decreasing danger of losing work on externally edited stored files

[UR user]

I've been away from UR for a while, but I'm back using the program.

Back then, there was one way that if you aren't careful, you could lose work.

1. Open UR
2. Open a stored file (e.g. Word docx) and start editing / saving within Word regularly, etc., thinking everything's ok.
3. Close down UR (not realizing that the Word file is still open)
4. Still work on the Word file for another hour, saving regularly
5. Close down Word
6. Next day.... Open UR to find out that that last hour's worth of work is gone (because UR had been shut down prior to further work done on the (temp) Word file that had been opened).

I realize that this can be avoided by making sure that UR is never closed while externally editing documents. But if you have dozens of UR databases open (and closed) and dozens of windows opened and closed during the day (some with stored docs and some not), then there will be human error.

Assuming I have described UR's operations correctly, the problem can be solved in this way:

* Anytime a UR database is closed, it should check whether there are any stored files that are being externally edited. If so, it should warn the user about the potential for data loss. Frankly, UR shouldn't even let you shut down the DB without first closing the stored file that is being externally edited.

This can't be that hard to implement. What do you think?

[wordmuse]

the logic of what you write sounds good to me.

[J-Mac]

I think a pop-up notifying you of open documents (external) would be a good thing if you try to close a database. Of course I have no idea how difficult that is to write into the program.

Jim

[UR user]

I doubt it would be that difficult--simply review the files opened under the temp directory to see if anything's opened by another application.

Other failsafe alternatives include, for example, rotating the temp file directory (temp1, temp2, temp3, etc.) every time that UR opens. If anything catastrophic happens, you can look at the prior temp file directory and find the file that you spent that lost hour on.

Bottom line is that I've never lost any data in UR except through this one problem. I realize, again, that one could say that it's human error, but when there's an easy technical fix, it seems wiser computer programming not to let humans fail.

If anyone else has lost data through this process, it might be useful to hear it on this thread. It would give Kinook a better sense of the magnitude of the problem.


Update:

Another simple fix might be an optional setting to save all externally edited documents every N minutes. Probably won't slow things down unless you've got very large files open for editing. And if so, the user can set the frequency to 30 minutes, instead of 5 or 10 mins.


Admin update: This was implemented in v5.1