InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by jimspoon on 2013/10/15 02:50

I want to access the same Infoqube database from different computers (e.g. desktop, laptops). My IQ database resides on my desktop. So, when I want to acess the database from my laptop, I run IQ on my laptop and load the database from the desktop. It's a big database and it takes awhile for a grid to appear on my laptop (connected via wifi).

I wonder what is going on underneath. Is my laptop trying to load the entire database over the wifi connection, as if it were residing on my laptop hard drive? Obviously that slows things down a lot. Shouldn't there be some kind of client-server thing going on, where the processing is done on the desktop (where the database resides), so as to limit the amount of data that has to be transferred over the network connection?

Is there some other way I should be accessing the desktop database from my laptop?

when running iq on my laptop, it would be nice to be able to access a database on my laptop that syncs up with the desktop database when a network connection is available - but I don't think we have that yet, do we? If not, what's planned in that regard?

jim

Comments

IQ runs very well from different computers in the following 2 configurations:

Always connected LAN. Database is placed on the server and accessed using the LAN connection. The database engine behind IQ (MS JET) has been optimized to work under this configuration (with data cached locally). Supports simultaneous updates from different computers.
Dropbox-type sync service. Database is placed in a Dropbox folder. Changes are synched to other computers via Internet. Dropbox in particular is very efficient and only synchs changes to the database. Simultaneous updates are not supported.

There are plans to support other configuration, some of which offer extensive collaboration scenarios, but no time frame are defined for their implementation.

HTH

Pierre - when you say "Always connected LAN. Database is placed on the server and accessed using the LAN connection." Do I need to do anything in particular to make my desktop act as a "server", with my laptop as the client? Right now, I am simply running IQ on my desktop and opening the database that resides on my desktop. Then on the laptop I run IQ and open the same file (the one on the desktop). Is this all that is required?

btw - for some reason I am unable to post/reply in the forum in Chrome; can't get the cursor to activate in the 'body" box - have to switch to firefox to post to forum.

[quote=jimspoon]

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Hi Jim,

Nothing special to do. Things will be slower on the laptop, in particular initially, but data should get cached and performance improve. Are you observing this ?

What data transfer rate are you observing between the laptop and the desktop ?

Thanks Pierre ... so I guess I could put the database on a NAS, and IQ on my laptop (or the Jet engine) will cache data on the laptop and performance will improve over time?

I haven't run loaded the desktop database on the laptop enough to judge performance ... but I will try and see what happens.

p.s. last night I put my desktop to sleep with the IQ still running on the laptop. Now I woke up the desktop. I wonder if the laptop will still be able to read and write to the database after the desktop has been asleep.

p.s. just tried entering an item in grid on laptop - did not appear on "awakened" desktop even after refreshing grid. I guess this is why you said "always on"?

[quote=jimspoon]

p.s. just tried entering an item in grid on laptop - did not appear on "awakened" desktop even after refreshing grid. I guess this is why you said "always on"?

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I'm curious:

1) did that catch up later?

2) are you working with a "home group" network ?

Hi Tom,

I'm not using a homegroup network. I turned that off and am using regular windows networking.

I just tried it again, and here are the steps I followed.

(1) opened up desktop database on the desktop.

(2) opened up desktop database on the laptop.

(3) on laptop, entered a new item into a grid.

(4) refreshed the grid on the desktop - the item I just entered on the laptop appeared on the desktop.

(5) put desktop to sleep.

(6) woke desktop up from sleep.

(7) on laptop, entered a new item into the same grid.

(8) refreshed same grid on the desktop - item I just entered into the laptop does not appear.

(9) tried refreshing the grid on the laptop - the following message appears: "Error reading data. Check the source, filter and sort criteria."

(10) on the laptop, closed the desktop database.

(11) on the laptop, reopened the desktop database. item I entered on the laptop (after waking up the desktop from sleep) does not appear.

I didn't time it exactly - but from the time I executed the file/open command on the laptop, it took about 40 seconds or so for the grids to appear on the laptop. I'll try to get a more precise timing later.

jim

Putting the server to sleep is certainly the problematic step. If the server goes down, the connection between it and the laptop is also broken.

Try again but :

close the IQ database on the laptop when you put the desktop to sleep.
Then wake up the desktop, wait a little while (1 minute perhaps) to ensure that the laptop can connect with the desktop server.
Re-open the IQ database on the laptop.

HTH !