Starting with a "seed" database

sethmg
Hello,
I am trying to get my colleagues to start using Zotero, but when I add them to my group they are having a lot of trouble getting the initial sync completed. One in particular has waited a whole day to get the database and has not received it.

They are surgeons and don't have the time to file reports and trouble shoot the errors (like many of us) and I am wondering if I can give him a copy of my database to use as a "seed" and speed up the syncing.

I have nothing in My Library, only in the group library. If I save my zotero folder to a disk and replace his zotero folder with it, will it then act as a seed and make it so that he can avoid the initial sync delay?

Thanks
sethmg
  • adamsmith
    yes, that should work.
  • dstillman
    edited December 7, 2010
    You can try it, but I don't think that will work, actually—when the syncing user is different from the last syncing user stored in the database, Zotero clears the local groups and forces a redownload of all groups (since otherwise there could be groups that the new user is not a member of).
  • dstillman
    If they're having trouble getting a sync to go through, it's worth bearing in mind that there's almost never a queue at night (U.S. time), so even a large sync should take only a few minutes. And we almost never actually do anything to "fix" the problem when people report slow syncs—the answer is generally just what's on the KB page.

    We have some infrastructure improvements planned to take advantage of recent improvements to the syncing code.
  • sethmg
    Would it be possible to have a "server status" icon on the home page?

    My university affiliation has an online database that has this kind of functionality: it simply says "busy" or "idle" or something in between based on current traffic. It would at least give some idea of the time it will take and let me know if I should shut off my computer and try again when I get home, or just hang out for 15 more min.

    sethmg
  • ajlyon
    When the server is not super-busy syncs that are not full-syncs (after a reset or other abnormal situation) should be going through in seconds to minutes. If you're waiting, the server is busy. There's not much else to it. The server itself has been up pretty much without unscheduled downtime for over a year, and it provides special sync messages when it's down for maintenance. My understanding is that pseudo-deterministic feedback like a user's place in a queue or expected wait time is not feasible and would likely be just wrong.
Sign In or Register to comment.