A Frequently Asked Question


How can I realize Multi-User-Tagging in a local network?
Valid till XYplorer v19.70

Multi-User-Tagging (MUT) means to share XYplorer’s file tagging (Labels, Tags, Comments, and all available Extra Tags) within a network among different members of a team, among different client computers. This can be done by centralizing the tags database in a location that is accessible by each member of the network.

To create a MUT network you need to edit the file Admin.ini located in the same path as XYplorer.exe. It is a plain text file; create one if it does not exist yet. In this file you state the full path to a common tags database which will be shared by all XYplorer users. You create a section [Paths] and a key FileTagDat, for example:

[Paths]
FileTagDat=\\North\Share\XY\SharedTags.dat

The above path is just an example, and you can name the tags database however you like. The important thing is that all Admin.ini files point to the same tags database. Here is a screenshot of another example.

You need to do the above once for each local XYplorer instance that shall take part in MUT.

Remarks

All tags are stored in the tags database, which is kept in an ultra-simple, human-readable, processing-friendly, future-proof, and optionally portable format. Really, it’s so simple, a caveman can do it (if you give him a text editor).

The database also contains the path to each tagged file. It is important that these paths are in a absolute, non-ambiguous format so that each machine in the MUT network can resolve them successfully.

Note that the problem of handling universal vs local mapping (UNC vs local format of a mapped network path) is technically solved and implemented. Here is an example of how you would configure a situation with two mappings (in Admin.ini):

[UniversalLocalMapping]
Count=2
ULM1=\\VEGA\Share1>X:
ULM2=\\VEGA\Share2>Y:\Docs

This means: If your local path "Y:\Docs" is seen from other members of the network as "\\VEGA\Share2", then any taggings you do in "Y:\Docs" are stored in tag.dat under "\\VEGA\Share2".

The administrator is responsible for a sensible rights management. A shared tags database should be read-only for the normal user to avoid write conflicts. This can also be done via setting eAPDisallow_Write_Tags (512) in Admin.ini, which will deny the user to modify tags (Labels, Tags, Comments, Extra Tags): 
[Settings]
Profile=512
Note that you will not get live real time updates in one XYplorer when another user tags something in another XYplorer. The other user will first have to save the changes to the database (File | Settings Special | Save Tags), then you will have to reload the database (menu Favorites | Reload Tags Database) to see the changes in your XYplorer instance.
A more streamlined version of MUT including live real-time updates is planned.
The above notes are valid until XYplorer v19.70. For later versions see here.