Does Dropbox synchronise any changes to GC JSON files?

[Art]

Hi

This is my first post and just wanted to say Golden Cheetah is a fantastic piece of software. I was ready to spend money on Training Peaks, but really couldn't justify it so looked at Golden Cheetah - I actually prefer GC, not to mention the price! Great effort all involved.

My question - I really want to use on two computers. I have set up Dropbox sync with GC 3.3, which works fine.

But if edit an activity and then save the JSON file, these don't appear to sync? Is the correct behaviour? If so this means the sync is not so useful to me. 

I would love to see an easy way of syncing from Garmin since my rides automatically upload there. What I currently do is use Tapariik to sync to Dropbox and then manually copy files over. Auto import works - but only on one machine - since the absolute path is different on my 2 computers.

Thanks for any help!

[Mark Liversedge]

The basic principle is this:

a) on computer A - you download your ride, add notes and metadata, clean spikes/errors and do analysis

b) on computer A - you upload the new ride to a remote store (TrainingPeaks, Dropbox, Google Drive etc)

c) on computer B, C, D, E... - you download the rides from the remote store that you don't already have

There is no 'sync on change'. Its either been uploaded or it hasn't.

We could look to download/upload based upon timestamps (i.e. upload if the ride has changed locally, download if the ride has changed remotely) but that isn't something that many folks have asked for.

Our focus right now is on using 'cloud' for collaboration and sharing; charts, data, metrics, plans, workouts etc.

Hope this helps,

Mark

[Art]

Many thanks Mark for the quick response.

OK I understand - I thought perhaps I'd missed something.I did think it would be based on a time stamp - that would be great for my use - but fully understand if I've the only one who wants that!

Would I be better off just changing the athlete directory to be in my Dropbox folder? And then choose this on all machines? I tried this originally but got a crash on startup although it still worked in the main.

Thank you.

[Antonio Sanguigni]

Il giorno venerdì 17 giugno 2016 15:59:09 UTC+2, Art ha scritto:

Hi

This is my first post and just wanted to say Golden Cheetah is a fantastic piece of software. I was ready to spend money on Training Peaks, but really couldn't justify it so looked at Golden Cheetah - I actually prefer GC, not to mention the price! Great effort all involved.

My question - I really want to use on two computers. I have set up Dropbox sync with GC 3.3, which works fine.

But if edit an activity and then save the JSON file, these don't appear to sync? Is the correct behaviour? If so this means the sync is not so useful to me. 

Why don't you move your GC database into dropbox directories ? It is probably you don't use at the same time GC, so any kind of clash it is not possible. I find it comfortable. It is enough to save activities or exit from GC to synch your entire db. 

Antonio 

[Kai]

I would like to second Art.

I use local store on a local network folder, and this works great syncing between my computers. No need for dropbox or other (slower etc.) solutions. 

In fact, until now I presumed that it did exactly this, including a new sync on change.

The solution now works fine for me, but I think a timestamp bases solution would be even more powerful. Especially for example, when I use my laptop when away from home and my normal computer at home.

Anyway, you're doing an amazing job Mark.

Regards,

Kai

[Art]

Thanks - I think I will go back to this method - and be careful about exiting GC. Will happily change to the "official" method if Mark adds in time stamping sync in the future :).

[Alex Simmons]

It's a question I'm interested in. Dropbox isn't for me but I do use Sugarsync. I need to be able to import ride files sent to me from clients to either my desktop Windows PC or my Macbook and would prefer for it to auto-update on the other computer. Which computer I'm using will depend on where I am. 

I've tried to get TP to sync/download client files to my WKO4 without success. Not all clients use TP in any case, only a few do. Getting files from clients on a regular basis is a coaching challenge and seems to be a factor of their personality.

No idea if there is an ideal means for clients to easily sync their files somewhere that can auto download to coach's computers. Many are not overly tech savvy. It has to be very simple. Coach likes simple too!

[Mark Liversedge]

On Saturday, 18 June 2016 23:30:58 UTC+1, Alex Simmons wrote:

No idea if there is an ideal means for clients to easily sync their files somewhere that can auto download to coach's computers. Many are not overly tech savvy. It has to be very simple. Coach likes simple too!

Using timestamps isn't difficult, we could add it quite easily.

The problem is when changes are made in more than one place at the same time, it then becomes a merge issue, requiring change data capture, or you bodge and overwrite (and lose) changes.

Mark

 

[Will]

I brought this up a few months ago. I agree that timestamps would be good for my use as well.

Will