Would it be possible to add a Backup function to the Business Selection Screen?
Would make backing up businesses a little easier if you have a lot of business, than opening each business one at a time to backup.
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I doubt you will see such a change. When viewing the Businesses screen, you are only looking at an index. You have not opened any data file. And in multi-user environments, you might not want some users to have the authority to take actions on certain businesses. So the permissions issues with the index file would get complex if someone could back up a business they are not permitted to see.
I’d like to see this feature as well.
However, I’m not sure I see what you’re saying @Tut. When a user has limited access to view only certain businesses, they only see those businesses in the list.
So, by extension, they would only see the Backup button for those businesses that they have access to.
Whether backups can be performed without opening the file is a separate issue, but since the ID of that business is available on the index, I doubt there’d be any major complications. It becomes a question for lubos.
Think of it this way: just because you have Microsoft Excel open doesn’t mean you can use the Save or Save As commands a spreadsheet file. You have to open that file first. Likewise, when Manager is launched, you cannot use Backup on a business data file until you open that file. Backing up is nothing more than saving the data file. The list of Businesses is very similar to Excel’s list of recently opened files. (In fact, there was a couple month period where that’s how they were labelled.)
Even with Excel, you are still able to copy the file without opening the workbook.
If you have 6 or 7 Excel files, you wouldn’t want to open each one individually just save to a different (backup) location.
You can also copy the Manager data file or a backup file without opening the program. There is no difference.
True, but excel is not listing the available spreadsheet files in index form on an opening screen.
Manager is listing the available data files in index form and clicking on an index actions that data file.
Clicking the backup button next to a index can create a link and action for that same data file.
You can also copy the Manager data file or a backup file without opening the program. There is no difference.
Can you do that using the Cloud version? Do you have access to the file system to copy the data files?
There is a small difference.
The inbuilt backup process renames the file and adds the backup date.
Since reverting to non descript names it does make it hard to know which file is for which business.
Which is why I prefer it over just coping the data files.
True, but it does list them in a recent file menu that is just one click away from the opening screen. On at least one non-Windows operating system, this index of recent files is maintained and displayed entirely within the application just like in Manager, not by the operating system.
Specifically, in the macOS, Microsoft Office applications purposely override the operating system’s standard code for tracking recently opened files. So just like with Manager, you need to open files after launching the application from the internal list or else navigate separately to them without opening the application, drilling down folder by folder to reach them. And you cannot save the file as something else (which is exactly what a Manager backup does) without opening the file.
Yes, as a way of distinguishing different backup files from one another. But the dates can be eliminated by renaming the file, either directly with normal operating system file-naming tools or from within the program after a backup has been imported. See this Guide: https://www.manager.io/guides/8893.
I understand what you’re saying @Tut, but I’m not entirely sure it’s relevant in this case. To give an analogy, it feels like your point is that we shouldn’t have a button on a car remote to unlock the car door … because we have a keyhole for that. Not sure if you can see where I’m coming from here?
However, I personally can’t think of anything further to add to this feature request, other than to say that I appreciate the usefulness of it, and I’m glad that CSPRyde came up with the idea.
In my personal opinion, it would be useful to have, even though for me it would be a low priority at the current time since I have very few business files.
We’ve gone fairly far afield in this thread.
Note that I have not argued against the suggested feature. I originally pointed out why I didn’t think it would be implemented. But that’s my personal guess. I also tried to offer several examples about how Manager is similar to other applications that create files. And I didn’t even address automated backup schemes, which can be set up to back up Manager files along with other things on a drive.
But who know? Maybe the feature will appear tomorrow.