By web server do you mean your website? Not sure what you man on that one…
If you setup the add-ons to be in dropbox then yes, you need to be sure each copy of RW on the different Macs is looking at that particular custom add-ons location in your dropbox.
Will it “overwrite?” I’d say it this way… Each copy of RW pointing to the dropbox folder will use it. If you add add-ons from one machine it will update the add-ons in dropbox. If you go to the other mac using the same add-ons folder and YOUR DROPBOX HAS SYNCED then the new/updated items will be available.
I don’t do this myself (keep RW folder in dropbox). I have large video files and I got tired of waiting for dropbox syncs to “catch up” and sync my RW work. I keep RW projects and RW folder out of dropbox. But I use dropbox to house “backups” which are always available (as said above).
Mathew can probably add more… or correct me if in error…
I don’t think Greg is in error at all, but there are different working styles.
My course websites are generally about 20 Mb in size. These sync quickly and efficiently for my purposes so I’m comfortable have current projects in Dropbox. If my website project files were 200 Mb or 2 Gb then I’d rethink things!
I also don’t keep large video files in Dropbox. But I use Vimeo for “warehousing” my own videos, and YouTube or Vimeo for including videos by other folks. So no problem on my end. But if you do use video files hosted by yourself in RW then Greg’s taking the better approach.
That’s a good clarification Mathew! My post was a bit confusing. My “video files” had nothing to do with RW. My point was the dropbox solution only works if the files are synced and sometimes that can take a while. The best thing Dropbox could do would provide a dialog when people shutdown their computer. Something like “Dropbox is syncing files… do you wish to continue Shutdown?”
I’ve had SOOOOOO many times when people said they gave me mission critical stuff in dropbox and they shut their computer down before their dropbox had synced, thus, I never received it. They work on a project, think they are done, drop it in dropbox, shut the computer down, and go home for the weekend leaving me in the lurch.
That was on my mind…
But you are correct. Your note on Vimeo is a good one also!. We use vimeo a lot. We also use Amazon S3 to house free video downloads, mp3’s and such. All these files get “backed up” to Dropbox so that others have access should I get sick or worse. I have work companions in Canada and SE Asia. Thus, my dropbox syncing can talk a while sometimes.
I am sorry for slow responses… This is what I was thinking… So on Mac #1 you “Move” your Addons folder to dropbox and let them sync. On Mac #2, if you do the same / to the same folder on dropbox - isn’t it going to overwrite?
THEN I saw the option to “USE” folder… SO, On Mac # 2 I would choose “USE” folder NOT Move the Addons folder - OR at the end, is it the same thing?
Greg: Ugh. The nightmare scenario with colleagues and Dropbox. The Dropbox account I use is all my own: not shared with anyone else. I remember once traveling: getting to my destination which had an “okay at best” internet connection and someone had put a 120 Mb file in my Dropbox! 45 minutes later I could finally check my email.
… so one’s complete setup with Dropbox (or any service) needs to be taken into consideration. Sometimes Dropbox will be a bad solution because of “other” factors.
I think you are correct. RW8 simply adopted my RW7 settings in this regard, so it’s been at least 2 years since I set this up. But Moving first with one computer, then Using with the other (after complete syncing), sounds exactly what should be done.
They aren’t the same in that you can’t “use” what’s not there already. So the move step is quite important. Also, if I remember correctly, Use is a much shorter setup. Move can take awhile depending on how much stuf you have (and internet connection speed). Use is instantaneous, Move (for me) took around 15-20 minutes.
And I’ll add… Know that even if the file get’s deleted accidentally from dropbox you can always recover on the Main dropbox cloud account. I’ve done that several times. It’s easy sometimes to delete something on a computer forgetting that it will delete also on all the other synced devices.
If you are going to use Dropbox for sharing project files between Macs, it’s important to make sure you close the file on the one Mac before you open it on the second. Otherwise, when you come back to the first Mac you can end up getting the message:
This document’s file has been changed by another application since you opened or saved it.
Also as has been mentioned always make sure sync’s are done.
If you aren’t aware although very small you can tell if Dropbox is syncing by its icon in the Mac’s Menu Bar:
