Beersmith on two computers

I finally got a new laptop, and I'm not sure exactly how to use Beersmith to view the recipes stored in the C drive of the main computer.

I know I can download Beersmith and use the same key for the second computer. But, where are the recipes located so that I can share that folder? Is there anything else I need to know to set this up?

Thanks, from a computer noob.

It depends on where you installed the program. Do a search for recipe.bsm. That file should contain all of your recipes. FYI, mine are located under c:\program files\BeerSmith.

Actually, if you share that folder, you don't need to install anything on the 2nd computer. You can just create a shortcut to BeerSmith.exe on the first computer.

If you do have it installed on a second computer, you can import the file recipe.bsm from the file menu. The problem seems to be that any editing you do on computer 2 will not be saved into the 1st recipe.bsm file, only the one on computer 2.

If you want to work from the same file, try the 2nd method Lil' Sparky recommended. Maybe Brad will chime in here with a better idea.

I use beersmith on two computers, neither on the same network. Pretty much whenever a change is made or recipe added, I export all my recipes to an usb drive that I carry around most of the time. Whenever I fire up a beersmith to enter a recipe or update a recipe, I do an import and merge...which imports the recipes on my external drive and synchs everything up to be the last updated copies of each recipe.

Isnt the smoothest thing to do all the time, but as long as I keep the latest on the thumb drive, I don't really have to worry about losing anything.

Is my Beersmith ruined?

n00b!

olllllo said:

Is my Beersmith ruined?

n00b!

Click to expand...

Yes. Get a life.

olllllo said:

Is my Beersmith ruined?

n00b!

Click to expand...

That's great! Almost spit out the coffee.

Lil' Sparky said:

Actually, if you share that folder, you don't need to install anything on the 2nd computer. You can just create a shortcut to BeerSmith.exe on the first computer.

Click to expand...

Are you sure this works because I have never gotten an executable file to load on a second machine through a shortcut to another machine. I think you may have to install the program and then if Yooper wants to store all the recipes in one folder she will need to navigate to the network share.

Blender said:

Are you sure this works because I have never gotten an executable file to load on a second machine through a shortcut to another machine. I think you may have to install the program and then if Yooper wants to store all the recipes in one folder she will need to navigate to the network share.

Click to expand...

It all depends if there are registered DLLs, or registry keys that are required by the program. If all software libraries are stored in that program files folder, then it should work fine.

Beersmith doesn't really "install" anything. It just copies a bunch of files to a directory. That's why this will work when most installed programs won't.

I tried it. It works.

olllllo said:

Is my Beersmith ruined?

n00b!

Click to expand...

Have you tried the handy search function?

Liquidicem said:

That's great! Almost spit out the coffee.

Click to expand...

+1...

I like the "run it from the shared folder" idea. It's been a while since I've tried it though so I can't even remember if there were any issues with beersmith not liking it since the second computer wouldn't have any kind of registry keys for it which it might be looking for.

It would be neat if you could specify the location of the BSM file to use as beersmith's database (rather than always having it right in the BS directory), so that two machines with installed copies of BS on both could access a joint database with a network share, without having to continuously do import/exports. Maybe keep a duplicate copy in the BS directory as a backup in case the remote copy became unavailable.

And to continue brainstorming here... Maybe let people create some kind of web accounts on the beersmith site and access it as a virtual database so that they could access all their recipes through the web from any computer with beersmith, and perhaps also through some kind of web interface - so you can still at least VIEW all your recipes even if you're stuck at work. I seem to recall that beertools pro has some kind of web interface sort of along these lines, though I've never used it so I have no clue if it's the same idea.

And while I'm dreaming, I'd like a billion dollars and superpowers.

Funkenjaeger said:

+1...

I like the "run it from the shared folder" idea.

Click to expand...

Even better - have it sync with Google Docs for storage, real-time collaboration, suck in RSS feeds for new recipes, etc.

I have Beersmith installed on my laptop, which is on pretty much 24/7. When I want to use it from my office upstairs, I just connect to the laptop via remote desktop.

atarlecky said:

Even better - have it sync with Google Docs for storage, real-time collaboration, suck in RSS feeds for new recipes, etc.

Click to expand...

I dont think that is how google docs work. Your thinking of like a VPN with shared folders. I would get an old PC, all of us have one laying around, set it up, put on a VNC program or other program to remote in, then make a folder & share it on your network (aka a file server or NAS). then goto your laptop or Primay work pc, change the option of where the program looks & bam you got a shared folder with ur recipes & if your PC or laptop ever get damage you data is not lost. plus you can also back up ur laptop or PC to it

monty73741 said:

I dont think that is how google docs work. Your thinking of like a VPN with shared folders. I would get an old PC, all of us have one laying around, set it up, put on a VNC program or other program to remote in, then make a folder & share it on your network (aka a file server or NAS). then goto your laptop or Primay work pc, change the option of where the program looks & bam you got a shared folder with ur recipes & if your PC or laptop ever get damage you data is not lost. plus you can also back up ur laptop or PC to it

Click to expand...

You can use "google gears" to retrieve and store active docs from Google. You can instantiate a browser session from any application and use the DOM to get and set the data.

Hello all,
Yes, the BeerSmith license does allow two installs to your personal computers - for example a laptop and desktop.

Running on two computers from a networked drive should work as well - you may need to enter your key on both machines. Note, however, you should NOT open your BeerSmith on both computers at once, as it is likely that one copy will overwrite the data for the other which could result in data loss. BeerSmith does not check if you have copies running across two computers from the same directory, which as I said could have one copy overwriting the data files used by another.

As long as you shut down one copy before opening the other one you should be fine.

Cheers,
Brad

atarlecky said:

You can use "google gears" to retrieve and store active docs from Google. You can instantiate a browser session from any application and use the DOM to get and set the data.

Click to expand...

its so hard to keep up with google & the stuff they are doing

BeerSmith said:

Hello all,
Yes, the BeerSmith license does allow two installs to your personal computers - for example a laptop and desktop.

Running on two computers from a networked drive should work as well - you may need to enter your key on both machines. Note, however, you should NOT open your BeerSmith on both computers at once, as it is likely that one copy will overwrite the data for the other which could result in data loss. BeerSmith does not check if you have copies running across two computers from the same directory, which as I said could have one copy overwriting the data files used by another.

As long as you shut down one copy before opening the other one you should be fine.

Cheers,
Brad

Click to expand...

I know that this is an extremely old thread, but in Beersmith 2.1, I cannot get the "Change Documents Directory" feature to work between 2 computers in Google Drive. For both installs (one on my laptop, one on my desktop), I have pointed the Documents Directory to my Google Drive folder on the respective computer. What I end up with are several versions of each file in that folder (e.g. Recipe, Recipe1, Recipe2, Recipe3). Each time I run the program and close it, I get new copies of each file. A recipe made on one computer doesn't transfer to the other computer.

Anyone have a workaround or fix for this? I'm not sure why this is happening considering both computers are accessing Google Drive and tied to the same license. Thanks.