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(Archived) Relationship between Client & Web App


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Is there a good explanation or breakdown somewhere between how & when things work in the sync relationship between the client & web app & maybe Server involved here... how this data is traveling - I don't quite understand how all this is happening and I need to, to trust the relationships before I start trusting all the data in my life to it... I hope that makes sense to some of you...

The Server relationship is not as important in the technical details - just the general data flow. I get that the Client App on the home computers house the database... The Evernote People tell us that we need the Client app on all our personal computers... would that not mean multiple DB's? Isn't that bad? I know they sync... but still I'm getting confused...

I hear some in the forums talking of keeping their Database mobile... So is there some discussion links that have already taken place on these subjects, or, can some of you please take the time to enlighten me?

Jay Rephan

Nashville, TN

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Our sync behavior is modeled pretty closely off of what you get from email systems. The server has a copy of all private/public notes, and the client maintains a local copy for offline usage. Both sides keep track of changes that are made, and then they try to resolve all of those changes when you sync. This works like "offline mode" in email clients. This gives you an offline "mobile" mode that isn't available from web-only systems. Don't think of this as multiple "databases" ... think of it as a single service, with local copies for offline use.

Local notebooks are only maintained on a single computer, and when you move or create a note in a local notebook, it only sits on that hard drive. This would be similar to the behavior of Outlook if you make a local mail archive (.pst) on your computer and then create messages there.

We've provided a bit more information about privacy and security here:

http://blog.evernote.com/2008/04/15/eve ... -security/

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(Local notebooks are only maintained on a single computer, and when you move or create a note in a local notebook, it only sits on that hard drive. This would be similar to the behavior of Outlook if you make a local mail archive (.pst) on your computer and then create messages there.)

So this would be an advantage (the advantage) of viewing and dealing with Evernote data from the Web Client then... you would have access to all of the Notebooks from all computers, PDA's etc. right?

Jay Rephan

Nashville, TN

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So this would be an advantage (the advantage) of viewing and dealing with Evernote data from the Web Client then... you would have access to all of the Notebooks from all computers, PDA's etc. right?

Jay Rephan

Nashville, TN

No. The only notebooks that the web version will see will be those that are not-local. And, if they're not local, then they're going to be synced across all of your computers anyway. I'd say that the advantage of the web version is so that if you're ever at a strange machine, and can't/don't want to install the desktop client, you can still see your notes.

Local notebooks are local to just one machine - they most definitely do not get synched with the web version - that was the entire point of people asking for local notebooks.

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No. The only notebooks that the web version will see will be those that are not-local. And, if they're not local, then they're going to be synced across all of your computers anyway. I'd say that the advantage of the web version is so that if you're ever at a strange machine, and can't/don't want to install the desktop client, you can still see your notes.

Local notebooks are local to just one machine - they most definitely do not get synched with the web version - that was the entire point of people asking for local notebooks.

Well, that makes it official... I'm totally confused. Go back to the opening of my topic!

I don't understand the reasons for and the relationships between the local computer clients... the web client... when it's best for me to enter my data into each... I have two computers - a PDA Phone and a UMPC.

I get a funky error message on my Vista SP1 machine running Evernote Beta 3 when trying to sync, so I have little trust in relying in the computer Client so far... and I'm really trying like the devil to understand these data flow relationships.

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Here's how I understand it. Bear in mind, I'm just an end user.

You have a computer A, and a computer B. You create a database on A. It may have notebooks. There are two kinds of notebooks: local and private (ambiguous, I know). A local notebook will live only on A. A private notebook will be synced with the "cloud", but only visible by you.

In reality, your data lives in the cloud (except for local notebooks). Once it's in the cloud, it can be synced with numerous machines, e.g., A, B, etc. Now, anything you type into a private notebook on computer A will get synced with the cloud, and thence to computer B. You can use the web client to see stuff that's in the cloud, i.e., online. Once you've got the windows client (or mac client) on computer B, it will sync with the cloud, giving you access to those private notebooks. You could create local notebooks on B too, but they would be only on B, and would never get to the cloud, or A.

The terminology might be confusing.

1. There are clients for windows, mac, and the web, plus whatever mobile stuff I haven't been keeping track of.

2. Notebooks may be local or private. Local notebooks live on whatever computer you created it on. You will never see the contents of a local notebook on another computer, on through the web version.

3. Private notebooks are accessible through the desktop clients, and the web client (and mobile). They live in the cloud, but keep a presence on your computer. I say this because if you ever get a corruption of your database, the recommended suggestion is to delete the copy on your computer, and resync with the cloud. (Of course, this would kill any local notebooks - hmmm, a flaw.) Of course, it gets confusing because local notebooks and private (ie. syncable) notebooks live in the exact same file on your computer.

Now that I think about it...it is rather confusing!

:(

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Great Answer! Grand Mistress of EverNote! -- That cleared up some things... Is there a decent tutorial somewhere that you know of (#1) and, #2, how do I designate in my Computer Client whether a new Notebook is going to be (Local) or (Private) ?? I assume it gives you that choice? I also read somewhere that you can make your notebook public as well... that must be in those opening choices too...?

(#3) I already have a Notebook in each of my computers but cannot find any way to tell whether they are Local or Private !!!! Do you have any idea how to find out? Or should I just delete the Notebooks and start over?

(#4) I'm also assuming everything you enter new in the Web Client is sync'ed to all your Private Notebooks down on the farm do to speak... right?

Also, when you ended your last reply with this quote

"Now that I think about it...it is rather confusing!"
The Programmers deciding to name the "Cloud" Notebook PRIVATE was indeed a really strange choice...! The one they called Local should have been called Private IMHO.

Thanks in advance for your help oh great Mistress....!

Jay Rephan

Nashville, TN

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Yeah, well, it was originally only "private" and "public". We finally got "local" because people wanted more control over their data.

#1. Not that I know of.

#2. When you create a new notebook, you have the choice of making it private or local. See the image:

post-1775-131906062007_thumb.png

By the way, setting your notebook to public has to be done on the web client I believe. And oh, once a notebook is local or private, there's no switching.

#3. There is actually no way to tell, e.g., properties, if a notebook is private/local. You could compare the list of notebooks on one computer with the list that you see on the web (after doing a sync). Any notebooks on the computer that are NOT on the web, are local. Of course, if you've named everything "Notebook", then that won't help much. I would guess that your notebooks are private, since that's the default. But true, to be super safe, you could create new notebooks, and make sure that they are what you want. There was some talk of some distinguishing feature to indicate whether a notebook was local or not. But not yet. Right now, I'm just putting a notebook name in { } to tell me that it's local.

#4. Anything on the web is by definition "private" (or public if you've opened up some notebooks). That stuff will get synced with whatever machines you have synced to that account. By definition, anything "local" is tied to the specific computer that you created it on.

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