Cloud Files

Introduction

The Cloud Files feature of DokuMate for Excel deals with cloud-hosted files tracked with DocumentTrackers and provides functionality for synchronization, version control, and cache management.

At the moment, DokuMate supports SharePoint Online and, therefore, Microsoft Teams. In the future, we might add other services such as Google Drive.

Synchronization

When you cache file metadata and content locally (by checking the "Cached" option when creating a SharePoint Online DocumentTracker), you will want to synchronize that cached metadata and content with the online metadata and content. For this purpose, the Cloud Files feature offers two functions:

• Pull Changes from Cloud File Service. This function reflects changes (e.g., added, changed, moved, or deleted files) made to cloud-hosted files in your local cache.
• Push Changes from Cloud File Service. This function reflects changes made to locally cached files in the cloud-hosted files.

When synchronizing changes, conflicts might occur, e.g., if a file is changed both online and locally. In such cases, the online version always wins. You can prevent such conflicts by checking out the cloud files when creating the DocumentTracker or by using the Check Out Tracked Folder function described below.

Version Control

For cloud file services such as SharePoint Online, which offer check-out and check-in functionality, DokuMate lets you check out or check in all files contained in the tracked root folder and its subfolders:

• Check Out Tracked Folder. This function checks out each file, creating a new revision that is only visible to you as long as the file is checked out. The checked-out files can only be changed by yourself.
• Check In Tracked Folder. This function checks in each file, publishing the new revision created when checking out the file for everybody else. The checked-in, or published, files can be changed by any user with appropriate rights.

If you want to prevent others from making changes to cached cloud files, check out those files while you are making your changes and check them back in once you have pushed your changes to the cloud 

Cache Management

When you no longer need the cached file metadata and content, you can delete the cached metadata and content for either the active DocumentTracker or all cached metadata and content:

• Clear Active Local Cache. This function deletes the cached metadata and content for the currently selected DocumentTracker.
• Clear All Local Caches. This function deletes all cached metadata and content.