A question for those of you who have machines running Windows 7 and use OneDrive for file storage as I am looking at a new set-up that will now involve a desktop and a laptop. I know that I can use a we-based application for task management, and am giving that consideration, but I also wanted to explore options that are not web-based applications (i.e. My Life Organized, InfoQube, Hyper Plan, etc.). My employer offers OneDrive, but without any file sync option to our machines. Does anybody know if there is a way to have non-Microsoft products (like the ones that I mentioned above) access files that are stored in OneDrive? For example, can I have one of the above programs "installed" (as portable software) on both machines, but share the data file between them on OneDrive? I have to confess a bit of ignorance to OneDrive as I just have not used it much over the past few years as we still have traditional file servers on-site in addition to OneDrive. Any wisdom would be greatly appreciated as if I can find a way to share the data file, then I have more choices for task management software shared between my machines.

Thanks,

--Ken

P.S. Dropbox and Box are not supported options by my employer and are discouraged from use, and non-standard issue software ( mostly Microsoft) is generally not installed on machines, so these are not available options.

Ken wrote:

I also wanted to explore options that are not web-based applications (i.e. My Life Organized, InfoQube, Hyper Plan, etc.).
My employer offers OneDrive, but without any file sync option to our machines.

Can you explain what you mean by that ? OneDrive is just a folder on your HD plus sync with the web server, not ?

Does anybody know if there is a way to have non-Microsoft products (like the ones that I mentioned above) access files that are stored in OneDrive?
For example, can I have one of the above programs "installed" (as portable software) on both machines, but share the data file between them on OneDrive?

Without sync, not sure...

A LAN folder is not an option to share data between computer /apps ?

Pierre
http://www.infoqube.biz

Hi Pierre,

Thank you for the reply. I have nested my answers to your questions below. This has been a very helpful start to solving this problem.

Thanks,

--Ken

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:

Ken wrote:
> I also wanted to explore options that are not web-based applications
(i.e. My Life Organized, InfoQube, Hyper Plan, etc.).
> My employer offers OneDrive, but without any file sync option to our
machines.

Can you explain what you mean by that ? OneDrive is just a folder on
your HD plus sync with the web server, not ?

At present, there are two ways that I have been accessing files on OD. The first is when I log into the Office portal (when out of the office). The second is through a log in on my desktop, and I believe through the Save/Save As options in MS products. Due to my past preference for the network hard drives, I just never dug deeper into how to best use OD. There may be a way to access it from the desktop, but I do not believe there is any active sync happening as we are not supposed to store any files on our C: drives.

> Does anybody know if there is a way to have non-Microsoft products
(like the ones that I mentioned above) access files that are stored in
OneDrive?
> For example, can I have one of the above programs "installed" (as
portable software) on both machines, but share the data file between
them on OneDrive?

Without sync, not sure...

A LAN folder is not an option to share data between computer /apps ?

Actually, I think that you just may have solved my problem. I forgot that my laptop uses Junos Pulse to connect to the servers when I am away from the office. I believe that it does allow me access to the network hard drives, and it that is correct, then I can keep my data files on one of the servers (as I do now) and then access it from either machine. I need to test this out, but I believe that it may allow me to bypass the whole OD issue (and allow me some time to better learn what is and is not possible with OD in our network).

Pierre
http://www.infoqube.biz

Hi Ken,

From what I gather, Junos Pulse is a VPN solution. I can't say for the other desktop solutions you're contemplating, but InfoQube uses the JET database engine which, for large IQBases, is not very reliable (and slow) on a VPN. For a small one, it should work however.

Other ideas could be:
- portable drive (USB/SD)

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:

Hi Ken,

From what I gather, Junos Pulse is a VPN solution. I can't say for the
other desktop solutions you're contemplating, but InfoQube uses the JET
database engine which, for large IQBases, is not very reliable (and
slow) on a VPN. For a small one, it should work however.

Other ideas could be:
- portable drive (USB/SD) ruled out for security reasons
- Remote Desktop (Win or TeamViewer) to you office PC (which has a good
LAN connection to the server) too !
- If simultaneous multi-user access / update is not a requirement, it
should be possible to use a RAMDrive and set the IQ backup path to the
VPN connected server
(IQ would be started from a batch file to copy the VPN connected
server file to the RAMDrive)

Pierre

Hi Pierre,

Thanks for the additional suggestions. I believe that I do have some version of a remote desktop (Juniper?), but I am not sure if that will work as I am looking for something that allows a quick change between machines (i.e. closing the data file), and logging in from home is quite slow.

BTW, if I am able to squirrel away a few hours, what is the best tutorial/beginners' guide to IQ? Should I use the help file, or is there something better to get a person up and running (or walking)?

Thanks,

--Ken

I have used Hyper Plan a lot with DropBox across several machines and it works fine.

Hyper Plan locks your plan across the local network while you are editing it (on Windows, there is no reliable way to do this on Mac). If you aren't editing it, then it checks for updates made by other processes and loads them. In the rare event that 2 machines that are not on the same network edit the same plan without synchronizing, then you may get 2 copies of the plan.

I am less familiar with OneDrive. I assume it is rather similar to DropBox:
-file looks like a local file, but is synchronized between machines by a server
-if the file is changed on 2 different machines without being synchromized, 2 copies are created
If so, it should work fine with Hyper Plan.

Note that Hyper Plan can also work portably, with all its preferences stored in a .ini file, rather than the registry.
http://www.hyperplan.com/faq.html#usbkey

--

Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

Andy Brice wrote:

I have used Hyper Plan a lot with DropBox across several machines and it
works fine.

Hyper Plan locks your plan across the local network while you are
editing it (on Windows, there is no reliable way to do this on Mac). If
you aren't editing it, then it checks for updates made by other
processes and loads them. In the rare event that 2 machines that are not
on the same network edit the same plan without synchronizing, then you
may get 2 copies of the plan.

I am less familiar with OneDrive. I assume it is rather similar to
DropBox:
-file looks like a local file, but is synchronized between machines by a
server
-if the file is changed on 2 different machines without being
synchromized, 2 copies are created
If so, it should work fine with Hyper Plan.

Note that Hyper Plan can also work portably, with all its preferences
stored in a .ini file, rather than the registry.
http://www.hyperplan.com/faq.html#usbkey

--

Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

Helpful information while I sort things out. Thanks, Andy!

--Ken

I will test Hyper Plan with OneDrive to ensure it works ok. Please also let me know what you find out.

--

Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

Andy Brice wrote:

I will test Hyper Plan with OneDrive to ensure it works ok.

Ken can correct me if I'm wrong, but "regular" Onedrive (i.e. its syncing capability) is not available for him.

One must directly connect through the Onedrive API to access the files stored on the server

Pierre

I assume your employer is using Microsoft's enterprise version of Office365, which can include OneDrive. If that's the case, the way OneDrive works in the enterprise version is going to be different than how it works in the home user's version of the Office products. You'll want to check with your IT shop. They can configure what you can do with OneDrive, how much space, types of files, collaborate or not collaborate, etc.

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:

Andy Brice wrote:
> I will test Hyper Plan with OneDrive to ensure it works ok.

Ken can correct me if I'm wrong, but "regular" Onedrive (i.e. its
syncing capability) is not available for him.

One must directly connect through the Onedrive API to access the files
stored on the server

Pierre

Pierre's assumption is correct (see Paul's answer below for more details).

--Ken

Paul Korm wrote:

I assume your employer is using Microsoft's enterprise version of
Office365, which can include OneDrive. If that's the case, the way
OneDrive works in the enterprise version is going to be different than
how it works in the home user's version of the Office products. You'll
want to check with your IT shop. They can configure what you can do
with OneDrive, how much space, types of files, collaborate or not
collaborate, etc.

You are correct, Paul. And you have shed a lot of light on my understanding of how OD works. Since Ecco was pulled from my machine when we migrated to Win7 a number of years ago since it was not standard software, I try not to discuss software too much with IT people. So, my "personal" tools at work are usually limited to web-based apps, portable apps or something running on my own personal hardware. The information that I keep in these task management/note programs is not sensitive so I do not worry about any type of data breach, but IT folks are concerned about protecting the network, and rightly so.

--Ken