Transferring Topics Between Campaigns

[RampagingHoardes]

Originally Posted by Farling

The Backup and Restore function backs up the entire database on your machine (i.e. all the realms), not just a single realm.

I do wish we had the ability to back up each realm separately and import them separately. This would be extremely helpful.

How is the sync performed? If I have a family member working on a realm separately while I am editing on another how will that reconcile? I know you have to share the database file but does the sync take the larger file the most recent or how does it figure out what to use?

I am figuring the most recent which means it would prevent two people from editing at the same time.

A lockdown feature would be nice for sharing a database where you can prevent another user from modifying a realm. That way sharing would be safer (this is assuming the sync works as i figured above)

[MaxSupernova]

Originally Posted by RampagingHoardes

If I have a family member working on a realm separately while I am editing on another how will that reconcile?

You aren't supposed to have more than one user access an account at once.

[Farling]

As Max says, only one account can be the owner of the contents of a realm at the moment.

If you edit the same realm on two different machines without doing a sync, then one of the machine's changes will be overwritten by the other machines changes when you finally get around to trying to sync the two machines with the server.

(Syncing with the server is done at the realm level, doing a local backup/restore is done on the entire local database.)

[kate]

Originally Posted by RampagingHoardes

I do wish we had the ability to back up each realm separately and import them separately. This would be extremely helpful.

That would be useful. Even aside from using it as a roundabout method for sharing content between your own realms without the cloud, think about a situation where you back up your realms, make changes on both A and B, and realize you've made a major mistake in Realm B such that you want to restore from backup, but don't want to overwrite the changes you made on Realm A.

[Acenoid]

It is just an artificial restriction. I hope they'll remove it one day

[RampagingHoardes]

Originally Posted by MaxSupernova

You aren't supposed to have more than one user access an account at once.

No one has used it yet but me. we were debating buying another copy. If we are prohibited from editing at the same time I may have to or else take turns I guess. Kind of a bummer that we can't edit at the same time when we live in the same house.

Actually now I am thinking about it further it wont be possible for me to get another copy as this would require 2 separate cloud accounts which is definitely cost prohibitive for me.

[shayneb]

So as of right now, there is no way for me to create a topic for a magic potion (for example), and then import that into another campaign in the future?
Because certainly, MANY campaigns will make use of the same weapons/potions/etc...

[rob]

Originally Posted by Acenoid

It is just an artificial restriction. I hope they'll remove it one day

That assertion is not even remotely accurate. Supporting backup of the entire database in one go is a simple matter of disconnecting from the database and backing up a single file. In order to backup individual realms, we need to do lots of work to extract just the right information and save it out in a custom manner that then needs to be accurately read back in. Where it gets even more complicated is that there is some data that is shared across realms, so now we have to figure out how we're going to handle that data and manage it cleanly with multiple distinct backups for each realm. If we replicate it, then how do we know which data is correct when restore a backup from a different date than the database it's being loaded into? If we don't replicate it, we have to require the user to go online to ensure we have all the correct data in place? It all gets very complicated very quickly.

Bottom line: Backup of the entire database is relatively easy. Backup of individual realms will require a significant chunk of work and extensive testing, with some very complex special cases that we'll need to handle. That means time we won't be able to spend on all the other features that users - including yourself - are clamoring for.

Please don't make assumptions about things that have important technical implications and assert them as fact. You're welcome to ask if it's an artificial restriction - that's perfectly reasonable. But assumptions are a bad thing.

[rob]

Originally Posted by shayneb

So as of right now, there is no way for me to create a topic for a magic potion (for example), and then import that into another campaign in the future?
Because certainly, MANY campaigns will make use of the same weapons/potions/etc...

As of right now, you are correct. That's something that the content sharing mechanism will ultimately support, as indicated up-thread a bit. But it's not in place yet.

[shayneb]

I hope it's definitely going to be included (though I understand that a LOT of things are probably higher-priority). Right now, I have three separate campaigns in the same "realm," just because I don't want to type a bunch of potions/monsters again, lol.
It's getting a little...cumbersome, haha.

Thanks!