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Automatic document synchronization? Dropbox integration? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
-psidnell

Thanks, that makes sense now.
 
Perhaps a better comparison would be Circus Ponies Notebook? It syncs my notebooks (outlines) with attachments and all between my ipad and macbook via dropbox. Not sure how it handles the attachment issue as discussed by the OmniGroup team, but the sync works and it is really quite impressive.

Quote:
Originally Posted by psidnell View Post
Fundamentally it's that CarbonFin doesn't do attachments.

If you have an OO document with several attachments, it's not just one file, it's several. If there's a write error "at some point" while saving the document to the cloud, it may well be broken, and DropBox doesn't allow reverting several files after a single write error on one of them.

A proper sync solution will have to deal with this gracefully.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacFrankencow View Post
Perhaps a better comparison would be Circus Ponies Notebook? It syncs my notebooks (outlines) with attachments and all between my ipad and macbook via dropbox. Not sure how it handles the attachment issue as discussed by the OmniGroup team, but the sync works and it is really quite impressive.
Actually, Circus Pony Notebook is only file sync and works pretty crappy. If you make a change (inadvertently) on both the iPad and the Mac you get one or the other version wiped out. It's not like it's a true sync - it just wipes out the older file by date.

I use CP Notebook extensively - it is incredibly handy otherwise. The UI is a bit clunky and I use OO to create input on the iPad (1000x better) then import it as OPML on the mac version and do the file "sync" to get it into my notebook. Attachments work great on Notebook.

J.
 
Interesting perspective here from Fletcher Penney on iCloud vs. Dropbox:

http://fletcherpenney.net/2012/05/dr...vs_icloud.html
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnJ80 View Post
Well, we all know our limitations but we still want to be rich and beautiful too. It can be tough when one has to confront reality sometimes....

J
With almost 20,000 reads on this thread...
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnJ80 View Post
Well, we all know our limitations but we still want to be rich and beautiful too. It can be tough when one has to confront reality sometimes....

J
The funny thing is they already know how to do it. Use .ZIP files. Just add first class support for them, and all of those sync issues go away. It isn't a trivial amount of work, but it isn't hard. Do that and they could have Dropbox working without a hitch. But they don't.

Why not? I can't say. I speculate that they want Dropbox to work differently, to work in a way that supports them. And iCloud will be here soon enough and they can just use that right?

Well kinda. So long as you have a version of the OS that supports iCloud (and is supported on your hardware), and you use iCloud, and you buy the new version of the app though the App Store, etc.

I am all for them supporting iCloud, but I want them to support Dropbox as well. They already know how to do it, but just like iPhone support seem utterly uninterested.

I personally am using OO less and less. It is an amazing piece of software, but if I can't get work done, it doesn't matter...
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JockM View Post
and you buy the new version of the app though the App Store, etc.
No need to force the customers to buy an App Store version, you just use the approach PDFPen's creator did and have a 99 cent app sold through the App Store that gets you iCloud access.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
No need to force the customers to buy an App Store version, you just use the approach PDFPen's creator did and have a 99 cent app sold through the App Store that gets you iCloud access.
Fair enough, you do raise a good point. One way or another you will need new software. Either an app update though the App Store. And Omni could make a free or cheap way if they want to — we will have to see what they actually do down the time.

So hopefully they do something like that. However it is all theoretical. My larger point still stands, Omni has everything they need to make syncing over dropbox work now.

Once again they are letting perfect be the enemy of good enough. They hold off for some theoretically better solution, instead of giving us what we need to be productive now.
 
They don't do anything as quickly as many would like, so doing an "interim" solution makes for even more pain for those who want the "ideal" solution (which usually gets delayed by all the time spent on the stopgap). They aren't going to knock out a Dropbox solution in a week or two, no matter how much you or I might want it or think that's all the longer it should take. One might almost suspect that if it isn't part of their vision, no one gets fired up about doing it, but there are clearly plenty of things which are part of their vision which also progress at a frustratingly slow pace. The thing that is more difficult but gets them fired up may not take much longer than that which is easier but reluctantly done to get us off their backs...
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
They don't do anything as quickly as many would like, so doing an "interim" solution makes for even more pain for those who want the "ideal" solution...
I don't want half-assed engineering any more than anyone else does, but that is not what I am talking about. OO has been out for a couple of years now, and the idea of using ZIP files as a first class file format isn't hard (or uncommon). So they could have added this very needed feature anytime in, say, the last 18 months.

When I talk about perfect being the enemy of good enough I am not talking about knocking something out quickly. I am talking about the all too common problem engineers have where they have a vision of a "perfect" solution (in reality nothing is perfect) and they will either wait until they can do it exactly that way, or not implement a feature because it cannot be done that way.

Omni should have known the solution for a long time, but they have known it for a few months now. More than enough time to get a release out, or at least toss their users a bone and say it is coming...
 
 


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