Multiple authors working on same project

[Arpita_17]

Hello,

Is it possible that two authors can work on the same Flare project at the same time. The project is stored on a network drive and not bind by any source control system. Also, the authors will be working on different files in that project at a time.

Is there something we should be concerned about in this scenario.

Thanks

[ChoccieMuffin]

Hello,

Is it possible that two authors can work on the same Flare project at the same time. The project is stored on a network drive and not bind by any source control system. Also, the authors will be working on different files in that project at a time.

Is there something we should be concerned about in this scenario.

Thanks

In short, yes there are lots of things you should be concerned about. That's a really ropey working setup, so I really hope you're not stuck with that as a solution.

1. Use source control. It doesn't have to be bound, you can use source control outside of Flare (we do, very successfully).
2. How would you intend working on the project? You can't successfully BOTH have the .flprj file open, because when you do things in the project, the .flprj file is accessed as well, and so is the file in the \Analyzer folder, so there's a potential for conflict (and for the whole thing to blow up) if two of you are working in the project at the same time.
3. Use source control. That way, each of you has a local copy of all relevant files, and you can check them in independently. If there are any conflicts, you are able to examine them and decide what to do with each file, but as you say, if you're intending working on different files you probably won't come across that kind of thing.
4. If you're working on local projects (rather than a project on a network drive) you don't lose any performance through trying to access files across a network.
5. Did I mention you should use source control?

Anyway, best of luck.

[Arpita_17]

Source Control..if that was an option . That is definitely not on the plate for the next couple of months the least.

I was thinking would creating separate TOCs help? The writers will be working on building content for separate modules. Would having a new toc for each module solve this issue? The merging and project related tasks can be done at a later stage by any single writer.

Your thoughts?

[ChoccieMuffin]

How about having separate Flare projects? If your product is modular in some way, I suggest using Global Project Linking (search in the forums for GPL there's loads of stuff!)

This is how you could do it:

Have a "global" project to contain things that are used everywhere, such as page layouts, master pages, style sheets, table styles, copyright text etc.
Create Project A for module A, Project B for module B etc. Into each of those projects, import the stuff from your "global" project so you're only maintaining a single version of stylesheets etc. Agree with your colleague that you ONLY edit these global items in the global project, not in the child projects.
Create a master project into which all your smaller projects are imported (taking care that when you import from Project A and Project B you DON'T include any of the stuff that is imported from the "global" project.)

Make frequent backups of your projects.

That way you are each working on separate projects so you wouldn't risk messing up each other's work.

But I would still not work off a network drive. Perhaps use the network drive as a very rudimental backup?

I hope others will respond, I'd hate you to rely just on my suggestions.