Multi user use

ktaceton · Post by **ktaceton** » 29 Sep 2014 21:03

Good evening,

I am quite new at using XYplorer. I have looked through both FAQ and previous topics, however did not find answer for my question. Please note that I am quite unexperienced in this field, so please be patient with my silly questions ;-)

So, I am planning to use XY in a local network by three or four users. For me, the main attraction would be the multi-user-tagging function. I have some shared files in a NAS (having the same letter arranged for the drive - let's say "X" - on all computers) which I would like to be seen by all users at the same time. Well, not only to be seen (because it is already made), but would like all users to see all files and their corresponding tags. If I understand right, there is a file for the tags, which may be edited by one and only one user (an administrator), the rest of the users can only read out the tags from the file and use them. I am not sure, whether all users do see "in real time" if another user tags a file with any text (or colours the file with a marker). Does XY provide such service? If there is any option to make XY to work just like that, could anyone let me know, how to get there? I suppose that I will need to install XY to every computer, but I cannot see how the separate computers will get to know that there have been some new tags made by another user on another computer? (Is there any option to keep these records on the drive X read and written by all users simultanously?)

I hope I was able to clearly(?) detail my question/problem and I wish someone could help me with answers I may understand ;-)

Thank you in advance.

Post by **highend** » 29 Sep 2014 21:43

Hi,

Iirc XY doesn't provide a way to display new / changed tags from a shared tag database in realtime.

You set one up by using a file called "Admin.ini" in the root dir of each XY installation.

You have to add a section calles [Paths]
with the entry:
FileTagDat=\\POGOPLUG\storage\SharedTags.dat

Ofc the servername + path + name of the database is up to you.

[Settings]
Profile=512

Protects the db against writing so you should use this section for all Admin.ini files where the user is not allowed to write to this db.

After that, all running instances of XY on these pc's need to be restarted to recognize the Admin.ini file.

To get the latest current tags you have to use
Menu - Favorites - Reload Tags Database

(or use a button / keyboard shortcut for it).

Or an external tool that would check the DB for new entries and executes this reloading afterwards (e.g. in AHK)...

ktaceton · Post by **ktaceton** » 29 Sep 2014 22:00

Hi highend,

Thank you for the swift and detailed answer. Tomorrow I am going to aplly the below suggested changes.

What I am still confused of: will one pc "see" that a file have been tagged by another user on another pc?

Thanks again, and sorry for being "not so clever"

Post by **admin** » 29 Sep 2014 22:19

Please see here: http://www.xyplorer.com/faq-topic.php?id=MUT

Post by **highend** » 29 Sep 2014 22:29

Depends on what you mean by "seeing".

E.g. if a user (that is allowed to write tags) adds a label named "Orange" to a file and one of the other pc's reloads it's tag database, that file will be colored orange.

If you add a column for tags you'll see new / deleted tags in that column (but it's not as visual as a label).

Btw, I've written an ahk tool that checks the shared database file for it's last modification time and if it's different from the last check it'll send a "Reload the tag database" script command to one running XY instance on that pc.

You can configure the path + name of that file in the .ini file and the timeout (in milliseconds!) for each check.

You only have to start it once (it runs in the background). It uses a tray icon but if you don't like it, I'll upload a version without it...

RefreshXYTagDB.zip

ktaceton · Post by **ktaceton** » 30 Sep 2014 09:30

Dear highend,

Many thanks, I shall check all of your suggestions plus the ahk tool and will let you know how it worked for me.

Excellent job!

ktaceton · Post by **ktaceton** » 30 Sep 2014 11:57

Dear highend,

I have tried to do the setting up as described above, however I did not success.

I write here what I did, could you please check what I am doing wrong?
1. Created "Admin.ini" in the root folder of XY.
2. Inserted the following text into "Admin.ini"
[Paths]
FileTagDat="Z:\XYplorer\SharedTags.dat"
(As I do want to use this XY instance for editing the Shared Tags, I did not insert the code for protecting the file against writing.)
3. Saved and closed "Admin.ini"
4. Dowloaded RefreshXYTagDB.exe and RefreshXYTagDB.ini
5. Opened RefreshXYTagDB.ini for writing and inserted the same path ("Z:\XYplorer\SharedTags.dat") after Tagdatabase=
6. Saved and closed "RefreshXYTagDB.ini"
7. Run the aforementioned XY instance plus the "RefreshXYTagDB.exe"
8. I have opened "Tools\List management\Tag list" and added some tags into the list. Once finished, closed it.
9. I was able to tag files by using the "Add tags" button (which I previusly added by clicking "Tools\Customize toobar")
10. Manually opened "Z:\XYplorer\SharedTags.dat" but the new tags were not entered.
11. When I clicked on "Favourites\Reload Tags Database", the tags from tagged files disappeared, however the tag list remained the same.
12. Again, manually opened "Z:\XYplorer\SharedTags.dat" but still, new tags were not entered.

What I try to work out is:
1. when I enter new tags into the dababase, all users should have the same tag list (in a period of refreshing, set in the RefreshXYTagDB.ini)
2. if any of the users tags a file, all of the other users should see that the file have been tagged

Do you see from the above list, what I am doing wrong?
Thank you in advance.

ktaceton · Post by **ktaceton** » 30 Sep 2014 12:00

Note:
I have tried the paths both

FileTagDat="Z:\XYplorer\SharedTags.dat"

and

FileTagDat=Z:\XYplorer\SharedTags.dat (without "-s)

None of them seemed to be working. Could it be that I do not ented the path in a correct way?

Post by **highend** » 30 Sep 2014 12:32

I guess you didn't save the tags after adding them.

E.g.:
- You added a tag to a file

Go to Menu - File - Settings Special >

Has "Save tags" a "*" in front of it?
If yes, hit that entry. Now the new tag has been written to the database that you've used in the Admin.ini file.

Ofc the path for the db in the Admin.ini and in my RefreshXYTagDB.ini file must be the same.

The command "#195" does the same as the menu entry (if you want to put it on a button instead) to make saving of tags a bit easier / faster...

Post by **bdeshi** » 30 Sep 2014 13:03

By the way, note that the taglist does not always mirror the actual existing tags.
It just list the ones you've entered recently, regardless of whether they're applied or not.

You might right any of the tag-related toolbar buttons (add/list/edit/find tags), and choose "Update taglist".

ktaceton · Post by **ktaceton** » 30 Sep 2014 13:22

Again, many thanks for your efforts lads.

There may be something wrong with what I am doing, as despite the fact that I created an Admin.ini and inserted

Code: Select all

[Paths]
FileTagDat=Z:\XYplorer\SharedTags.dat

into it, when I hit "File -> Settings Special -> Save tags", it says in the info panel that "Settings saved: Tag.dat"

The XY has been installed to c:\program files\XYplorer and there is another folder (C:\Users\ktaceton\AppData\Roaming) in which "tag.dat" is located and in that file I can track recent changes I made. I have a mapped volume of my NAS as "Z:\" on which I have an "XYplorer" folder in the root. In that folder I placed an empty SharedTags.dat file and in that file should be the changes made, instead of tag.dat (referred above).

Any idea for the solution/the error I made?

Post by **admin** » 30 Sep 2014 13:27

Click menu Help | Various Information: Near the bottom you can see the full path to the tags database. Is it the one you set in Admin.ini?

ktaceton · Post by **ktaceton** » 30 Sep 2014 14:22

Unfortunately not.

App: C:\Program Files\XYplorer\XYplorerFree.exe
Ini File: C:\Users\ktaceton\AppData\Roaming\XYplorerFree\XYplorer.ini
App Data Path: C:\Users\ktaceton\AppData\Roaming\XYplorerFree\
Tags database C:\Users\ktaceton\AppData\Roaming\XYplorer\tag.dat

Should be the admin.ini placed in the App, or in the Ini location?

Post by **highend** » 30 Sep 2014 14:24

The Free Edition doesn't support the Admin.ini file...

ktaceton · Post by **ktaceton** » 30 Sep 2014 14:47

Actually I checked it and the "Admin.ini" is placed there.

The only text which "Admin.ini" contains is:

Code: Select all

[Paths]
FileTagDat=Z:\XYplorer\SharedTags.dat

Should this be fair enough? It still does not what it is supposed to do and I cannot find out where I did some mistake...

The style of defining the the path could be wrong? (I surely have a folder called "XYplorer" on drive "Z:" and there is a "SharedTags.dat" file placed.)

Or, could this problem be in connection with the fact that I am currently using the free version?

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