LO Base: split database on Dropbox shared folder. Is server mode necessary? I think so

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#1

Hello to everyone. I’ve set up a split database and it is hosted on a Dropbox shared folder. Till a few weeks ago, the Dropbox shared folder access was ‘wrapped’ by another service and everything was just fine. Now that service has become a paid one and I’ve completed the migration to just plain Dropbox.
Everyting was fine on my PC (I’m the database administrator) and I was confident everything was just fine. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Yesterday, I’ve tried to access the DB from another PC and I’ve got the same error described here by the thread opener. The reason for that is simple: the Dropbox shared folder is obviously the same but it searches for the lck file linked with the Dropbox link for my user and not the other one.
I presume this being linked with the fact I haven’t used server mode and I’ve been lucky the abandoned ‘wrapper’ handled concurrent access in charge of me (just a fortunate coincidence I haven’t thought of, my mistake).
I’ve found a lot of very well laid down guides, for example here. Is the path outlined there the one to follow or is everything different with a Dropbox shared folder? I apologize should my question be a duplicate but I’ve made a lot of research and I couldn’t find the answer. Thanks in advance to everyone for the help! :slight_smile:

EDIT: In the meantime, I’ve taken a look at those batch files to handle server mode (unfortunately some of the links in that post seem broken and I couldn’t deepen things as I wanted to understand what the checkpoint file is meant for but all of them contain paths and the jarfile one makes me fear because, unless there is an absolute link to the Dropbox shared folder not linked to the user private folder I’m not aware of, the problem remains but I may be wrong given that I don’t know server mode at all.

#2

Yes, database servers exist for good reasons.

#3

@Villeroy

I haven’t ever doubted that and honestly speaking I don’t see the point with such kind of reply.
I have no way of taking advantage of a physical server so my question was if using a split database in server mode is possible or not with my setup (a simple Dropbox shared folder). Thanks for your reply anyway and have a nice day.

#4

A database server is a software permanently running and watiing for requests. An embedded HSQLDB or a split HSQLDB in file mode should be edited locally and snychronized with any cloud service after closing the entire office suite.

#5

Simply no.
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Neither embedded, nor server-mode databases are desingned for third party software to sync their open files.
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If you are careful you may use embedded databases or sqlite on one computer at a time and sync via dropbox. But always take care to sync the file before you shutdown, close, hibernate computers. (Same as using a usb-thumb-drive to carry data around.)
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There are cheap databases available with webspace and MySQL/MariaDB can be accessed by LibreOffice/Base. If your second computer is running you may use a VPN-connect or SSL. Database can run on an NAS…
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If one really wants a synchronized database you may look for specialized databases like CockroachDB, but these usually don’t use Dropbox etc to sync.

#6

@Villeroy

Thanks for your clarification. I would go for that path given that in the meantime (though I completely understand why such an approach is deprecated) I’ve also tried to assign a local drive letter to the Dropbox shared folder to avoid the issue with the paths being different because of the different users’ names but it didn’t help. In spite of the fact I’ve renewed all the links within Base to point to the newly created virtual drive, it still gives me the error told at the beginning about that lck file, I don’t know why.

@Wanderer

Thanks for your precious advices too. Other very sensible ways to go, some of them I already know about, some not so thank you twice!

#7

Office documents are zip files. A database document with an embedded database is a zip file with a database folder containing the actual database. This database is extracted to a temporary directory and when you close an editable view (table, query, form), the database is written back into the zip file. While editing the database, you are not editing the database document. The single database document is in a finalized state after you closed it. Therefore your cloud drive may serve as a backup folder but not as a working directory.

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