|
|
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 8
June 13th, 2017, 12:13 PM
|
Quote:
 If the main bottleneck would be the time required for coding a Dropbox abstraction layer, would you be up for community support? I'm thinking in the lines of: if the community (myself or whoever) could code an initial version of such an abstraction layer, given any constraints defined by you, would that possibly help to speed up the process and increase the odds of this item being doable sooner rather than later? In understand that even if you think this'd be a idea worth trying, it will still take time for you folks, reviewing, embedding, testing, et cetera. But still, I'm putting the option out there
|
|
#61
|
|
|
Member
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 32
June 14th, 2017, 03:27 AM
|
Question is if all of this becomes obsolete once an online/web based version of Hero Lab hits?!
|
|
#62
|
|
|
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 8
June 14th, 2017, 05:55 AM
|
Quote:
The Dropbox sync could become obsolete because the ipad app could become obsolete? Or the Dropbox sync could become obsolete because the online version would provide alternate syncing? (Or something else?)If we're talking about obsoleting the offline platforms, then: Even if, functionally, Hero Lab Online would be able to do everything the app and desktop versions could do, non-functionally there will be differences. I'm thinking about aspects like: offline support, stability and uptime, performance and responsiveness, user experience. All of these can either be a measurable con (e.g. perhaps uptime could not be guaranteed, or online performance could be measurably less), or a reason for users to have preferences. Deciding when to go obsolete would require making decisions on which non-functional requirements you want to meet and how much investment its worth. When we're talking about obsoleting the Dropbox syncing method, in favour of alternatives. I'd guess that's exactly what this discussion is about There's the impression that currently, there is no alternative in place that offers the same benefits as Dropbox sync. So when deciding how to update, considering alternatives (and their pros and cons) would be at the core of the discussion I think. I would guess that to support the development team in making that decision, it's valuable to know how we, the users, use the sync mechanism, and which aspects we value. What follows is the question what that means for measuring if the syncing mechanism is "fit to purpose".For example, for me: I like the Dropbox sync because it's clean and simple, while delivering the functionally that I need. Functionally:
Non-functionally:
Anyway, in a nutshell: I would not terminate this discussion just yet because things might become obsolete later ^_^ |
|
|
#63
|
|
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 435
June 14th, 2017, 12:31 PM
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
 )It's unfortunate how existing products sometimes languish while all attention is given to the New Product, but it's understandable that people want to work on the new stuff (all that glitzy and sparkle, y'know!). Heck, I'm like that! I suppose that as long as the New Product supports being able to use and update my character while I'm offline, then I'm good with it. But if the offline version is going to sync with the server whenever it's got a network connection, you could end up implementing that synchronization solution you alluded to when discussing replacing the Dropbox API... @Yerdiss: My understanding is that the iPad app is completely Obj-C -- there is no use of Swift in it currently... Last edited by Azhrei; June 14th, 2017 at 12:37 PM. |
|||
|
#64
|
|
|
Member
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 32
June 14th, 2017, 03:02 PM
|
I cannot even remember the last time I had to connect a cable to the Ipad or Iphone to transfer files onto them. Please don't force me to do it ever again. Especially not with four computers/tablets sharing the same HL profiles.
|
|
#65
|
|
|
Member
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 32
June 16th, 2017, 05:03 AM
|
One temporal solution/workaround I would like to see: Hero Lab could implement the "Open in" dialog, which in turn would allow to save profiles to the Dropbox (or other) app to save it to the cloud.
Will the new file explorer in iOS 11 allow to access HL files and move them to a cloud folder? |
|
#66
|
|
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 435
June 16th, 2017, 09:44 AM
|
Quote:
I opened the DB app and selected the portfolio file. DB told me it couldn't display that file type (and the Help link pointed to an outdated article; oh well). I tapped on the three dots in the upper right and selected Export. HL did NOT show up in the list of apps, nor was it in the extended list that simply needed to be "turned on" so it would display. I'm guessing that HL doesnt register itself as being able to handle files with the .por extension and/or doesn't register a MIME type with iOS and then declare itself able to handle that MIME type.  On the second row, however, towards the end of the list, was "Open In..." I selected that and then picked HL from the list and the portfolio was imported into HL as a "local" portfolio (meaning it appeared at the top of the screen). So Open In does appear to work using existing techniques, it's just very cumbersome to use. Note that getting the file out of HL and back to DB will involve mailing it to yourself, then opening the email and tapping on the attachment, choosing to store it in DB. And you'll need to navigate to the DB folder where you want it stored. (I may look into creating a top-level folder in DB for HL stuff so that the navigation part is a little more streamlined, but there doesn't seem to be any other solution.) Until LW corrects this problem, I may configure a new email address with an auto responder that just extracts attachments and moves them into a particular folder on DB. Then I could email them to "hl@some.addr" and they would just magically appear in the correct DB folder with no work on my part. I might be able to use Automator on my MBP to do this, but most likely I'll end up writing a Perl script to do it and then run the Perl script as a rule in my mail client. (That's not perfect, because if my laptop is sleeping the file won't get processed, but at least it's automated.) Quote:
Last edited by Azhrei; June 16th, 2017 at 09:49 AM. Reason: Add note about auto responder |
||
|
#67
|
|
|
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,690
June 27th, 2017, 06:21 AM
|
Good news, everyone - Dropbox has changed their plans at the last minute:
https://blogs.dropbox.com/developers...tion-timeline/ Our new plan is to maintain our current Dropbox support as long as we can, until the new September deadline (or whenever they actually turn off the API). In addition, we'll be making it easier to import and export from other cloud services in our next iPad release, which should be sometime next week. |
|
#68
|
|
|
Member
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 88
June 27th, 2017, 08:57 AM
|
Quote:
Thank you for looking into a long term solution. But I am happy to see Dropbox will be good for a bit longer. |
|
|
#69
|
|
|
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 39
June 28th, 2017, 03:09 PM
|
Yay!! This means I dont have to toss my iPad in a drawer and go back to pen & paper,... at least for a while.
|
|
#70
|
|
 |
|
|
Linear Mode
