Sync OminFocus between machines
 

I recall some discussion at the after hours event in San Fran during WWDC about keeping instances of OmniFocus on two machines (like home and work) in sync. I thought I heard someone mention that they were using WebDav to do this. Can anyone explain how I might be able to do this. Basically I want to be able to open up OF at either machine and have it be in sync.

My main computer is a desktop, and of course I have a laptop to lug around when working remotely. So I would love if this gets added to OF for release!

.angie

synchronisation possible
 

I synchronize between my desktop and my laptop via synk. You have to synchronize the folder home/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus

Using .Mac
 

[QUOTE=lexlimo;19452]I recall some discussion at the after hours event in San Fran during WWDC about keeping instances of OmniFocus on two machines (like home and work) in sync. I thought I heard someone mention that they were using WebDav to do this. Can anyone explain how I might be able to do this. Basically I want to be able to open up OF at either machine and have it be in sync.[/QUOTE]

I use .Mac for this. You need to use the shell to symlink the OF document (which is really a directory) to the location you wish to use on the iDisk; it works reasonably well for me.

The only tricky thing is that you're syncing a directory, not a file. I think that there were some issues with a build within the past week where there was a "backup" copy of the directory at one point, and the link was being overwritten by OF as it re-created a file. But it's been fine the past several days.

(Happy to amplify this if someone wants a walk-through...)

_KMP

[QUOTE=kmp;19530]I use .Mac for this. You need to use the shell to symlink the OF document (which is really a directory) to the location you wish to use on the iDisk; it works reasonably well for me.

The only tricky thing is that you're syncing a directory, not a file. I think that there were some issues with a build within the past week where there was a "backup" copy of the directory at one point, and the link was being overwritten by OF as it re-created a file. But it's been fine the past several days.

(Happy to amplify this if someone wants a walk-through...)

_KMP[/QUOTE]
I would be very interested in learning how you are syncing your laptop desktop. Please amplify. Thanks.

Scott

+1 for step by step amplification.

Also, +1 for OmniGroup building in an AppleScript that does this for you.

BZ

+1 more for step-by-step amplification.

+1 for automation.

I'm glad I'm not the only one interested in this feature. I'm wondering though, if it doesn't make sense to be able to simply be able to set the location of the OF file (or directory of xml files as it appears to be) in the preferences. So one could set it to be a WebDav mount or something? As I type that it seems like a bad idea but it would at least be better than setting up symlinks in the shell one would think.

Suggestion to implement iWeb solution
 

The file used for iWeb is normally located in the library, like OmniFocus. If you move this file to a .Mac folder and you double-click on it, iWeb will open the file AND also remember this location the next time you open iWeb itself.

In this way the user file is automatically synced via .Mac adnd is it quit easy to work on more than one Mac on OmniFocus. Another pro is that it can be synced with a machine always online, being the iPhone webserver for OmniFocus.

[QUOTE=RuleRulez;19619]The file used for iWeb is normally located in the library, like OmniFocus. If you move this file to a .Mac folder and you double-click on it, iWeb will open the file AND also remember this location the next time you open iWeb itself.

In this way the user file is automatically synced via .Mac and is it quite easy to work on more than one Mac on OmniFocus. Another pro is that it can be synced with a machine always online, being the iPhone webserver for OmniFocus.[/QUOTE]

Could you go into some more detail on exactly how to set this up for multi-machine OmniFocus with one always-on machine playing webserver? Step-by-step would be helpful. These references to iWeb are slightly confusing for me.

[QUOTE=Scott Betz;19534]I would be very interested in learning how you are syncing your laptop desktop. Please amplify. Thanks.

Scott[/QUOTE]

Sorry for the delay. I've been busy (that's the point, no?).

I hope this is the right level of detail for you. This is what works for me, and so I can't warrant that it will work for anyone else, but here's how I think I understand the process.

You need to use the shell to do this (it was explained that you need to use "symbolic links", which are very similar to aliases but are a native part of the file system implementation).

Also, I'm set up with my iDisk "cached" on my machines, meaning that a local copy is updated, and then iSync or Sync Services goes out and updates the copy on the iDisk server. This is enabled up by setting "iDisk Syncing On" in the .Mac preferences pane; I have mine set to sync automatically. You'll want to ensure that your iDisk is synced when you move to another machine; you can do this by clicking on the circular-arrows-chasing-each-other icon on the iDisk icon in a Finder window. If you have a Finder window open to the iDisk or a subfolder, the sync status is displayed at the bottom of that window.

You'll be Unhappy if you try to work on Machine B if Machine A hasn't synced the files, and Machine B hasn't then picked up all of those changes... and, BTW, for a more enjoyable experience consider putting your "Back up database..." files there, too, just in case. And, of course, you don't want to try this while OF is actually running...

Still with me?

Here we go. [LIST=1][*]Locate the local copy of your OmniFocus data on your computer, which is likely in your home directory in the [FONT="Courier New"]Library/Application Support/OmniFocus[/FONT] directory. If your username is "bob", then the full path to this is [FONT="Courier New"]/Users/bob/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus[/FONT]. If you look at this file in the finder, you'll see the OmniFocus data file. However, this is actually a Mac OS X "Package" which the shell sees as a directory, and is called "OmniFocus.ofocus". You're going to copy this file to a directory on your iDisk, and then set up a symbolic link (short name: "symlink") to point to it, exactly as if you were setting up an alias.
[*]You need to copy the file to your iDisk (doing so from the Finder is fine); I put mine in the Documents folder in a folder called OmniFocus. (It's good to be really obvious about this - because you're probably going to have to figure it out again later!). You need to also figure out the pathname for this file (which is, again, actually a directory as far as the shell and filesystem is concerned). Again, in my case, the iDisk is mounted on my Mac as [FONT="Courier New"]/Volumes/iDisk[/FONT]; but my machine at home has it mounted differently - you may need to do some hunting, but it's surely under [FONT="Courier New"]/Volumes[/FONT]. So, again, putting everything together, I now have the OmniFocus [data package] on my iDisk, at [FONT="Courier New"]/Volumes/iDisk/Documents/OmniFocus/OmniFocus.ofocus[/FONT] .
[*]Finally, you have two copies of the file, but you need to remove the local copy and create a symlink. You can trash the file from the Finder, and then, in the shell, create the symlink. The command is a bit tricky - I can never remember which parameter is first. The general form of the command is [FONT="Courier New"]ln -s [I]destination[/I] [I]pointer[/I][/FONT] - so, if you are "bob", and you are "in" the right directory ([FONT="Courier New"]/Users/bob/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/[/FONT]), you might issue this command: [FONT="Courier New"]ln -s /Volumes/iDisk/Documents/OmniFocus/OmniFocus.ofocus/ OmniFocus.ofocus [/FONT]- which would create the link for you - the link OmniFocus.ofocus in that directory "points" to the package on the iDisk, but the application just sees "OmniFocus.ofocus" as a directory it's going to use for its data.[/LIST]
If you look at that folder in the Finder, you should see what looks like an alias - but it's actually a symlink. If you use the [FONT="Courier New"]ls[/FONT] command, as in [FONT="Courier New"]ls -l[/FONT] you'll see the pointer/link indicated. The next time you start up OmniFocus, you should see the lock file appear on your iDisk: [FONT="Courier New"]OmniFocus.ofocus.lock[/FONT], which is the result of the standard practice of leaving a "sentinel" file so the application can tell that either another copy of itself is running, or else the application crashed, and some recovery of the data in the file may be in order.

And, you'll want to do this on whatever other computer(s) you have OF installed on. Obviously, you need to figure out which OF file is the "master" and propagate the links as necessary. One of the things that applications that use sync services to manage changes do is to read files or parts of files and make decisions - or allow sync services to prompt the end-user to make decisions - about which record or data point should be kept. OF doesn't do this, at least now.

Finally, remember, that file is really a package - so the iDisk sync services will see a whole bunch of files with very long and seemingly random names "inside" of it to sync. Just make sure that the sync has completed successfully before making any assumptions about using the file elsewhere, and you should be okay.

I hope this helps - but I'll try to respond more quickly if there are more questions. And remember - back up, back up, back up, not only before you try something like this, but remember that OF is Alpha software...

The steps for setting up OmniFocus via .Mac:
0) Close Omnifocus
1) Locate omnifocus.ofocus in your Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/
2) Copy this file to your iDisk (suggestion: put it in a OmniFocus folder)
3) Double click on this file, stored in your iDisk: Omnifocus will open and use this file to write to
4) After a /Mac sync (most probably automatic) the same file will pop up on your other computers.
5) Having OmniFocus installed, a double click on this file will open it and you can set up the webserver.

Gee that's a lot easier than _my_ way of doing it... :-)
 

That's a [I]lot[/I] easier than my way...

[QUOTE=RuleRulez;19815]The steps for setting up OmniFocus via .Mac:
0) Close Omnifocus
1) Locate omnifocus.ofocus in your Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/
2) Copy this file to your iDisk (suggestion: put it in a OmniFocus folder)
3) Double click on this file, stored in your iDisk: Omnifocus will open and use this file to write to
4) After a /Mac sync (most probably automatic) the same file will pop up on your other computers.
5) Having OmniFocus installed, a double click on this file will open it and you can set up the webserver.[/QUOTE]

...and I wish I'd thought to try it.

The symlink works. Thanks.

Can you have two copies of ofocus work on the same file though (one at home always running for home context work and to maintain a web server for the iPhone and one at work during the day as well).

After a day I have restored to the old situation. Two files synced via iDisk, isn't working. OmniFocus breaks with a long message and the words that the file sis corrupted because it is connected to two machines.

Computer and iPhone syncing is definitely needed in 1.0!
 

What is GTD, if not working within contexts?

I think perfect syncing needs to be a must in a 1.0 version. How can we know what we need to work on, if the program with all the data on it isn't at the context we are in?

I know some are syncing with iCal, but the iPhone won't even show todos! How can anyone get things done, without 1st knowing what it is that they are working on?

I am sure I could print a list of every context, every day, and carry them all around everywhere I go, but then, what is the point of having an electronic system, instead of a paper one?

So. Long story short - I add my vote to computer (and iPhone) syncing in version 1.0, (sans webinterface) because I can't change my company's routers settings for my main Omnifocus installation which is at my employers!

See my suggestion regarding DNS2go.com in another thread.

I agree. I would have much preferred that the Omnitians had channelled all of the effort that has gone into the web interface into syncing instead. I can wait until Leopard to (hopefully) get todo syncing on the iPhone. Well actually I'll have to since the web interface is as impractical for me as it is for you even with DDNS. Maybe if Omni had a hosted plan but that would still require them to come up with some form of syncing so I suppose it's unlikely.

+1 for syncing vs web interface

The problem with the web interface:
1. There isn't a natural backup of the document on another machine. If the machine goes down (mine just did) everything could be lost.
2. It relies on the internet. If your service goes out you cannot access your data. (mine just did) (it's been one heck of a month)
3. If the machine went down and you need to have information with you like passwords & serial numbers to reinstall your machine... you're screwed.

(that #3 is more for the iPhone installing 3rd party applications. One of the beauties with my old palm... my computer or internet or both go down, I still had all my information. Serial numbers, passwords, and tasks in Life Balance to keep me chugging along.)

I'm still optimistic that the iPhone will allow OF to be installed onto it.

The good news about the web development:

It preps the development time for iPhone. Since widgets are web pages.

But syncing between iPhone and two computers is a high priority for me.

How I sync
 

FYI, I use Chronosync to sync the home directory between my G5 tower and my MacBook Pro. It sync's the ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus directory for me. I don't bother syncing the ~/Library/Caches/OmniFocus directory (or any cache files for that matter). It also gets the prefs file in ~/Library/Preferences/

I also exclude some other directories and files in my sync, but that's beyond the scope of this thread.

This solution works great for me!

[QUOTE=petro;20296]FYI, I use Chronosync to sync the home directory between my G5 tower and my MacBook Pro. It sync's the ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus directory for me. I don't bother syncing the ~/Library/Caches/OmniFocus directory (or any cache files for that matter). It also gets the prefs file in ~/Library/Preferences/

I also exclude some other directories and files in my sync, but that's beyond the scope of this thread.

This solution works great for me![/QUOTE]

Petro,

That's exactly the system I use. It works great for me, since I'm very seldom away from the computer. I print my errand actions onto an index card that I keep in the visor of my vehicle, so that's always handy. I'll probably eventually just put my errand actions on my iPod as notes. I use my cell phone's voice memo feature as my on-the-go inbox.

Similarly, I've been sending SMS messages to my email for my on the go inbox for a year or so....