Temp file issues

[xja]

The temp file created when opening a stored document should be removed and recreated when a user (1) renames the item in UR, or (2) synchronizes the item with a linked file. The temp file should also be removed when a user permanently deletes the item in UR.

If I open a stored document, close, rename the InfoItem and open the stored doc again, it shows the old name in the title bar (eg, in Microsoft Word if it is a Word doc).

If I open an InfoItem's stored document, close it, open the same item's linked file, edit it, save it, synchronize the item, then open the item's stored document, the old document is opened (the changes made to the linked file are not reflected).

If I copy a file (eg, a Word file) into UR, ctrl-shift-del the item in UR, then edit the original Word file (or strangely enough even if I edit the name of the original Word file or create NEW Word file), copy that file into UR, and then open the stored document of the newly created InfoItem, the original Word file (ie, the one I ctrl-shift-deleted) opens.

If I exit and restart UR, or if I go into the Temp folder on my hard drive and delete the UR Copy temp files, then all the changes are reflected properly.

[kevina]

While your suggestion about deleting temp files when they are removed seems straight-forward, Ultra Recall has no definitive way of "knowing" when the user is done using the temp file externally, and therefore doesn't have the information necessary to do this properly (which is why it works like it does).

Since Ultra Recall can't positively determine whether a file is still in use or not (and we don't want to create multiple external copies of the same file unnecessarily), Ultra Recall will reuse the same temp file even if you have changed the title. Other things can prevent the temp file from being named identically to the title as well, such as:
1) The title contains characters invalid in a file name/path
2) A copy with that name already exists in the folder and can't/shouldn't be overwritten

The second issue you raise, where the wrong file is displayed under the sequence of events you describe is indeed a bug. This will be fixed in the next minor release of Ultra Recall.

[kevina]

Ultra Recall version 1.2 is available and fixes this bug as reported.

Note: it is highly recommended that you make a backup of your Info Databases before upgrading to a new version.

[xja]

ok, I understand. I do realize that you have thought the temp file approach through very thoroughly. It is very clever. I do have a couple of additional thoughts:

1. For a doc that is both stored and linked, since Synchronize overwrites the stored version with the linked version, one has to be very careful not to edit the stored copy thinking that the changes will be preserved since they may be overwritten if synchronized. Maybe your prompt warning should occur when opening a stored document that is also linked (ie, "Warning: any edits may be lost after synchronization"), rather than when UR tries to upated the stored document from the temp file. Or better yet, if synchronization allowed the stored version to overwrite the linked version if it is newer (I realize that poses problems if both versions have changed).

2. I have one particular (albeit obscure) program that I use that, when I open a stored document, the program is unable to save to the UR Copy that is created. When I click Save, I get a Save As dialog. If I then navigate to the UR temp directory and try to save the file over the existing UR Copy in the temp directory, I get an Access Denied error.

In case you wanted to try this yourself, the program is a free music editor called Power Tab Editor (v1.7) and can be found here:

http://www.power-tab.net/downloads.php

This doesn't occur in this program if I open a file directly from Windows Explorer.

[kinook]

Do you have the file's extension included at 'Tools | Options | Documents | File extensions to open stored documents writeable' (you may need to restart UR after adding it if you already opened the stored document in this session)?

[xja]

Woops. Forgot I had to do that. That fixed it. Thanks.