rtt121
Well-Known Member
EDIT! Nostalgia pointed out a much better easier way to do this. I haven't had time to try it as I recently moved.
Its as simple as creating a dropbox account. Copying and pasting your entire beersmith folder into drop box and then running the executable file from there.
When I attempted this I tryed to do a fresh install to the dropbox folder.. this does not work.
Everything below here was the original post.
So I basically use beer smith to create my recipe and use the tools. After that... it goes to waste .
I have realized the reason I have not utilized the great features such as brew logging, inventorying etc.. is that I run the program on 3-4 computers, some at work some at home some portable some not. All having their own database instead of one database that looks the same from everywhere.
Keep in mind here I am no computer programmer. So somewhat smarter than I please feel free to improve upon this idea. Here we go....
First we are going to need two extra programs, both are free.
dropbox.com - this is a program that needs to stay running on all computers if you want to try this. Basically a "cloud" folder that looks like its on your hard drive. If the application is running, anything you put into your dropbox folder will be updated to the cloud.
autohotkey.com/ - a program used to write small scripts to make somewhat large tasks smaller. For example you could make it work so that every time you type in "BTW" it will actually write out the words "By the Way"
We are going for something that looks like this:
Every computer you use will have these three "applications".
"Beersmith" obviously opens beersmith (each computer having it installed
locally).
"Update Beersmith Cloud" takes every .bak and .bsm file locally and copies it to the cloud folder.
"Update Beersmith Local" takes all files beersmith related from the cloud and copies them to the local beer smith folder.
For example, I am at computer A and I make a recipe that I want to stay in my database. Close beersmith as normal and double click "Update Beersmith Cloud". Now when I am on computer B, before I open Beersmith I double click "Update Beersmith Local". Perfecto!
Setting up a script in autohotkey is pretty self expanatory. When you are there it is simply a blank notepad document that the autohotkey program uses to run.
After getting into the script editor (notepad) this is the entirety of the Update Beersmith Cloud script
Filecopy is the command. The first address points to local beersmith folder. The second points to your "cloud", note the "dropbox" that is the cloud folder. The 1 designates to automatically overright.
In the cloud update, I copy all the bsm and bak files. Essentially leaving the .exe files behind.
In the Update Beersmith Local script I have this. Similar to the Update Beersmith Cloud script except when this one is run it will copy FROM the cloud to the local beersmith. Note only one line and the *.* because exe files were not copied to the cloud in the first place. DO NOT MOVE the executable files around, your beersmith wont work anymore until you reinstall.
THATS IT!
A few notes. Obviously these scripts are written to where my beersmith is installed and to where my cloud folder is installed. These may need to be changed for every computer you want to hook up to your new beersmith database network. For example. The cloud folder on my computer A is under C:\documents and settings\administrator\my documents\dropbox\ on B it is C:\documents and settings\owner\my documents\dropbox\.
If anyone at beersmith is reading, it would be great to have the application simply web based (a real cloud version of beersmith). Thus eliminating the need to update each and every time.
I hope this helps someone!
Its as simple as creating a dropbox account. Copying and pasting your entire beersmith folder into drop box and then running the executable file from there.
When I attempted this I tryed to do a fresh install to the dropbox folder.. this does not work.
Everything below here was the original post.
So I basically use beer smith to create my recipe and use the tools. After that... it goes to waste .
I have realized the reason I have not utilized the great features such as brew logging, inventorying etc.. is that I run the program on 3-4 computers, some at work some at home some portable some not. All having their own database instead of one database that looks the same from everywhere.
Keep in mind here I am no computer programmer. So somewhat smarter than I please feel free to improve upon this idea. Here we go....
First we are going to need two extra programs, both are free.
dropbox.com - this is a program that needs to stay running on all computers if you want to try this. Basically a "cloud" folder that looks like its on your hard drive. If the application is running, anything you put into your dropbox folder will be updated to the cloud.
autohotkey.com/ - a program used to write small scripts to make somewhat large tasks smaller. For example you could make it work so that every time you type in "BTW" it will actually write out the words "By the Way"
We are going for something that looks like this:
Every computer you use will have these three "applications".
"Beersmith" obviously opens beersmith (each computer having it installed
locally).
"Update Beersmith Cloud" takes every .bak and .bsm file locally and copies it to the cloud folder.
"Update Beersmith Local" takes all files beersmith related from the cloud and copies them to the local beer smith folder.
For example, I am at computer A and I make a recipe that I want to stay in my database. Close beersmith as normal and double click "Update Beersmith Cloud". Now when I am on computer B, before I open Beersmith I double click "Update Beersmith Local". Perfecto!
Setting up a script in autohotkey is pretty self expanatory. When you are there it is simply a blank notepad document that the autohotkey program uses to run.
After getting into the script editor (notepad) this is the entirety of the Update Beersmith Cloud script
Filecopy is the command. The first address points to local beersmith folder. The second points to your "cloud", note the "dropbox" that is the cloud folder. The 1 designates to automatically overright.
In the cloud update, I copy all the bsm and bak files. Essentially leaving the .exe files behind.
In the Update Beersmith Local script I have this. Similar to the Update Beersmith Cloud script except when this one is run it will copy FROM the cloud to the local beersmith. Note only one line and the *.* because exe files were not copied to the cloud in the first place. DO NOT MOVE the executable files around, your beersmith wont work anymore until you reinstall.
THATS IT!
A few notes. Obviously these scripts are written to where my beersmith is installed and to where my cloud folder is installed. These may need to be changed for every computer you want to hook up to your new beersmith database network. For example. The cloud folder on my computer A is under C:\documents and settings\administrator\my documents\dropbox\ on B it is C:\documents and settings\owner\my documents\dropbox\.
If anyone at beersmith is reading, it would be great to have the application simply web based (a real cloud version of beersmith). Thus eliminating the need to update each and every time.
I hope this helps someone!