by ddhsoftwareadmin » Sun Oct 01, 2017 10:48 am
Thanks for following up. That's most likely the API integration that DropBox offers, that I mentioned above. I can see where it would be quite useful and it's something I'm exploring. The major issue I've found is that it blows up when you are in a multi-user situation since there is a chance the database could be changed on DropBox while another user is editing it. I've thought about how I could check for that- if the date of the file has changed on the dropbox side since we last imported it, I could import it again and merge the changes. But this is a major complication and not as simple as it sounds (for example, there could be two devices that get stuck in an infinite loop of trying to save their files but having to merge and remerge because they are detecting the other side's changes!). It's tempting as it would overall be much more simple to implement than a proper cloud sync, but there are many more benefits to a true cloud synchronization, such as real time syncing per record, the ability to offer user permissions (eg, one can view but not modify, another can add records but not modify existing, etc), and the ability to access databases from a browser. So I'm still considering the best way to tackle this problem, and trying not rush into a solution just to get it out there. That said, it's taking me an awful long time to settle on something, I realize that! And at some point DropBox sync may be the solution I end up with, so we'll see!