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- The Lone Wolf Development Team
Dropbox support
- Thread starter NeoEvaX
- Start date
If you're looking for a replacement, might I suggest using WebDAV? It's an Internet standard and has been for a long time, and many people with their own web sites through a web hosting company probably have the ability to host a WebDAV server if they simply turn it on. This would allow users to use their OWN web site to store portfolios, thus eliminating the need for LW to get into the cloud storage business!
In my own situation, I have turned on WebDAV on my web site and I can use Mac Finder to access that storage using a URL such as webdav://site.name.com/path/file.txt (or whatever) from anywhere that a URL could normally be used. (I'm betting that Windows isn't quite so easy, although the wiki page for WebDAV says Explorer has support built in...?)
In my own situation, I have turned on WebDAV on my web site and I can use Mac Finder to access that storage using a URL such as webdav://site.name.com/path/file.txt (or whatever) from anywhere that a URL could normally be used. (I'm betting that Windows isn't quite so easy, although the wiki page for WebDAV says Explorer has support built in...?)
jfrazierjr
Well-known member
So bummed to see the lost of this. It's so nice to edit a character on my PC and then head off to my gaming session with my iPad and have everything I worked on at my fingertips. No fuss, no need to remember to do some sort of sync. Extra steps of emailing or syncing I know will just mean messed up versions and confusion. So I hope a solution comes about soon!
Well, technically, with Realm Works, Lone Wolf is already in the "cloud storage business", right?
I would pay a nominal fee if Hero Lab could store my portfolios on their server and then allow me to grant GM access to selected characters. Bonus for GM tactical view based on these "cloud portfolios" for my PC's where I would never need to update or get newer versions of the portfolio from my players.
Further bonus to allow me to click that little "bag" to transfer magic item from NPC to PC, syncs to cloud down to PC.
Of course this could possibly be done with WebDav or other solutions, but an in house solution could possibly give us some more integration options?
ShadowChemosh
Well-known member
No. Hence the reason "Cloud" is being removed from all RW documentation and website. It caused lots of confusion because RW is not a Document Cloud service like Dropbox. Actually not even remotely the same as RW uses a real modern data base. Heck its closest thing is Lotus Domino system actually which makes local data base copies on different systems.
This is why Cloud is such a stupid name as it really tells a person nothing. Or lets talk about a data lake and what happens when it rains in your data lake.
No. Hence the reason "Cloud" is being removed from all RW documentation and website. It caused lots of confusion because RW is not a Document Cloud service like Dropbox. Actually not even remotely the same as RW uses a real modern data base. Heck its closest thing is Lotus Domino system actually which makes local data base copies on different systems.
This is why Cloud is such a stupid name as it really tells a person nothing. Or lets talk about a data lake and what happens when it rains in your data lake.
Wikipedia said:
Although I do agree and to quote, "Nobody understands the cloud!", in a general sense it's usually referred to as "my data is on the internet so I can grab it from any other physical location with internet access..." and is what I'm referring to...
What ever you want to call it, it really doesn't matter (to me). If I'm paying to have my Realm Works data backed up and accessible via the internet, I was just saying I'd also pay to have the same done for Hero Lab data...
I do agree Lone Wolf IS doing a lot more than just "storing" data, you have the whole sync mechanic, and it would be cool to have the same for Hero Lab data, but it would require more work considering the data format of portfolios...
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ShadowChemosh
Well-known member
But that is more of an IT bit of information. Which yes we have some IT people on the forums but we also have many more that only understand Dropbox cloud storage as a place to store a document, image, music file. Which is the end all of the "Cloud".
And don't get me started on the fact that I was severing data all over the world 25 years ago without the "Cloud". It really is not a new THING! Ug....
I wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page was all. I have seen many people complain they want to use Dropbox with RW because all "cloud" is the same thing. In the case of documents vs database they are very different. But I probably was not detailed enough to make that clear. My bad...
I could see a complete solution making things very easy for some of players. I have no inside information on what LW is going to do with HL. I have heard a bunch of ideas over the years but I have to think they are working on something.
At the same time they are small and only have a few coders for HL. So they can't be doing many large projects all at once. And creating a new "cloud" solution for HL is not going to happen over night. Add in the fact that we have a half-dozen different "solutions" in this thread already. I think LW bigger issue is finding a solution that works for many years and not just a short time solution. With the small staff you can't afford to keep re-creating a solution every few years.
I have this vision of you going around with snips cutting everyone's ethernet cables, "NO DATA FOR YOU!".
But yea, I agree, they have to find that line where the solution isn't too complicate yet will last longer than 6 months and have to revisit it.
Maybe it's a simple as Google Drive integration? Although I have no experience with iPads so not sure about the API for this...
ShadowChemosh
Well-known member
Would someone mind explaining to me (in layman's terms) how I would transfer a .por file from my computer to my iPad, without using Dropbox? May as well as get used to it now. I have a game tomorrow night where I'm playing 2 characters, and prefer to run one character on my PC and the other on my iPad.
I'm fairly sure that you will be able to find the file in the Dropbox app, and then do the "share" thing to load it into HeroLab, just like you can send a file to many other apps.
However, the file will then be stored locally in HeroLab, and any changes you make will NOT be updated within the DropBox copy.
In the iPad, on the screen where you're selecting characters, choose "Get Help" at the bottom, and then choose "How to Use Hero Lab", and then #3: "How do I move characters to my iPad?"
Thanks!
Mystic Lemur
Well-known member
I don't suppose this can be worked around on the client side by just not updating Dropbox?
I think the problem is Dropbox dropping support for the API on their servers, not just the local app.
I would very much like to see support for another file sharing system either LW run, publicly run or private server (I run). I have a whole group (8 people) that use iPads and the current Dropbox implementation is OK. The current approach doesn't let me share the Hero Lab folder nor does it support sub-folders at all. This is kinda clunky as I have to manually move the file around when we switch GMs.
But, as I said, it's way better than nothing. The iPads will become very, very hard to use without some type of easy sync to the outside world. How about TFTP/FTP/SFTP-Sync?
Kizan
But, as I said, it's way better than nothing. The iPads will become very, very hard to use without some type of easy sync to the outside world. How about TFTP/FTP/SFTP-Sync?
Kizan
This only affects Hero Lab for iPad, and the built-in Dropbox syncing for that app. Hero Lab doesn't directly talk to Dropbox in any other way - it won't affect sharing your characters between your laptop and desktop using Dropbox, or updates files hosted by dropbox, or anything like that. All that stuff is built in to the Dropbox client you have installed and won't change.
This change means that there will no longer be a "Files in Dropbox" section on the "Select Portfolio" screen on HL for iPad. That's all.
The first I knew of this was the mention in the last email. Losing dropbox support on the ipad is hugely damaging to the way I use Hero Lab. Ever since I first saw the dropbox feature on the ipad, I started saving everything to my dropbox on my desktop and more recently on my laptop as well so that I always have all my files, without worrying about which device I started them on or last modified them on. If I have to manually move portfolios on and off the ipad, I'll probably just stop using my ipad for hero lab at all, despite how much better the iPad UI is for playing at the table. (Actually, I don't even know how to move portfolios on and off the ipad manually. I know that apple won't just let me plug a usb cable into it and copy files directly.)
If using the newer Dropbox API isn't practical, is there any chance of having google drive support instead? Our group already uses drive to keep notes, share character art, and provide our portfolios to our GM, so it'd be a nice upgrade for us.
(Better yet, is there any chance that there might be an android version of Hero Lab with the ipad-style UI at some point? Hero Lab is the only reason that my ipad isn't sitting in a drawer gathering dust. Everything else that I use it for could be done better and easier on an android tablet on which file management is simple instead of locked away from the user.)