[gibbonweb]

Dropbox? I don't know if they're a good idea for databases though... I've heard of people syncing their iCal databases with Dropbox (putting the db file in your dropbox and symlinking to that file at the location where the db would look for it) but I'm not sure if that would work well for more complex DBs...

[Cyril]

Dropbox, or the like.
You could also rsync to a server using a cronjob. Didn't read the part about Windows 7.

[callumacrae]

Git!

[gibbonweb]

callumacrae, on 17 July 2012 - 04:03 AM, said:

Git!

git to sync a database file? I don't want to be the one having to merge those diffs
For everything else: git, of course.

[callumacrae]

Nah, Git for schemas and essential data :-)

[AwesomezGuy]

Grab a VPS and develop on that. Personally, one of my workflows is:

Make a quick one line bash script that syncs your local dev folder and the one on your VPS.
Link it to a certain key press (I use CMD+P).
Now as you develop, hit CMD+S, CMD+P each time you want to upload to your VPS. Now do all the testing and stuff through a web browser remotely.

Works great if you set it up right.

[Lemon]

There doesn't exist one single solution that will work for all of your syncing needs, but there should be some combination that will work:

- For code, use something like Git, Dropbox, rsync etc. If you use Git, you'll have to remember to check everything in before you leave the work computer though and you'll also need some central repository if you don't keep the work computer on and accessible all of the time.

- For the database, MySQL (an other engines) have in built replication procedures that may be suitable for you. Trying to copy the database files themselves is definitely not a good idea unless you shut down the server first and ensure you have the same version of the database server running on each end. Another alternative is to run your database on an external server that is accessible to both your work computer and laptop.

For all of these, you'll probably want your work computer to be accessible from outside your company's network (via static IP or dynamic DNS), but you should definitely check with whoever manages the network before you try punching holes in the firewall.

[markbrown4]

I prefer working on one machine for the reasons you've outlined.
If your laptop is good and it has everything you need just let someone else use your desktop.

[NeilHanlon]

I use git and a migration script (with dbForge).

[Ruku]

Marked, on 17 July 2012 - 03:24 AM, said:

Is it possible to set up some kind of sync between the two computers? Eg if I make a file in my htdocs folder (I use xampp) then it be there on my laptop. And similarly for databases.

Git, or a similar distributed source code management system like Mercurial, will certainly allow you to synchronise your files with a lot more ease than anything else. Because it's distributed, you don't need a central repository if one doesn't already exist, and you can easily sync your code between your machines with an SSH session. Cygwin and Git Bash may be of use here, since you mentioned you're using a Windows system (unlucky ).

Cyril, on 17 July 2012 - 03:29 AM, said:

Dropbox, or the like.
You could also rsync to a server using a cronjob. Didn't read the part about Windows 7.

Rsync is still an option, but this isn't what it's designed for. It doesn't have any coherent means of merging changes between two different versions of a file, and doing it on a cron job will probably overwrite your changes in the files you're working with. This would certainly make for some interesting debugging sessions

gibbonweb, on 17 July 2012 - 04:09 AM, said:

git to sync a database file? I don't want to be the one having to merge those diffs
For everything else: git, of course.

For our PHP projects where the applications' database management tools are useless, we've been using a tool called Flyway which essentially allows you to version pure SQL files. It's relatively simple (best suited to Java projects, but with a few modifications it works perfectly with our build scripts), but it allows us to diff pure SQL dumps. If you've ever worked with XMLDB in Moodle, you'll understand why it's the lesser evil

[TheEmpty]

Dropbox I actually use got though. I just don't work on the same branch or feature on the two computers.

[TheMaster]

I normally use Dropbox.

Just set the htdocs folder on both computers, to a folder inside Dropbox.

Instantly, you have synced both computers, and have a cloud backup for all your work.....why are you still here?!

[Marked]

Oh wow that's cool.. I've got dropbox working to sync both the files and database files using this tutorial http://kav.in/comple...-using-dropbox/

So when I get home I should just be able to start sync and switch to the desktop and its all ready to go Now I've just gotta try and earn some more space. I don't think 2GB will last long

Thanks for the help!

[TheMaster]

If you want more space and have an iPhone. Tell it to sync all your files with Dropbox (plug in your iPhone with dropbox running, and a message will appear asking your permission).

They will give you 3 GB more free, just for enabling it. You can turn it off any time you want too!

[Sephern]

You can also get more space by inviting new users to dropbox.

An alternative would be Skydrive - new users get 7gb.

[TheMaster]

Sephern, on 18 July 2012 - 01:32 AM, said:

You can also get more space by inviting new users to dropbox.

An alternative would be Skydrive - new users get 7gb.

The reason I didn't go with them was because of the limit of 50MB per file. Yeah, that's pretty big for most things, but ... yeah.

Thinking about it again, 50MB is actually more than enough for cloud storage (unless you want to upload videos, which I wouldn't...)

[Marked]

Yeah I'm already going through all the list of the stuff to get all the free bandwidth I'm nearly on 4gb. I have a website also so I'll try and score some referrals from my users.

[Hyde]

TheMaster, on 18 July 2012 - 01:25 AM, said:

If you want more space and have an iPhone. Tell it to sync all your files with Dropbox (plug in your iPhone with dropbox running, and a message will appear asking your permission).

They will give you 3 GB more free, just for enabling it. You can turn it off any time you want too!

No, they don't give you 3 GB right away, even less "just for enabling it". They give you a few hundreds MB each time you upload your pictures, to a maximum of 3 GB.

[TheMaster]

Oh really? Well I uploaded all my pictures then deleted them