Sync forlder structure and Export strategy explain - Help

[nomnex]

Ubuntu Jaunty - Tomboy .14.0

Current:
Tomboy on PC1 syncs its notes on a Local Folder on an external USB HD.

Question1:
What is the folder structure? Is similar to an incremental backup folder structure? There are several folder 0, 1, 2, etc. and .xml file in each of them. There is also a global xml file in the sync folder.

Question2 - Related:
What is the best way to Export notes from PC1 to PC2 and vice and versa using a USB key or USB HD (not a share on the Internet).

Sync implies 2 devices regularly connected to a single share and updated in the same time. This is not my case. I have PC1 (stand alone desktop) with some notes and PC2 (stand alone notebook) with other notes. When I use PC2 I need to have all the note from PC1. When I finish to work on PC2, I need to export all the notes back to PC1.

Any advice welcome. Thanks

[Sandy Armstrong]

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 2:51 AM, nomnex <nomnex@...> wrote:

>
> Ubuntu Jaunty - Tomboy .14.0
>
> Current:
> Tomboy on PC1 syncs its notes on a Local Folder on an external USB HD.
>
> Question1:
> What is the folder structure? Is similar to an incremental backup folder
> structure? There are several folder 0, 1, 2, etc. and .xml file in each of
> them. There is also a global xml file in the sync folder.

Disclaimer: You really shouldn't be messing with this stuff, but since
you asked...  ;-)

The folder structure is undocumented, and based on a strategy SVN's
FSFS backend uses to fake transactions.  The numbered folders
represent sync revisions, but don't let that fool you...we don't
actually store the old versions, so you do not have note history.

The top-level manifest.xml is a copy from the most recent revision
folder's manifest.xml, and basically is an index of what notes are on
the server and what their last sync revision was.  The top-level 0
folder will contain folders 0-999...if you sync more than a thousand
times folders 1000-1999 will go in a top-level 1 folder.  This idea is
also copied from SVN, for operating systems and file systems that have
trouble with directories containing too many items.

> Question2 - Related:
> What is the best way to Export notes from PC1 to PC2 and vice and versa
> using a USB key or USB HD (not a share on the Internet).
>
> Sync implies 2 devices regularly connected to a single share and updated in
> the same time. This is not my case. I have PC1 (stand alone desktop) with
> some notes and PC2 (stand alone notebook) with other notes. When I use PC2 I
> need to have all the note from PC1. When I finish to work on PC2, I need to
> export all the notes back to PC1.

Option 1:
Well, since sync is a manual process (you choose when to click the
"sync" menu item), if you carry your USB key around with you most of
the time, you can just sync to a folder on the USB key (only when you
have it connected).  This sounds like what you want.

Option 2:
In Tomboy 0.15.6 or later, notes have moved into their own directory
[0] away from configuration data, and it is safe to directly
synchronize the note directory however you like.  If you do this while
Tomboy is running, you need to enable the NoteDirectoryWatcher add-in,
which enables Tomboy to properly recognize when another process has
modified its note files.  Some popular ways to perform ad-hoc sync
like this:
* rsync
* DropBox
* iFolder

Option 3:
In Tomboy 0.15.7 or later, you can choose to sync your notes to an
online service that implements a particular web API.  Unfortunately,
all such services are still in development.  But in the next month or
two you can expect support from:
* Tomboy Online
* Ubuntu One
* Midgard2
Right now, the only server that properly supports the API is the
project called Snowy [1], which will power Tomboy Online.  But
although sync works fine, things like security are in a pre-alpha
state, so use with caution.  If you are interested in setting up your
own Snowy server, you might want to check out the mailing list [2].


We are actively working on making sync as easy as possible, but as you
can see, although you have several options, none are currently as easy
as you might like.  Suggestions (and of course, patches) are welcome!
:-)

Hope this helps,
Sandy

[0] http://live.gnome.org/Tomboy/Directories
[1] http://live.gnome.org/Snowy
[2] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/snowy-list
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[Stefan Schweizer-4]

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 3:34 PM, Sandy Armstrong
<sanfordarmstrong@...> wrote:
> The folder structure is undocumented, and based on a strategy SVN's
> FSFS backend uses to fake transactions.  The numbered folders
> represent sync revisions, but don't let that fool you...we don't
> actually store the old versions, so you do not have note history.

Something I was wondering for a long time: Is it save to delete the
old sync revisions, since they are not used as a history?

        Stefan
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[Sandy Armstrong]

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 9:18 AM, Stefan Schweizer
<steve.schweizer@...> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 3:34 PM, Sandy Armstrong
> <sanfordarmstrong@...> wrote:
>> The folder structure is undocumented, and based on a strategy SVN's
>> FSFS backend uses to fake transactions.  The numbered folders
>> represent sync revisions, but don't let that fool you...we don't
>> actually store the old versions, so you do not have note history.
>
> Something I was wondering for a long time: Is it save to delete the
> old sync revisions, since they are not used as a history?

NO!  :-)

If a note has not been modified since revision N, it will still be in
the directory for revision N.

Sandy
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