Windows NT Briefcase

Take your files with you and keep themup-to-date

When you have only one computer, you have only one place to look foryour data. But when you add a second computer, you have the problem oftransferring data from the computer where the data is to the computer where youneed it. You take files to work on at home or move files from a desktop computerto a laptop computer in preparation for a road trip.

If the computers are networked, you can easily transfer files across thewire. But moving large files across a modem link is not as easy, especially ifthe company does not approve of dial-in connections from your home or hotelroom. And then you experience the inevitable problem of having multiple versionsof a file and trying to decide which one is right.

Have you ever wondered what the My Briefcase icon is doing on your WindowsNT desktop? The Briefcase lets you take copies of files, move them betweencomputers, edit the files, and re-synchronize them when you return them to theoriginating computer. In this article, I explain how to use the Briefcase, aprogram that was ahead of its time when Microsoft introduced it with Windows 95.As of NT 4.0, the Briefcase now comes with NT, and its time has arrived.

Setting Up Briefcase
The first time you open Briefcase, you'll see a description of how to useBriefcase, as Screen 1, shows. Now, open Explorer or the My Computerfolder. Arrange the desktop so that you can see the files that you want to copyfrom the Explorer window, and keep the Briefcase icon or window visible asScreen 2 shows.

Drag the files from Explorer onto the Briefcase. This action places a copyof the file in the Briefcase folder, which by the way, is%winnt_root%Profiles%Username%Desktop. Substitute your path to NT andthe correct username. Note that the file is a copy, not a shortcut or link tothe original. Repeat this process for all the files that you want to take withyou.

Move the Briefcase to the target computer. If you have a networkconnection, open Network Neighborhood, and drag the Briefcase icon to the targetdrive and directory. Notice that you do not copy the Briefcase to the targetdestination; move the Briefcase from the source system to the target. If you donot have a network connection, drag the Briefcase icon and drop it on theremovable drive. Whether you use Explorer or the My Computer folder does notmatter, as long as you can see the target drive. For the removable media, youmust take a second step: At the target computer, reverse the process, and dragthe Briefcase from the floppy or cartridge to the hard disk.

With either approach, NT places the Briefcase in the directory you drop iton. You can drop it on your desktop on the target computer­just make surethat no Briefcase icon is already there, or NT will ask whether you want toreplace the existing briefcase files. The network connection is typically a LAN,but it can be a Remote Access Service (RAS) connection.

Using the Briefcase Files
Now your files are on the target computer. You use them like any other file.You can edit them or create new files in the directories. But, make sure youleave them in the Briefcase directory.

When you finish working with your files, move the Briefcase back to theremovable drive or diskette and from there to the originating computer. Or dragthe Briefcase icon across your network connection so that the Briefcase is backin its original location.

Synchronizing Files
Now for the fun part. Double-click the Briefcase icon to open it. You'll seea list of files. On the menu bar, select Briefcase, then Update All. The displayin Screen 3 shows which files have been updated and when. The Wordfile was updated on the portable computer, and the Excel spreadsheet was changedon the originating computer but not on the portable computer.

If someone has updated the file on both the originating and the targetcomputer, as the text file Sql7.txt shows, you have to decide which file toaccept as the correct version. By default, Briefcase will offer to skip theupdate for this file. You can override this default and select the direction ofthe copy and replace the older version over the newer version, or vice versa.

You can right-click the skip arrow to invoke a pop-up box with choices, asScreen 4 shows. If you are not sure which version is correct, use the Skipoption to not update a particular file, and examine both files to resolve thedifferences.

When you've deleted files in the original location or in the Briefcase, youhave the option of deleting the corresponding files so that the Briefcase staysin synchronization with the originating computer, as Screen 5 shows. If youdelete a file accidentally, you can right-click the Delete option to switch toCreate and recover the file.

Integrating Briefcase with Microsoft Access
A remarkable capability of the Briefcase software is the way you canintegrate it with Microsoft Access. When you copy an Access database file to theBriefcase, Access converts the original file to a Design Master. At this point,the warning message in Screen 6 prompts you to choose not to make changes to thedesign of the database at any other location. (Be sure to back up your AccessMDB files before you start this procedure.) NT places a copy of the Access filein the Briefcase. From that point, you can change the original data or the datain the Briefcase copy. But the Briefcase synchronization does not offer to skipthe files if both have changed; it offers to merge them. When you merge thedata, Access looks not only at the file, but at each record in the database. Ifyou've updated a record in one version but not in the other, Access copies thechanges so that both records show the updated data.

This tool is powerful if you use it correctly. For example, you can createa copy of a contacts database from a server in the office. A salesrepresentative can make sales calls, update client information, and thensynchronize new data with the master contacts database. You can even makemultiple copies of the contacts database in multiple briefcases and move one toeach sales representative's laptop computer. Then they can share a contactsdatabase.

But what happens when two or more people update the same record? TheBriefcase works with the application to allow for Replication ConflictResolution.

Access tracks how many times a record has changed and selects the versionof a record with the most changes as the right version. When a user opens theother copy of the data, a message appears. (If you use Office97, the AnimatedAssistant lets you know that you have a problem.)

If you follow the suggestions the program makes, you'll see a dialog boxsimilar to the one in Screen 7. Note the differences in the Address and Titleboxes. You have to resolve the differences manually, but you can compare thechanges and make an informed decision about which record to keep. Thiscapability in Access is close to magic, and it's not hard to use.

Looking to the Future
Briefcase has not received the attention it deserves because without anetwork connection, you're limited to using floppy disks to transfer data. Theamount of data that you can easily move around with that method is limited. Nowthe floppy has given way to the Iomega ZIP and JAZ drives, the Syquest Flyer,the Avatar Shark, the LS-120 floptical disk, and so forth, and removable storagecapability has increased by two orders of magnitude. You can now take much morework home with you. And coming soon to a computer near you: erasable CD-ROMs andDigital Video Discs (DVDs).

Briefcase might not be high on Microsoft's agenda because the tool is not aWeb-based application. I'd like to see the conflict resolution capabilities yousee in Access incorporated into other products such as Word and Excel. ThenBriefcase will be a popular utility. But even now, especially with the newhigh-capacity removable media drives, Briefcase is a neat tool to experimentwith and use in your day-to-day file and information management systems.