Resource Links Broken When Synced to Second Computer

Hi,

I have two laptops. They have identical pathing for files stored in my client folders… that I sync between the two laptops using BitTorrent Sync (LOVE it!). I also sync the Rapidweaver resources (stacks, plugins, themes) folders the same way.

It has worked perfectly for me for years. After upgrading to RW7 (and changing the pathing for my RW resource syncing to take into account the new location plugins/stacks/themes are saved in), I get warning triangles on Resources saved in my projects whenever I sync them… so I constantly have to go in and re-link the files. So if I add a resource on Laptop A and save the file… wait for the sync to complete… open the project file on LapTop B… the new Resource shows in the sidebar, but it has an exclamation mark and needs to be re-linked (even though clicking on the QuickView option shows the file correctly).

Is there something I can do? Or is this just a bug in the current iteration of RW?

Thanks!

John,

I’m finding a similar phenomenon with the Dexterity Theme. Brandon is helping me track this down. Thanks, Brandon!

This is what’s happening:

• completely clean install of RW 7

• successful move to manual management of my Add-ons in DropBox; everything works really well (Thanks, RM!)

• make the Project portable

• add a Banner image to Resources… drag and drop from a folder that is getting wrapped up in the Portable Project as it’s supposed to. Displays perfectly on my first computer…

• on my second computer all references to that Banner image have changed (I swear; I have screen grabs) from banner_1.jpg to banner_12x.jpg; and are, as I might expect, in a directly-named folder in the Project Pckg’s Contents

Hence they are all broken.

At this point it’s hard to tell whether this is an anomaly of the Theme or RW 7.0.2

But it is odd.

Could this be what’s happening in your case, John?

Hi @MarkSealey,

Hmmm… sounds like you’re having a SIMILAR problem, but it’s definitely not the same. About the only thing that’s duplicated between our two problems is that we have a clean install of RW7! :wink:

  • I am NOT using manual management of Add-ons… they are stored in the default location and synced between computers using BitTorrent Sync.

  • My project is not portable… again, all of the resources are being copied between computers, into identical folder paths (including the user name) on both computers

  • The file names are staying the same… so I’m not having the re-naming problem that you’re seeing. It’s just that on the second computer, they show with the exclamation point as if they don’t exist… but you can click the “Quick Look” link and see it.

Puzzling!

John,

Thanks for clarifying. I think I understand your prob. better now :slight_smile:

I have two comments - hope either/both of them might be useful… certainly worth experimenting with.

1 - one of the reasons that Manual Management and Portable Projects were introduced in RW 7 was specifically because the kind of synching that you’re doing can be unreliable. There was thread after thread here within the last 18 months advising against DropBox, for instance - for a variety of reasons: one had to do with Apple’s sandbox technology (which might well still apply) and another because of the danger of multiple conflicting updates to the same open file from different locations. Could BitTorrent be exposing you to this, do you think? (BTW, no criticism of you for doing it this way. Just additional information!)

2 - although the location (with)in the filesystem of each Mac make look identical, I believe it’s possible that the OS’s internal representation of the hard drive/disk mount point to the leaf of your path may be different enough between your two machines for it to behave the way you are seeing, but for the image still to be available to Quick Look.

May I suggest experimenting with a thumb drive, or similar instead of BitTorrent for synching between machines just in case something like permissions is confusing RW? At least you can rule that method of synching in or out?

If it isn’t the BitTorrent factor, we can look more deeply. Good luck!

Mark’s point 2 is the cause of your problem, you may think that by having the files synced via BitTorrent or Dropbox to identically named folders means they are identical … They are not … Not as far as OS X is concerned.
OS X gives each file a unique invisible name/tag/label (whatever they call it) and its that tag that RW is linking too.
So 1 file synced between 2 machines has 2 unique tags and thus any RW references you setup on one machine is broken on the 2nd.

You can test this very easily:
Create a file in any app and save it to a folder
Close the app
Move the file to another folder
Open the app
Open the file from the recent list in the file menu

It WILL open the relocated file. This is because the recent file list uses the invisible tags not the drive/folder/file path to store it’s info.

Good point, Paul. Guess something must have changed in the way RW7 handles resource file pointers… since it was working right up until the upgrade (and, as a matter of fact, STILL works with the RW6 install I still have on both laptops).

Guess I’ll have to consider using the “Portable Project” feature to get the resources stored inside the project file itself. Probably a good idea, anyway, as it makes sure the resources are always available, regardless of where the project is opened.

Thanks!