[sword-devel] Personal Commentary and Dropbox.

Tue Feb 12 04:48:35 MST 2013

I'm thinking further ahead and not from a standard user perspective but 
from more of a power user stand point.  I run my own servers. What would 
be more helpful to me would be a method to sync to a specified server or 
specific protocol (FTP, HTTPS, Webdav...) instead of a specific service 
(Dropbox, iCloud, etc...).

I don't think it has to be an either or thing though.  Any ability to 
sync would be a good addition to Sword.

Daniel the lurker signing off for the next couple years,

On 2/12/2013 4:58 AM, Nic Carter wrote:
> The way Apple manages to get iCloud to work & the way all other developers get it to work are a fair bit different. Probably having under the cover access helps? ;)
>
> Anyway, the Dropbox API makes things pretty sweet for the end-user in that it doesn't reveal anything to them besides getting them to authenticate... Dropbox is then simply used as a behind-the-scenes sync. :)
>
> I've also had users request EverNote sync, but as I've never used it, I'm not as sure about it?
>
> Sent from my phone, hence this email may be short...
>
> On 12/02/2013, at 20:42, Manfred Bergmann <manfred.bergmann at me.com> wrote:
>
>> No, haven't tried iCloud yet. Many apps use it though (Contacts, Calendar, Pages, Number, ...) and I'm quite happy with it most of the time.
>> The advantage to the user is that there is zero configuration overhead, nothing to configure.
>> Where on Dropbox there must be some settings which define where, to which folder or file the data should be synched, or?
>>
>>
>> Manfred
>>
>> Am 12.02.2013 um 10:08 schrieb Nic Carter <niccarter at mac.com>:
>>
>>> Having a local copy, iCloud copy & Dropbox copy may be a little bit of overkill? and three copies of the data means if one version gets corrupted, that will replicate across all copies? And the effort to do 3-way sync is a lot more than 2-way...
>>> Dropbox sync would be off by default, the user would have to switch it on (authenticate it) and otherwise it would only have a local copy.
>>>
>>> I agree that having iCloud sync would be much simpler, as almost every iOS user would already have an account, but all my recent research on it has shown that it's not quite "finished" yet, in any of the 3 sync iterations that exist. For example, for a conversation that focuses on Core Data, take a look at http://storify.com/Jury/the-trials-of-icloud
>>> Plus, Dropbox has stuff like versioning built-in. If iCloud stuffs up, which it does some of the time for no apparent reason, there is only one solution: delete all iCloud data connected with the app. For Dropbox, you can at least revert to an older version of the data that did work.
>>>
>>> Hence I am thinking of providing sync for those users who really want it. And they are more likely to have a Dropbox account already. If they don't switch on Dropbox syncing, it'll all be just local & they can put up with that. ;)
>>>
>>> What do you think?
>>>
>>> Have you tried iCloud stuff yet?
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks, ybic
>>>     nic...  :)
>>>
>>> On 12/02/2013, at 7:15 PM, Manfred Bergmann <manfred.bergmann at me.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Nic.
>>>>
>>>> I wouldn't use Dropbox instead but additionally.
>>>> iCloud is the standard for synching user properties and settings across OS X and iOS devices. Most people if not all using OS X or iOS already have an iCloud account. Many people do not have a Dropbox account and this shouldn't be a requirement.
>>>> Is it possible to store a larger content on iCloud like personal commentary modules. Well, they may not get that large but what's the iCloud limit?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Manfred
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Am 12.02.2013 um 08:17 schrieb Nic Carter <niccarter at mac.com>:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi team,
>>>>>
>>>>> I think I may have mentioned this in the past, but I'm almost ready to go, and so have a few comments/questions about personal commentaries.
>>>>>
>>>>> Different front-ends do things differently, but there is the Personal Commentary module that we can use for the user to write their own notes to. This is stored as a "normal module", stored in the usual modules location (or, at least, some "usual" location on the local filesystem).
>>>>> PocketSword currently doesn't support the Personal Commentary module due to the fact that I haven't written any UI by which the user can write to it.
>>>>>
>>>>> However, once the user can write notes, they must be able to sync. Right now users can have an iPhone and an iPad & have PocketSword on both & ideally any user created content should be sync'd across both.
>>>>> [In fact, I received yet another user email about this earlier today.]
>>>>>
>>>>> The next version of PS (almost out of beta) will sync Bible browsing history across devices via iCloud.
>>>>> For the version following I was planning on adding sync of Bookmarks via iCloud as well.
>>>>> However, Dropbox have recently released an API for iOS (& Android) for native sync: https://www.dropbox.com/developers/sync
>>>>> So I am looking into sync of bookmarks via Dropbox instead.
>>>>> This way I am not limiting a user's data to Apple products only, and sync is possible with other front-ends, if there was any desire for that to happen from other front-end developers.
>>>>>
>>>>> And this then presents an idea of having user notes/Personal Commentary located on Dropbox. I am not sure how well the SWORD module format would function over a remote filesystem, and so I am putting this thought out there for comments from others.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> So, my proposal is for real-time sync of bookmarks & user notes across front-ends via Dropbox.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks heaps, ybic
>>>>>     nic...  :)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> [Aside: Dropbox comes with plenty of space for a free account, so it's no financial burden for users. Anyone on the list who doesn't have it yet (but you all should, cause it's pretty nifty) can sign up for free via http://db.tt/F8p526B and then both you and I get a bonus 500MB of free space. If you feel uncomfortable with me posting this link to this list, please don't use the link and instead sign up the normal free way!]
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel at crosswire.org
>>>>> http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
>>>>> Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel at crosswire.org
>>>> http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
>>>> Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel at crosswire.org
>>> http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
>>> Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel at crosswire.org
>> http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
>> Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
> _______________________________________________
> sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel at crosswire.org
> http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
> Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
>