Stickies - sync via dropbox/onedrive/googleDrive | Also, store config in different path than DB

hi...

It's now very common to work at 2 PC's.
I have put the DB on a shared drive... but the opposite stickie implementation doesn't seem to be aware when a note is changed.

Apart of that, settings should be stored on different path than DB, to avoid screen position, font size and other settings problems (notebook resolution often different than desktop)


pd: there's a 2019 post about this:
https://zhornsoftware.forumotion.com/t124-sync-notes-and-cloud-account-support

greetings!

I've started to write sync code a number of times, but I've never finished it.  I mostly got it working last time, but ran into problems like the one you mention - screen resolutions are different.

Anything which I produce really needs to do it all properly, which includes handling screen resolutions.  What would happen for example if you store a note?  Should it be deleted from the other machine, or should it go into the store there as well instead?  What about recurring notes - if you create one to show up every day at midday, both sides need to have a recurring entry so that if one side of the pair is switched off you get to see the note on the other machine. Then what happens when the machines are in sync again - the second machine will create a new note, which will be sync'd back to the first, and you get two reminder.

I'm not sure that sync fits with Stickies.  I know that everyone will think it should work differently (just desktop, just stored, only some stored categories etc) and that's what's putting me off.

Tom

I too am trying to use simple stickies on 2 PCs. I only use plain ones with notes in it or software-connected ones. I'm trying to figure out how I can just have them stored on a shared local network drive so that no matter which machine I'm on, I have access to those notes.

I wonder if you're overthinking the needs of your users. Maybe if you were to limit the types of stickies that could work this way, maybe it would be easier from a programming end?? I'm not sure myself, just guessing.

For the screen size issue, maybe something in the app settings could override it. Since the app has to be installed on both PCs, each would have it's own saved settings. Maybe during the installation or in the options there is a way to tell the app the screen size and the positions could be based on percentages instead of exact pixels. You'd also have to check if the sticky size/position is too big stay on the screen. It would have to be responsive in design.

Just my thoughts.

Pardon me a little, not that I have begun to use Stickies much yet. I am a migrator from Notezilla app, not that I have used it for much purposes either. I did see the sync option there too and never used it much. But the fact that the notes can be synced seems like an option that might be useable indeed.

But I think the sync capabilities can be simplified as such. The app can sync two things about a note, the content and the status.
The content includes the actual content and the status includes the rest of the stuff (which could be either like the reminded, alarm, whether it's stuck anywhere like desktop or to some window, whether it's minimized or maximized, the position of the note on desktop). Now the users have two options whether to apply the status from one computer to the other or just keep it to the content.

See, content must always need to be synced regardless of the status of the note. From there on comes the possibility of syncing the status alongside, and whether to keep it or not. From there, a user can select which status property can be applied to the other side and wise versa, a per note per property status settings can be applied/remembered/changed at any given time and a set of global settings can be provided as a deault that applies to all the notes. 

This way, even if the status of the note changes on one computer it would or would not reflect on the other side and wise versa. If it affects the other side and a user wishes to undo it or unapply it they can do so, either taking the global defaults in mind or once the user has the note on the other side and saves/applies different settings to it individually. There's a lot of logic that can be done here and indeed, it can get a bit mind boggling and complex when you get into the details.

EDIT: Regarding the position and high dpi monitors etc etc, couldn't stickies work/operate on the notion of percentage rather than pixels. So instead of applying the location via pixels, instead convert it to percentage and then use that to apply the note the other side. For this I reckon stickies might need to get the device's current working screen resolution properly.

This is how I think Notezilla might work but since I never used the sync much from there, I have no idea. (I retained from it due to the price which at the time I was using it was expensive for me). On that note, really super glad to see Stickies and from a glance, it seems to have almost all the features that I was using on Notezilla. I have for almost 2 to 3 years been looking for an alternative and was super hyped when i found Stickies out, yet to give it a try though which I will be doing so soon.

One thing though, Notezilla doesn't have drive/onedrive/dropbox syncing. They sync it through their own servers, potentially just to be able to make more money out of them. I don't think using cloud storage providers as a location for sync would have been something they couldn't do but didn't, just to keep the financial profits more. Hence a reason I never used the sync as it comes with a subscription. Which is already a thing in stickies, provided you have a server of your own. I think I once contacted Zhorn about something similar. But if you have a central server in the middle, stickies can send notes to it and it'll be visible to all the other where the client sided stickies are using that central server to send/recieve/sync notes from. I might be wrong and it might just be limited to sending and recieving on demand. Which is what I think how notezilla is operating instead of using cloud hosters.

Sync is something I've given a lot of thought to.  I think anything I write has a different status to code which others might create.  If users see that the author of Stickies has come up with something, I think it's natural to expect that it's thoroughly thought through, and I've learned over time that if I put out any code, there's no taking it back.  Once it's released, someone will start to use it and then changing it becomes really difficult.  Well, it's easy, so long as I don't care about annoying users.

Your "percentage" idea is a good one, and is something I'd not thought about before.  However, it doesn't cater for the situation where a user has one screen in one location, and multiple screens in the other.  If a note is moved to screen 2 or screen 3, what happens to it on the single screen on the other side.

I had considered syncing just content - that's a way to simplify the issue.  However, what happens when a note which is in sync on the desktop is sent to sleep on one side, and deleted on the other?  Should the sleeping note now be deleted, or the deleted note brought back from the dead and added to sleeping?

Some might want to sync just content, some might want to sync content and attributes, some might want desktop notes only, some might want just one stored category.  I think anything I create needs to cater for all comers - or at least be extensible so that it can cater for all use cases in the future, without breaking what users already have in place.

However, if you know how you'd use sync, then you can always write some code to implement just that functionality

One last thing - I'll never get into the business of setting up a server to sync with.  That would mean my server would hold user data ... and there are privacy, security, data protection issues and so on that I'd prefer to stay a million miles from with that!

Tom

I get you on that note. It is indeed difficult to change the code once it is all out there and being used. I think the part you mentioned about single and multiple screens. Couldn't it be such like the sync does nothing in cases such as these where the conditions doesn't necessarily match between two different hosts and simply skips and keep the note on the single screen unchanged and in the same position. Yet if the person drags it on the 2nd screen and changes position, then in that case the condition for note positioning could still match and sync.

In short, in cases such as these perhaps the notes could show a warning and let the users decide what to door show options what to do. By default it can simply skip through such situations and only affect the notes for the properties that might actually be affectable. And that works just as well for your second situation too. If a deleted note from one host is put to sleep on the other, if it gave the users a warning that should do the trick.

Edit: Also, there can be a concept of detachable notes. This only syncs the content but doesn't apply the properties of the notes. That way, if any irregularities come up with the properties a user can resolve it themselves or just change them as they feel it.

Just wanted to rescue this thread from dying ... and throw in my two cents...

I'd prefer any kind of syncing. If there are documented limitations, then so it will be...

Even the simplest kind of sync:
- immediatly writing back amendments to a hosted database,
- informing the synced PCs across the already established network communication, that its memory data base is stale, and
- rereading the data base upon such an bump
would help a lot, not for all of us, but for many...

Any solution yet? I was looking for a way to sync the same note between my two devices. The send to friend vai network works but I was wondering if we could use that to sync the contents for pined note.