I keep losing work...

[danson]

Firstly I do love UR....

...but no other piece of software has so often caused me to lose my work. Just happened again and I now have that sick-in-the-stomach feeling of losing valuable data that I can't restore.

I know, take backups etc etc but this happens too much.

EVERY time it is to do with my taking an existing document in UR, copying it to a differnt location and then editing it there.

Somehow UR just doesn't seem to have a solid way of making sure it updates the right data item after the document/spreadsheet is saved or it will overwrite the original as well as the copy.

Some begging requests:

1. When the document is saved in Word etc, sync it IMMEDIATELY. Don't wait for the user to change focus in UR to do the sync.

2. When you COPY from one place to another, remove the URL attribute so that the two COPIES aren't actually hardlinked to the same file on the OS filesystem.

3. Before you sync back from the TEMP directory to UR, make an automatic backup copy! This way I could at least get the original from the TEMP folder. May be even just keep backups of all edited documents, cleared when UR exits or every 30 days.

As a data controlling application, preservation and safety of data should be a priority and keeping backup copies of files sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Daniel

[kinook]

Originally posted by danson
Firstly I do love UR....

...but no other piece of software has so often caused me to lose my work. Just happened again and I now have that sick-in-the-stomach feeling of losing valuable data that I can't restore.

I know, take backups etc etc but this happens too much.

EVERY time it is to do with my taking an existing document in UR, copying it to a differnt location and then editing it there.

Somehow UR just doesn't seem to have a solid way of making sure it updates the right data item after the document/spreadsheet is saved or it will overwrite the original as well as the copy.
Was the item definitely copied and not logically linked? The URL attribute is not used when updating from an externally modified document (URL would only be used when explicitly choosing Item | Synchronize).

Some begging requests:

1. When the document is saved in Word etc, sync it IMMEDIATELY. Don't wait for the user to change focus in UR to do the sync.
Use Ctrl+S (File | Save) in UR to immediately update UR with the externally edited document. You can also decrease 'Tools | Options | Editor | Auto-save changes every x minutes' to have it automatically do that more quickly.

2. When you COPY from one place to another, remove the URL attribute so that the two COPIES aren't actually hardlinked to the same file on the OS filesystem.
This should only be a factor if you explicitly sync (Item | Synchronize) both items.

3. Before you sync back from the TEMP directory to UR, make an automatic backup copy! This way I could at least get the original from the TEMP folder. May be even just keep backups of all edited documents, cleared when UR exits or every 30 days.
The TEMP copy gets updated in UR upon save, 'Tools | Save All External Documents', changing selection, or exit. The only time there should be a problem is if the computer is turned off without shutting down or UR crashes (if this happens, make a copy of %TEMP%\UltraRecall before restarting UR to recover any temp edited documents). We'll consider some sort of option to auto-backup TEMP edited documents.

[danson]

Good on you for getting back so quickly to me.

Now that the haze of disappointment has faded a bit, I realise I haven't been very precise. Mainly because I can't remember everything I did action-by-action.

I'll try to reproduce and see what I can do to get you a proper bug (IF there is one) report.

Regardless of any stupidity on my part - having a mechanism to backup the TEMP directory, I think, is a very very good idea and I am glad to see you are going to look at doing that.

I've actually been researching automatic folder backup software to copy out TEMP documents for me but would of course rather it was built into UR.

With best regards,
Daniel

[danson]

Ok possibly a clue here?

Please see attached gif file. Shows that the file name of the temp file is the SAME despite copying the file to a different place and renaming it to something different.

Perhaps might be a clue to what happened?

Best wishes,

Daniel

[danson]

sorry file is here:

[kinook]

The temp filename of an item is based on the URL attribute (or the Title if no URL attribute), but each item temp document is created in a separate folder (based on its ItemID attribute, which is unique for each item), so two items with the same title/URL will have different external temp documents.

[danson]

Hi,

I thought you migth say that but please observe on the right hand side the atributes column.

There is no URL entry and the "Item Title" shows the updated "Phase 1 Work Statement".

Dan

[kinook]

Not sure. Did you possibly open for external editing before removing the URL attribute? The following steps worked as expected here (UR Pro 3.1.1, Win XP SP2):

1) Create new Word document "C:\Specification - Phase 1.doc" with text of abc
2) Import into UR stored (not linked) in a new .urd file (ItemID 1026)
3) Right-drag, copy that item in UR (ItemID 1027)
4) Rename item 1027 to Phase 1 Work Statement and clear its URL attribute
5) Open item 1027 externally (Ctrl+J) creates "C:\Temp\UltraRecall\1027\Phase 1 Work Statement.doc", change text to def, save, and close Word
6) Save in UR
7) Ctrl+J opens again in Word with text def
8) Select item 1026, Ctrl+J creates "C:\Temp\UltraRecall\1026\Specification - Phase 1.doc" with text abc, change text to xyz, save, and close Word
9) Save in UR
10) Select item 1027, Ctrl+J opens "C:\Temp\UltraRecall\1027\Phase 1 Work Statement.doc" with text def