usb on two computers

[PeterL]

Obvious newbie (thrilled w/UR after tough start) looking for simple solution to have files/emails available on work & home computers. What's the most effective way of doing that? Do i have to copy them all to my thumb drive so they're available whenever i need them? I searched the archives but wasn't successful. Thanks for any suggestions.

[nisced]

Originally posted by PeterL
Obvious newbie (thrilled w/UR after tough start) looking for simple solution to have files/emails available on work & home computers. What's the most effective way of doing that? Do i have to copy them all to my thumb drive so they're available whenever i need them? I searched the archives but wasn't successful. Thanks for any suggestions.

Peter,
I have my urd files on an USB drive.
Further, I have installed the USB version of UR on my USB drive to ensure to have UR always available when I need it.

Dominik

[PeterL]

Thanks for your response Dominik. I'm afraid i was not clear enough in my question. The files i'm talking about are documents that are linked to UR...which reside on my work computer. Do I have to copy all those documents to my USB drive to have them available wherever i am? or is there a more effective way of doing that?

peter

[ashwken]

Originally posted by PeterL
The files i'm talking about are documents that are linked to UR...which reside on my work computer. Do I have to copy all those documents to my USB drive to have them available wherever i am? or is there a more effective way of doing that?
When Linking to Files:

If those files are outside of the UR data path (folder location of UR database file, *.urd), then the URL to those files will be absolute (full path to file).

If the Linked files reside in a folder structure that is below the UR (within the UR data path), then the URL will be relative.

If you expose the Item Attribute Pane (CTRL-4) you will find the URL Attribute under the Document Group, look at this value for some of the Linked files to see what I'm talking about.

If you do not, or can not, physically store these files in a subfolder structure below the UR data location, then your only other option is to Store (not Link) the files within UR.

Later,
KenA

[quant]

Originally posted by ashwken
If you do not, or can not, physically store these files in a subfolder structure below the UR data location, then your only other option is to Store (not Link) the files within UR.
Later,KenA

NOT SO! You have another very elegant option! You can create symbolic link, it will appear as a directory under UR that will point to directory located somewhere else. Thus you can still have relative links to your linked documents, even if the files are physically under some other location. For more info, see http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1669

[ashwken]

Originally posted by quant
NOT SO! You have another very elegant option! You can create symbolic link, it will appear as a directory under UR that will point to directory located somewhere else. Thus you can still have relative links to your linked documents, even if the files are physically under some other location. For more info, see http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1669

OK, so you use the Windows supplied utility, or the free utility mentioned in the thread, either of which will create a symbolic link with a relative path on the local machine, but what happens when you want to transport the UR database AND the phyiscal copies of the Linked files?

These symbolic links are pointing to various physical files located in various places on the local machine. When transporting to a new machine, wouldn't the original structure (and files) need to be duplicated for the symbolic links to work?

[quant]

Originally posted by ashwken
These symbolic links are pointing to various physical files located in various places on the local machine. When transporting to a new machine, wouldn't the original structure (and files) need to be duplicated for the symbolic links to work?

no, you'd do the same as if the directories were physical, ie. copy them to usb. Say for example C:\Documents points to $UR$\Docs and D:\mp3 points to $UR$\music, then if you want it to work on usb, just copy the whole $UR$ directory, the same thing you'd do if the directories were stored physically under UR directory ...

[ashwken]

Originally posted by quant
no, you'd do the same as if the directories were physical, ie. copy them to usb. Say for example C:\Documents points to $UR$\Docs and D:\mp3 points to $UR$\music, then if you want it to work on usb, just copy the whole $UR$ directory, the same thing you'd do if the directories were stored physically under UR directory ...

OK, trying to wrap my mind around this without actually trying it...

So you create the symbolic link for:

D:\mp3 points to $UR$\music

does this act of creation (of the symbolic links) place physical copies of the linked files from D:\mp3 into $UR$\music?

[PeterL]

I haven't had the chance to grok all of this yet but am very appreciative of the quick, learned and lively response to my question. Thank you...very much...and i'll continue the thread if i have questions. I think i'm going to love this program...and the forum contributers are a huge part of that!
Thanks again!
peter

[quant]

Originally posted by ashwken
does this act of creation (of the symbolic links) place physical copies of the linked files from D:\mp3 into $UR$\music?

obviously not, that's the beauty :)

[ashwken]

OK, so symbolic links allow you to have a relative path to a file that is physically stored outside the UR datapath.

How do symbolic links address the need of transporting those files from one machine to another, or moving the UR database and linked files to a usb drive (essentially another machine, where the usb drive is used to run UR and linked content independent of the originating system)?

Wouldn't those files that reside outside the UR datapath on machine-A need to reside in a duplicate folder structure on machine-B regardless of whether you used symbolic links (with a relative path) or UR Links with an absolute path - in order for either type of link to work on machine-B?

Also, although the symbolic link provides a relative path for UR, isn't the symbolic link actually pointing to an absolute address.

If machine-A has a D: drive, and machine-B does not, how is this resolved on machine-B (if you have the same folder structure on both machines, just on different drives)?

Again, I'm trying to understand under what conditions symbolic links would be useful.

[quant]

Originally posted by ashwken
OK, so symbolic links allow you to have a relative path to a file that is physically stored outside the UR datapath.

1. How do symbolic links address the need of transporting those files from one machine to another, or moving the UR database and linked files to a usb drive (essentially another machine, where the usb drive is used to run UR and linked content independent of the originating system)?

2.Wouldn't those files that reside outside the UR datapath on machine-A need to reside in a duplicate folder structure on machine-B regardless of whether you used symbolic links (with a relative path) or UR Links with an absolute path - in order for either type of link to work on machine-B?

3. Also, although the symbolic link provides a relative path for UR, isn't the symbolic link actually pointing to an absolute address.

4. If machine-A has a D: drive, and machine-B does not, how is this resolved on machine-B (if you have the same folder structure on both machines, just on different drives)?

Again, I'm trying to understand under what conditions symbolic links would be useful.

1. they don't help in the transporting issue, but neither cause problem. They are just what they are, linking one place to another, just like you can have 2 items in UR in different places.

2. yes, that's why it's preferable for linked files to be under UR directory, and symbolic links helps if you actually want to store the files physically somewhere else. (in fact I asked kinook that the path could be relative as long as the file is on the same drive, not only under UR directory, eg. something like ../../test/tes.pdf)

3. yes

4. the links have to be created on machine B anyway, so it doesn't matter whether there is drive C or D or whatever, if you want to have the same directory structure.