? safe to modify EF records with other applications

Michael,

Have over 10000 docs spread over 4 main EF libraries - and rising by the day. Getting a bit unwieldy to find documents now, as you have to figure out which one of the libraries a document might be in.

Have been having a look at Leap - simply as a Spotlight replacement - as the Spotlight interface - even with Leopard - is simply unusable with large numbers of files.

If I tag or modify records in Leap or simply in the Finder, these modifications will not be registered by EF and the checksum will then need to be updated. Correct? When starting up EF it does not appear to be checking for these inconsistencies. If I do a Verify (via Record>Verify) it will give me a list of the now faulty EF records. I can’t do a batch repair on them - it looks like you have to do it one by one. Laborious.

Thus, what are your suggestions? Only do searching in EF? Not always practical with big numbers of records. Try not to modify the files - either in EF or in Finder/Leap - just leave them alone?? Does the fact the the checksums are not all correct really matter?

Thanks for your suggestions.

Steve J

I have about 10 libraries, but they’re divided in such a way that each file only really belongs in one. If you can’t partition your files in this way, perhaps it would be better to have fewer libraries to avoid the guesswork.

Correct.

Right—when you launch EagleFiler it does a quick verify, which means that it just checks that each file is present and of the expected type. A full verify is slower and requires reading the entire contents of every file.

Yeah, I’ll see if I can add batch checksum updating to a future version.

The checksums are useful if you want EagleFiler to be able to verify that your files are not damaged. If this is less important to you than ease of editing, you could just forget about the checksums and edit the files in any way that you wish. In your situation, I’d probably be a little bit lax about the checksums. Files don’t get damaged very often, and the checksums will still be valid where they’re most important—for the files that rarely change. Then I’d periodically update the checksums, especially before making a backup.

Michael,

Thanks for the information. Will be a tad less concerned.

Currently I think one of the things I’m looking forward to most is the possibility of seeing - and being able to transfer documents to - a listing of the other EF libraries at the top of the left hand column of EF. Like Devices and Shared at the top left-hand corner of a Finder window. This will really make cataloguing much easier.

And do you ever sleep?

Regards,

Steve J