Sharing libraries on two Macs

I have a laptop and a desktop connected to an AirPort Extreme with a USB drive. I’d like to be able to access an EagleFiler library from either Mac. I know I can’t do it simultaneously, so I’d have EagleFiler open on only one Mac at a time. I don’t want to get involved with .Mac or some other syncing application. Is this a safe method of using EagleFiler?

Are there any special considerations for using encrypted libraries above?

It appears that an EagleFiler library folder (and its contents) or a sparseimage can be simply copied to another drive for backup. Are there any issues in using that backup on a different drive? If the backup library copy is usable, could it be used on the laptop in a “non-update” mode when disconnected from the local network? If no files or tags are changed, but searches are made and different files are opened in EagleFiler, are there any changes made to the library?

It looks like the preference “Remember open libraries between launches” should not be checked, or it would be easy to automatically connect to the wrong library when reconnecting to the network.

By the way, it appears that my USB drive is much slower when connected to the AirPort Extreme compared to a direct connection to a Mac. Will this become a big issue if a library grows to a couple Gb’s and perhaps to a thousand files?

Thanks for your observations.

Yes, that should work.

Encrypted libraries are stored in sparseimage files, so you should only mount the sparseimage on one Mac at a time.

No, that should “just work.” Make sure that the sparseimage isn’t mount when you copy it.

I’m not sure I understand the question. Surely, if it’s disconnected then only one Mac would have it open.

Even if you don’t think you’re making changes, it’s possible for EagleFiler to be changing something, e.g. if it needs to update a search index or if it’s saving the window positions and selected sources.

Accessing files over the network will certainly be slower than accessing them locally. I doubt there would be much difference with larger libraries (once they’re open) since EagleFiler generally accesses only small blocks of data at a time, e.g. the current file that you’re viewing or the list of the tags.

Thanks very much for the prompt reply.

It looks like this scenario will work. I did notice that when you do Edit : Copy Record Link or Copy Source URL, it results in the absolute path of the RTF document, including the drive name. Would moving a library to a different Mac render these links broken? That might be OK if one is aware of it, but if you double click on an RTF record to open it in an external application (ie TextEdit), would it try to go to that absolute address for the file or just within the current library?

Thanks again.

Copy Record Link copies a URL that includes an absolute path to the library. It does not include a path to the record, so the link will remain valid if you re-arrange the files within the library.

If you move the library to another Mac and it’s in the same location relative to your home folder, the links will still work. Additionally, the links will also work if the library is already open within EagleFiler. The links will not work if you move the library and it’s not already open.

No links are involved when you double-click a file, so this will always work.

Thanks very much

Just noticed that the window size is saved to the library, not the Application. When opening a library on a desktop (with lots of realestate), I sized the window fairly large, used it and closed the library. But when opening it on a laptop (with a smaller screen), the window was bigger than the laptop screen. Had to close it and go back to the desktop to size the window smaller and save it and close it. Then when I opened the library on the laptop, it was a manageable size. Not a big deal, but it would be nice if the window size was remembered by the app.

Howerever, if I did View : Open in New WIndow, it created a new window that was bigger than my laptop screen. Maybe it remembered the size of the second window when I had opened it on the desktop.

Too bad I can’t really utilize the larger size of my desktop screen without having to remember to size it down before closing it and then using it on my laptop.

Thanks.

If it opens too large on your small screen, you should be able to use the Window > Zoom command.

I’m not sure what you mean by “by the app.” Do you mean that you want it saved per-Mac instead of per-library? Certainly, there are cases where that would be useful and cases where it wouldn’t be.

EagleFiler 1.3 works around the standard OS behavior to try to improve this.