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-   -   Syncing Behavior and Avoiding Syncing Conflicts with WedDAV (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=28049)

gattaca 2013-01-30 04:17 PM

Syncing Behavior and Avoiding Syncing Conflicts with WedDAV
 
Omni,

I'm using Cloudsafe webDAV's service to sync to because I feel safer when my data remains encrypted at the server (although not like anyone wants to read my to do's). I have several questions regarding this:

1) I have an iPhone that's always connected, a wifi iPad that's only connected 1/2 the time I use it or less, and a Mac that's almost always connected when I use it. I use OF on all 3 platforms. What if I add a task on the iPhone, process the task on the iPad when it's offline and doesn't yet get to sync, and maybe do additional processing later on to the same task on my Mac, intending to override the changes on the iPad....and then sync all 3 at the end of the day. How might the conflicts be handled? And what is the best practice for syncing when you know that you can't be online all the time?

2) What do you suggest I can do to send tasks to myself (or allow my SO to send me honey do's) when I don't have access to OF? I know users of Omni Sync Server have the mail drop feature; is there a similar method I can use?

3) Does webDAV syncing behavior work the same as syncing with Omni Sync Server?

Lizard 2013-02-01 09:03 PM

1) OmniFocus assumes that you're a single human being, so if an action is changed on 2 devices, it uses "last one wins" -- if you change a due date to Friday on your iPhone and then 10 minutes later change it to Thursday on your iPad, the due date will be Thursday. Changes are generally handled at the action level, so if you change an action's due date on one device, and its context on a different device before syncing, only one of those changes will survive. From your example above, the Mac changes would override the iPad changes.

The usual best practice is to sync each client as you start using it, and again when you finish using it. (In general the "when you finish using it" sync will happen automatically -- 2 minutes after your last change on the Mac, whenever you background the iOS app.) If you know you've got a device that's offline, try very hard not to edit the same things in both places (or make the whole action/project current, wherever you touch it last).

2) Mail Drop is specific to Omni Sync Server, because we have control of the server, so we can have this extra service running on it. Some folks use Reminders sync to let their SO send them "honey do" items. This does require those items to go through iCloud, which may be less secure than you prefer.

3) Apart from Mail Drop, syncing to Omni Sync Server and syncing to a different WebDAV server should work basically the same, because Omni Sync Server IS a WebDAV server. (If you wanted to for some convoluted reason, you could use the Advanced WebDAV UI to set up syncing to Omni Sync Server, manually type in the URL, and it would sync just the same.)

whpalmer4 2013-02-01 09:08 PM

If you can leave OmniFocus and Mail running on a Mac, you can use the OmniFocus feature that allows you to send mail to create actions. See the OmniFocus help for "Processing Mail messages into actions" for the details.

Lizard 2013-02-01 09:21 PM

Thanks, Bill. I knew my travel-addled brain was missing something obvious there!

gattaca 2013-02-12 09:09 PM

A little late with following up....I currently have Reminders linked with OF so I can send stuff by dictation. But that's linked to my iCloud account. How would my SO be able to send me tasks via Reminders if she has her own iCloud account?

whpalmer4 2013-02-12 10:04 PM

What makes you think that she would be able to do so? Unless she wants to sign out of her account, and into yours, then send the task to you, that approach isn't going to work.

whpalmer4 2013-02-12 10:09 PM

[QUOTE=Lizard;119872](In general the "when you finish using it" sync will happen automatically -- 2 minutes after your last change on the Mac, whenever you background the iOS app.) [/QUOTE]

The default setting is for a sync to happen 60 seconds after a change is made, and hourly thereafter. The iOS apps also immediately start a sync if put into the background.

Lizard 2013-02-21 09:26 AM

[QUOTE=gattaca;120357]A little late with following up....I currently have Reminders linked with OF so I can send stuff by dictation. But that's linked to my iCloud account. How would my SO be able to send me tasks via Reminders if she has her own iCloud account?[/QUOTE]

If you have a Mac running 10.8, you can share one of your reminders lists to her while maintaining separate iCloud accounts:

[IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1747618/Forums/SharedReminders.png[/IMG]

There may be a way to do the same thing on iOS, but a quick snoop of the iPhone app did not reveal it to me.

nicoledb 2013-02-21 02:17 PM

Not on iOS, but you can share a list on the web-interface of iCloud even if you don't have OS-X 10.8. You could even do that from a Windows-box or Android-device.


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