Dual Editing?

[Kris]

Hey there,

Seeing as we add hundreds of products every few months, and addding the fact that we have constantly updated prices, specifications, release dates etc, we wondered if it was possible to edit the catalogue from 2 different machines but have both of them edit the same database and use the same folder for image/html storage?

Eg:

Me - Doing site html / code changes and products.
Boss - Doing Product Additions & Updates

But both working on the same Actinic database/images etc.

Is the possible either via Catalogue/Developer or any other version?

I told my boss that I didn't think it was possible or even realistically do-able due to the way windows handles files... was I right?

[Jan]

You could run two copies and then use the import export facility to copy the new products over.

I also have a product replication product that allows you to have copies of one product in several sections. A rather nice side effect of this is that you can link the replication tables to as many Actinic sites as you like which gives you a single datasource for all of your products, so you could link the two sites together in that way as well.

[Kris]

Jan,

Doing this (your way as import/export is no good) would it be possible for us both to be editing the catalogue at the same time?

Thanks

[Jan]

You can create products in one catalog and the changes will be automatically copied over to the other, so your colleague can be editing the database while you sort out the scripts etc. The product replicator only works for certain fields though so it might not be good enough. You could possibly split the fields up between the two database so for example you could say that you wanted to change the image details but your colleague was going to enter the pricing details and the description details. To do this you would simply not link the image details. You would also have the benefit of being able to use the same product in as many sections as you like and have the main details automatically update. Take a look at http://www.mole-end.biz/acatalog/Rep...dProducts.htm. You might also need two copies of Actinic to do this - one for you and one for your colleague.

The other thing to do is to make a copy of the product table in an access database and edit this, then link this in using product replication. Doing it this way you could both edit the access database and Actinic would pick the details up. I don't know whether access will let two of you edit the database at the same time though.

There is no reason why you couldn't create a database that linked to the Actinic database (over a shared drive or similar) and then write some forms to allow you to change certain values in Actinic. You might have problems with the Actinic's internal caches, in other words some values might get lost if you change them and then Actinic overwrites them.

If you sit down and work out exactly which bits the two of you want to work on it would be easier for you to work out a game plan.

Regards,

[Kris]

I think the boss was looking for something more simplified.

Thanks anyway Jan for taking time to explain that all.

I'll bear it in mind for the next meeting.

Thanks again,

[Jan]

You'll have to do shift work instead :-).

Regards,

[Kris]

as always.