data with it.

I'm trying to get my head around the Syncing using the content.xml file and I'm a little confused. Have read all the articles on here and wondered if anyone has an overview of exactly how the OF syncing process works.

I'm not sure of the purpose of the client file and the zip files. Any help would be gratefully received.


Many thanks and congrats on am amazing product

Tim

Ken actually explained the process in a fair bit of detail in the forums a few years back. It was pretty detailed.

Note the content.xml file isn't really the key part… Each client writes a file (which is .zip compressed) for every transaction. The "client" files track which client has received which transaction. When all clients have received a particular set of transactions (up to a point) they are incorporated into the main database file (which is XML) and removed.

This means if you have a client (or multiple) that don't sync for a while, you can get slow syncs as there are lots of small .zip files around that have to be reconciled and compared.

Anyway, I wish I could find Ken's post. Maybe someone will be kind enough to post a link to it. It's here, I just don't know the search terms. It was about 3 years ago, or so.

CatOne, is [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=18007&highlight=client+sync+xml+zip"]this[/URL] the thread you were thinking of? Seemed most likely, but wanted to double-check.

[QUOTE=Brian;101319]CatOne, is [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=18007&highlight=client+sync+xml+zip"]this[/URL] the thread you were thinking of? Seemed most likely, but wanted to double-check.[/QUOTE]

No, that wasn't the one. In the one I'm thinking of, Ken discusses that the Omni Group grew out of a consulting company that was writing transactional file stores, before they were a software company, before going into details of how transactions were handled. I think it was 2-3 years ago.

Found it:

[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=13772&highlight=transaction#post13772[/url]

[QUOTE=CatOne;101304]Ken actually explained the process in a fair bit of detail in the forums a few years back. It was pretty detailed.

Note the content.xml file isn't really the key part… Each client writes a file (which is .zip compressed) for every transaction. The "client" files track which client has received which transaction. When all clients have received a particular set of transactions (up to a point) they are incorporated into the main database file (which is XML) and removed.

This means if you have a client (or multiple) that don't sync for a while, you can get slow syncs as there are lots of small .zip files around that have to be reconciled and compared.

Anyway, I wish I could find Ken's post. Maybe someone will be kind enough to post a link to it. It's here, I just don't know the search terms. It was about 3 years ago, or so.[/QUOTE]

Hi Guys :O)

Thanks for getting back so quick - appreciate the help.

That is good to hear I'm thinking along right lines as in SQL Database with XML updates but still doesn't explain the exact mechanics of the update procudure - what to put in the client files etc.

Has anyone seen such a guide or post?

Many thanks again

Tim x