sharing my web portfolio data between laptop and pc.

[IThurts]

hello,

So i have my portfolio i am creating...I have a PC and a laptop...during the week i do not always wish to turn on my meaty PC, more so to relax with my laptop coding my site and such.

MY requirements are that i need files local on my PC to be available in the exact same format on my laptop, without the need to have to save to a frikkn external drive/usb stick etc etc....ie: i need a network with a folder which holds the website data.
SO if i update on my pc, these changes apply to a shared folder and can be accessed from my laptop without any fuss or wires or other mediums.

I had started by using the briefcase feature on my pc for ONE machine (pc), this way any changes made to my webpages would be updated in a seperate folder (for backup purposes).

In a nutshell- i want to be able to maintain my web portfolio from both Laptop and PC when i want to and without the need to remember to do a thousand different things before switching my laptop on. I also do NOT want to have to switch my PC on in order to USE my laptop...kinda defeats the purpose there a little ;)

THanks...i know i need a network...please advise how....the cheapest(free if poss) and most viable ways.

[S0l5]

Right you have two options:

either leave your PC on and setup a network share on a specific folder, then map the folder to your laptop as a network drive. But this requires your PC to be on at all times. Option two would be to buy some webspace and ftp to it everytime you wish to update the folder.

[Wassup]

offline files - they would need to both on at some time to synchronize tho'

as SOl5 says, another option would be to have some webspace,
if you have \Firefox, you *could* even use a gmail account to have your data available to whichever computer needed it
h**p://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/store-files-with-gmail-file-space-141833.php

Spymac have a nifty WEBDAV option that I use every now and again, basically a FTP kind-of service that I can upload to, and download from, any internet connected PC.

[IThurts]

Thanks for responses...appreciated.

I have some free webspace which my website is located at. I really wanted to not have to update my webpages online, more so offline on a local machine, and therefore have the ability to have the peace of mind that if i mess up positioning of a particular DIV tag or whatever, then it wouldnt show up online when i refresh my IE page.

Hope you guys can follow my logic, albeit im being a tad picky its for a legitimate purpose i feel.

What about a wireless network via my router?

My main quarm is that there is a lot of "faffing" around to allow ONE folder to be accessible from two computers. ie: sometimes i dont have time to sit and ftp files in order for them to be visible on another machine, ideally, i would like to be able when i save my files to a folder on whichever machine..these files are available from the other also. I understand this is not as easy/viable as i suggest though..

[dmarsh]

Like they said loads new online storage services springing up, having multiple locations is always gonna involve a synchronisation process. Using the web as a single location is gonna be sloooooowww....

Alternatively why not use a good old fashioned USB key...

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?NOV-MS28GB
http://www.memorybits.co.uk/shop/usb...b+memory+stick

8Gb should store a few websites...

Windows offline files sounds like an option but as mentioned you need to run a deadicated server, files on each device will only be upto date if both computers have been on to synch. Theres also thrid party options.

As mentioned even if you get the computers to synch automatically for you, you need to set it all up so this can happen and it might break, so in effect you are gonna have to monitor it all anyway, theres also the problem of merging if offline updates were made to both versions, people have made a market out of this with document management, configuration management, backup, synch software, collaboration software etc, USB key suddenly looks far simpler low cost and low effort to me...

If you're serious about configuration management I'd get hold of http://subversion.tigris.org/ its open source and widely used by the open source community. You then need a central server still that acts as the code repository and you work on a sort of check out/in model and it manages merges quite well with a good client such as TortoiseSVN or Eclipse. For a lone developer its main benefit is rollback and backup, it really comes into its own when you have multiple developers.

Sourcesafe is Microsofts implementation of a CM system, I'm not sure what its like now but the last time I used it it was a bit of a joke and didn't really act as a full configuration managment tool... http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2005/aa718670.aspx

[harpistic]

Originally Posted by IThurts

I have some free webspace which my website is located at. I really wanted to not have to update my webpages online, more so offline on a local machine, and therefore have the ability to have the peace of mind that if i mess up positioning of a particular DIV tag or whatever, then it wouldnt show up online when i refresh my IE page.

The files do not have to be live ("online") while stored on your domain; I often use FTP to transfer files between machines.

[IThurts]

Originally Posted by harpistic

The files do not have to be live ("online") while stored on your domain; I often use FTP to transfer files between machines.

Hi Harpistic!
Could you elaborate on your quote please...

[IThurts]

Ok...so i have setup a little home network. My pc now sees my laptop and vice versa. Obviously i cannot access my PC files from my laptop without the PC being turned on. Is there a way in MS XP HOME edition to use these files offline/make available offline, so i dont have to turn my PC on to view them VIA the laptop?

thANKS

[harpistic]

Er no, because if your PC is off, it's disconnected from the network!

[IThurts]

Originally Posted by harpistic

Er no, because if your PC is off, it's disconnected from the network!

Thanks for the response, however i think you misunderstood my intention. Please bear in mind Harpistic that not everyone can be as clued up in re to PC troubleshooting as yourself and others on this forum, which is why i am asking for help AND indeed why i am here in the first instance. If it frustrates you to respond to my (somewhat foundation based/newbie) queries, then please feel free to not respond. I say that with a , so please dont take it the wrong way.

My question was more-so geared towards asking whether or not i could make the files in some form of "offline" state, to enable access.

[harpistic]

Sorry about that, but others had already said that the PC or a server would have to be on for the files to be accessible; even if the two are networked, once one is off, the other one can't see it or speak to it.

A possibility would be for you to do a simple batch file which you could use to copy across your files to your laptop once you're done with your PC - say, if you only work on your PCs at the weekend, once you're finished working, power up the laptop, run the batch file and everything will be copied over.

I use two PCs at work (one is my main PC, the other one has the webserver), and so if I need to transfer across individual files, I just email them or upload them; if I need to transfer files between work and home, I normally FTP them to a subfolder within a domain, then download them when I get home. Those are the solutions I use for the situation you're in, if they're any help

[dmarsh]

My question was more-so geared towards asking whether or not i could make the files in some form of "offline" state, to enable access.

This is the synchronisation software we mentioned, have you done any research into the matter ?

The microsoft version is called 'Offline Files' as was mentioned.

Also theres configuration management tools as i mentioned...

Its really quite simple all solutions are based on moving copies of files backwards and forward across a network. Sometimes its a filesystem sometimes a database is used. You need metadata and control logic to flag which files the master and the changes etc.

[BosonJosh]

Microsoft has a free product called Folder Share that will synchronize files. I think this would probably work for simply synchronizing files between the computers.

However, I would recommend setting up a source code control repository using something like CVS or Subversion. Basically, this will create a single source master database for all of your Web development work. You could install this on either computer, and then whenever you are done working on a site, you would 'commit' the changes to the source code database, and the changes would then be accessible on the other computer by doing an update. Source code control is a fairly large topic, but one worth learning if you plan on doing web development as a career.

[IThurts]

Originally Posted by BosonJosh

Microsoft has a free product called Folder Share that will synchronize files. I think this would probably work for simply synchronizing files between the computers.

However, I would recommend setting up a source code control repository using something like CVS or Subversion. Basically, this will create a single source master database for all of your Web development work. You could install this on either computer, and then whenever you are done working on a site, you would 'commit' the changes to the source code database, and the changes would then be accessible on the other computer by doing an update. Source code control is a fairly large topic, but one worth learning if you plan on doing web development as a career.

Hi all, this is an interesting concept in the above quote and i like the idea of having a master database type thing. I have a "mastr" folder on my PC desktop, but having it hanging there on the desktop makes mee feel uneasy for somee reason. I also have this folder shared to my laptop. Basically i have conjured up the following ways to access my webfiles (somewhat efficiently and to the degree i was looking for):

:: Little home wireless network
:: Bought a U3 4GB USB stick with sync capabilities for files.
:: Will defo try the master database method also.

Thanks for your recent input Harpistic and dmarsh, those are also viable options, however the simplicity of the above appeals a bit more to me--, so thanks to you also as always BM.

Appreciation as always and hope you are all enjoying your weekend!
regards.

[dmarsh]

Like I said USB stick is by far simplist, as long as you don't lose the stick !

Then theres a master DB, look at Subversion.

Computing in the cloud is a big new thing at the mo, basically a service offering probably involving the web.

Microsoft is working on this :-

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1318