Global projects on a network drive

[Diana_BB]

There are 4 of us on a team (3 here and 1 in another state). I'd like to implement global linking for our template and other shared content on our network server. I'm sure it would be great for us local writers, but I'm not sure how painful it would be for the remote writer. She says the upload/download time is very slow.

Has anyone else done this successfully?

We will be adding 3 more writers soon (out of the country), and I would love to be able to implement this with them, too.

We're using Flare 6.
Thanks,
Diana

[SteveS]

Hi Diana,

The 'pain' would be directly related to the speed of their connection and the size of the linked content.

Leaving aside the connection speed issue, the most important thing you can do is keep the shared (linked) content as skinny as possible.

If they don't create new projects, or build (view) targets there should not be much of an issue, the overhead would be the file they are opening and saving.

HTH

[Andrew]

Typically this is only an issue at compile time, or if the person intentionally invokes an update. As long as compiling for preview is not a big part of workflow during the day, it should be fine.

Now, working on an actual PROJECT on a slow network drive is *extremely* painful.

[NorthEast]

I'm assuming you're talking about having local projects, with some of their content coming in via global linking - i.e. a project import.

If so, then the speed issue is only really relevant when you're actually running each import. So, it depends on the amount of content you're importing, and how often you'd be running the import to update your local project. It makes a big difference if it's something you do once a day, or ten times a day.

As the project you're working on is local, then there's no speed issue when you're actually working with it.


I have a 'master' template on a network drive, which is imported in all our projects; it contains shared stylesheets, images, page layouts, and standard content like copyright notices. It's worked very well for us.

[Diana_BB]

That's just what I wanted to hear! Thanks so much for the quick replies.

We do work on projects locally, so it is a question of import time for our remote writer. It doesn't sound like it will too painful for her. I'll get her to test it.

I'm still not sure how we'll make it work when we add the new writers from the other side of the planet--if they'll even have access to our server. Sigh. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Thanks again!
Diana

[DurtyMat]

With Flare v6 they added the Batch Target functionality, couldnt you set the remote employee(s) up to build automatically every night to grab the latest / greatest topics before they even started their day? Just have to select the "auto-reimpor before 'generate output'" check box on the Source Project tab of an Import file. The remote employee cant cry too much about speed because it gets downloaded while they are counting sheep. Just an idea

ps - you could create a batch file for pre-v6 versions of Flare

[Diana_BB]

Great idea! Thanks!