[ale] Two offices, one data pool

[Geoffrey Myers]

Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> On Thu, 2011-02-17 at 12:11 -0500, David Tomaschik wrote:
>> How current do the files need to be?  Would it be okay for the two
>> offices to have local repositories that are just synced frequently
>> with something like unison? 
> 
> That'd be great, if it were possible to do it in a manner which made it
> impossible for people to step on other people's toes.
> 
> The biggest thing is that there are a small handful of
> documents---roughly 500 of them---that have a very high (near 1)
> probability of being opened and edited at the same time in both offices.
> Because the offices' duties overlap significantly, it has to be possible
> to have the same sort of file locking semantics that a single Samba
> server provides to a single office.
> 
> Yuck, yuck, and more yuck; things would be a _lot_ easier if both
> offices were working in non-overlapping domains...

I've tackled a similar issue, but it's a single office with multiple 
folks modifying the same files in one location.  What I currently use, 
and don't recommend for your situation is, simply place the files on a 
Samba server and folks go at it.  If one person is editing, and another 
opens the same file, it's read only.

The proper solution is some sort of database application rather then a 
bunch of files being shared.  That's not likely to happen either.

The only solution I can think of is to use some document management 
solution.  I do have one client who uses subversion.  A lot of training 
necessary there as each user would have the document tree on their on 
machine and would need to update before opening a document.  Also they 
would have to make sure the commit their changes in a timely fashion. 
Still, you run the risk of commits failing because someone has commited 
a document since you pulled it out.  It happens.

So, I guess, I'm not much use here.  Ideally, a db solution is what you 
want, but that would be a lot of work.

> 
> 	--- Mike
> 
> 
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-- 
Until later, Geoffrey

"I predict future happiness for America if they can prevent
the government from wasting the labors of the people under
the pretense of taking care of them."
- Thomas Jefferson