Thanks for your reply. It leaves me feeling even more nervous about my data, though.
on 02-07-16 4:52 PM, Eric Hildum at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> From: Bill Cheeseman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> >> 1. What exactly is "Synchronize" supposed to do in the case of missing >> items?.... > > If the item has been added to one machine, then the sync will add it to the > other. If the item had existed on both machines previously, and was deleted > from one, it will be deleted from the other. I question your explanation only because, so far, for me, in a "Synchronize," the conduit has never deleted an item from one machine after I manually deleted its counterpart from the other machine. It always adds the surviving counterpart back where I had deleted it. There could be some other principle at work, and I just haven't tried it enough times to spot the pattern. But the documentation sure doesn't tell me what the right answer is. Always retaining the survivor is a nice, safe rule if you're worried about losing data. But in my world, the deletion of an item is almost as meaningful as the original entry. I don't want to show up at a meeting that was canceled just because my conduit thought it safer to reinstate the meeting than to delete it. >> 2. What exactly is "Synchronize" supposed to do in the case of edited items?.... > > Usually, both devices will have two copies of the edited items after the > sync, with each set of edits. You can merge the two by hand, or in the case > of contacts, with my Merge Contacts script (if it ever got posted to > Applescriptcentral). I've experienced cases where, for example, a To-do item is not duplicated but replaced. These are cases where the name of the To-do items are identical but the associated note has been edited. I see duplicates only where I've also edited the name of the To-do item. The latter is OK by me; I'm familiar with it from desktop-to-laptop synchronizers, where a changed file name is automatically considered a new file. In the conduit, however, in the case where the item names are the same, I'm not sure whether I am exclusively losing the edits or exclusively losing the original text, or a mix of both behaviors. >> 3. What exactly are the two directional settings supposed to do?.... > > The destination options change the sync to a copy. The existing data on the > destination is erased, and a copy of the source machines data is made to the > destination device. In some situations, this is very useful (for example, > when connecting the Palm to more than one machine). OK. But if this is so, it implies that I will lose important data in Entourage every time I sync unidirectionally from the Palm device to Entourage. For example, I make very heavy use of multiple categories assigned to individual items. I don't mind having my Palm device carry only the primary Entourage category, but I would mind very much if a unidirectional sync back to Entourage substituted the Palm device's single-category item for my multi-category item. Are you sure it's a "copy" in this sense, or is it a "sync" that is guaranteed to operate only in the designated direction? A "sync" implies that the original Entourage multiple categories will remain associated with the item when it comes back from the Palm device. (I suppose I can set up a pretty harmless experiment to find out.) >> 4. How does the conduit decide if items are the same or different? By name >> only? > > I don't have all the details, but there is a flag (and maybe a timestamp) in > each record to indicate if it has been edited or deleted since the last > sync. This is used in normal synchronization. In the slow sync case, all the > records are compared to identify changes. Interesting. If there is such a flag and timestamp, it means that the conduit should be able to decide which direction to sync without my having to tell it manually in the Conduit Settings dialog. If the conduit can tell, for example, that I've worked on my Palm device but not my Entourage machine since the last sync, it ought to just automatically sync from the Palm device to Entourage. It would only need manual input from me in the case where I stupidly worked on both machines since the last sync. >> I'm used to file synchronization utilities that explain how they work (for >> example, how "conflicts" are resolved), so that I can design my own usage >> patterns with confidence. The Entourage conduit leaves me guessing. > > The Entourage conduit is the same as all the other Palm conduits as far as I > can tell. It seems to be pretty good about resolving conflicts in a way that > does not lose data. For example, if you edit a record on one device and > delete it on the other, the edited record will be made available on both > devices. I can tell from the documentation that its author was addressing an audience that already knows how to use "all the other Palm conduits." Because he/she doesn't explain very much about how they work. Frankly, I'm getting more and more uncomfortable. I use well-known synchronization utilities between my desktop Mac and my PowerBook with great confidence, because the developers of these utilities know their products won't sell if they don't explain them in detail to instill confidence in their customer base. The Palm conduit world doesn't seem to work the same way. It feels to me as though the conduit developers think their customers aren't too concerned about details, but just want most of their data to be more or less accurate most of the time. I just can't live that way. "Pretty good" isn't good enough for me. I need to be able to push the Hot Sync button and know exactly what's going to happen. The Palm device is worse than a scrap of note paper if I have to compare the entire contents of the Palm device and my Entourage database after every sync to see what got messed up or mishandled. And, just to beat a dead horse, I'm very unhappy that all my multi-day calendar events have become single-day events. Now I don't know when the house guests are leaving, when the croquet tournament is over, when my wife gets back from an antique buying trip, or how long my vacation will be. Grump, grump grump. Sorry. I thought this was going to be fun. And now I just discovered that Palm's HotSync Manager has started quitting every time I try to open the Entourage Conduit Settings dialog, without so much as an "unexpectedly quit" message. I hope rebooting will fix that.... -- Bill Cheeseman - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA http://www.quecheesoftware.com The AppleScript Sourcebook - http://www.AppleScriptSourcebook.com Vermont Recipes - http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/VermontRecipes Croquet Club of Vermont - http://members.valley.net/croquetvermont -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
