Flatten Folders and THEN Sync?

Help & Support
1

I am interested in creating a one-way sync cloud folder with ALL of my data in it. But I would like this folder to have all of my data from different system folder sources to be in a flat file format (just a list of files with NO subfolders). I require this because I will be then entering all of this data into a personal database.

So I'm wondering if DOPUS can sync all of the contents of a folder and IGNORE the subfolders (a bit like the flatten folder view), so that I end up with a folder that has all the contents of the original folder, but WITHOUT the directory structure of sub folders?

I feel as if this should be possible, but I'm unsure how to achieve it?

Thanks in advance.

2

In the sync panel there is a "synchronize sub-folder contents" option. Cannot you just un-check that option?

3

Hmm, but the thing is I WANT ALL the contents sync-ed, I just want the directory structure stripped out.

easy2sync.com/en/produkte/ea ... tures2.php

This program SEEMS to indicate it does folder flattening before performing sync, but as I don't have access to a Windows machine while traveling, I can't test this yet.

4

Do you really need the target folder to have a flat structure? You can use the Flat View function of Opus to view it as a flattened directory, and export it in that format to CSV format, etc.

5

When faced with this situation I just copy rather than synch. When you copy from a flat view source you are asked whether to recreate the folder structure or just copy everything into the one destination folder.

6

  1. Yes I absolutely require the target folder to have a flat structure due to the fact that I'm using a personal database program (DevonThink) which annoyingly does not properly import subfolders.

  2. Ok - I didn't know that, but I'm not sure that helps me as I need the process to be automated... i.e. when I save something to a subfolder in the directory, I want it to appear as just a flat-file in the sync folder, so I end up with just a flat list of files.

I want it to update on its own, so I don't have to constantly copy over incremental files, since that would take a long time, AND I would have to keep track mentally which files were new, etc.

7

I'm... getting the feeling that DOPUS probably CANNOT do what I want then?

8

If you want it to be fully automated -- that is, you drop a file in a folder and Opus notices and copies it to another folder without you having to do anything at all -- then Opus isn't a good fit for that.

You could use Opus as part of the solution but it would not, for example, provide a way to automatically start the sync when a new file is dropped in the folder. There are "folder monitoring" tools which could be used to then trigger Opus to copy any new files, but you're probably better off looking for an all-in-one background syncing solution rather than cobbling one together with multiple tools that don't really know what each other are doing (and thus won't handle errors or other unusual situations well).

9

Ok fair enough - I was sort of getting that impression. It's unfortunate I feel like I have to Goldberg machine rig this; I tried to fix it from the DevonThink side, but that program is extremely finicky and not easy to customize.

I have a sync program already called GoodSync - but it doesn't seem to flatten the directory for me - that feature was the main reason I went to look at Opus to begin with.

No one happens to have any suggestions do they?

Thanks!

10

Only to try looking for a less finicky database program :wink:

11

Yeah I wish I could find one! I'm very new to even understanding Databases - presumably if I new SQL, etc. I'd just write my own personal database and set it up 'just so,' but DevonThink is the best off the shelf solution I've been able to find so far.

I actually JUST found a sync-software that does what I want, and tested it successfully. It's called SYNCOVERY (Mac + Windows versions!); if you dig through the advanced settings (the UI is ancient looking but w/e), there's a 'flatten folder' option for the destination. It can also set up scheduled syncs. I'm not sure if the program I already own - GoodSync - has this or not; but I can definitely confirm for anyone else (and apparently others do want this functionality too, which is how I found the soft), that Syncovery does do this.

syncovery.com

12

If you're putting files into a database because you want a remote backup of them which includes a history of changes/versions, a version control system like Git or Subversion would be most suitable, and those handle subdirectories.

13

Mainly, I just want to use the organizational power of a free-form database to organize (often the same) files in different ways, and have it easily searchable, which DevonThink manages to do (if awkwardly) - though I will probably use SVN for some versioning as well!

14

How will you handle generic and common filenames such as setup.exe, readme.txt, license.txt, etc. ?

DevonThink is Mac-based - is OS X's Spotlight (and perhaps Alfred) insufficient to find what you need? Or Windows Search?

Why / how is DOpus being used as the choice for this - is it because you have it on your Windows platform, and figure you'd try to use it on the Windows side? If so, use OS X's built-in rsync to pull from your exported Windows shares. Still, you have the problem above.

It feels to me you're trying to put a round peg into a square hole. There are probably better ways to accomplish what you want, but this strays off-topic probably.

15

  1. For the filetype issue there are two (at least for my design) caveats. The first is I'm only sending (for the most part) documents and created files to my centralized Cloud storage, so most of the names won't be generic or common. But of course your point is still valid as occasionally there will be duplicates. Syncovery automatically appends a copy number (1) to every file thats a duplicate, so while they will have a number on them, at least they are still saved, sync-ed and then flagged for manual curation later in the database (I understand DevonThink isn't a 'real' database per se, but I'll keep referring to it as such), while leaving the original files saved in the system tree untouched.

  2. It's not that the search was insufficient, as I've never used Spotlight before anyway (and in fact, believe it or not, I bought my first-ever Mac JUST to use DevonThink (though I think DevonThink seriously needs a direct competitor, as their lack of competition is very obvious from the lack of streamlining of the software)).

I basically saw the opportunity to create a huge centralized cloud repository of my documents, images, and some other misc files and then overlay a meta database-like program (DevonThink) over that data, which would not merely allow me to search all of it (already possible as you note, though DT search IS much faster and better I think), but more importantly, set up meta frameworks on the SAME data without worrying about creating file structures or disturbing the original files.

I have a paranoid backup strategy, and I like having a clean save of every original user-created file on the system that is centralized in the user folder say. DevonThink allows the creation, for example, of project-specific databases where you can meta tag data, annotate files with notes/comments/attachments, hyperlink files to one-another, and a bunch of other data analysis and supposed 'AI' features that some people love, and which I haven't really bothered to explore (yet).

  1. Opus came in as you mentioned - I use it on my 4 Windows machines and I always loved the flatten-folder feature, and knew it could sync, so I just figured I'd look into it first.

  2. I know VERY little about OSX - and I will look into native rsync (though I'm not really familiar with how it works either necessarily). My current solution is I have the cloud storage WebDav mounted as a drive in MacOSX (using the solid FTP client Transmit v.4), and DevonThink can actually pull the cloud data (which is from the 4 windows machines) off these mounted-as-local WebDav folders itself, and import them into the database sorter.

  3. I'm almost afraid to find out that there's a much better way to do this at this point because I'm spent SO much time and energy figuring out how to do all this! LOL. From first learning MacOSX for the first time, navigating the opaque and virtually documentation-less DevonThink, making sure WebDav folders mount stably in the face of interrupted internet, making sure DevonThink can reliably read WebDav, and THEN setting up everything on the Windows side (where I need yet a different WebDav client (since neither OSX or Win7 can connect to WebDav natively - extremely slow in the former, basically doesn't work in the latter) on the Windows machines, specifically WebDrive).

Under this complex multi-sync-over-the-WAN-to-cloud-server-and-then-sync-to-MacBookWithDevonThink-and-import data flow, I have a fairly complicated Backup system which involves 3 types of backup: 1. one-way-sync copies of user-created data in native format sent to onboard AND onsite HDDs, 2. HDD images of the System Drive, AND 3. bootable clone backups of the system drive to allow near-instant reboot of the failed volume, which itself is a hardware RAID10 array of SSDs.

Because of the backup system, and just out of my SOP, I don't like reorganizing the original files in the file system.

I would obviously though, be interested in hearing if there are solutions I haven't thought of to do something similar with the cloud data, DevonThink, databases, etc.

Conceptually - it feels simple to set up in an era of cloud computing, internet-everything, etc. but in reality, it requires a LOT of extraneous one-purpose programs to accomplish.