Shared BPS files?

[vinceco]

Greetings!

Is there any way for (3) users to share the BPS files from a network share?

Thanks for your time . . . Vince

[doug]

Just as two or more people cannot edit a Word document at the same time from different computers, two or more people should not try to simultaneously use the same .bps files. You can use .bpt files, which are BatchPatch Template files to allow multiple users to load the same content into their own BatchPatch instances. But if/when they try to save those grids, they will be prompted to save them as new .bps files.

I hope this helps.

-Doug

[vinceco]

Thanks for your reply Doug! Understood . . . Although that is the answer we expected, I guess we are surprised that with all the coolness that is BatchPatch, and it’s usefulness as an IT Departmental tool, why isn’t there a multi-user version? Any plans to make it so? We have over (200) computers to manage and it would be great not to have to maintain multiple copies of the BPS files.

[doug]

Perhaps you could explain to me why you believe that you need to maintain multiple copies of .bps files? I don’t think I understand exactly how you are using or how you want to use BatchPatch. Using the same Word document example, I would ask you why would more than one person edit a document at the same time? That wouldn’t make sense, right? Only one person would edit a document at one time. And so for BatchPatch, could you please explain how or why you would need to have multiple people using the same .bps file at the same time? Maybe if you could give me a better sense of how you envision using the software, I can better understand how to assist.

Thanks,

Doug

[vinceco]

This all started when I went to show another tech how to use Batch Patch. When he tried to open a BPS file he got a dialog box stating:

‘Error importing xml . . . Importing xml failed. This usually happens when the bps file is empty or when the bps file was created with an older version of BatchPatch. Try creating a new bps file.’

We are all using version 2014.5.2.9.48

Went I got back to my computer, I noticed I had the same bps open. I closed it, went to his machine to try and open it again . . . No joy, same message.

I went back to my computer and could no longer open the bps file and I too recieved the ‘Error importing xml’ dialog.

I searched this Forum for any other users encountering the error and found none.

Again, I understand that it is like opening the same Word document from (2) computers but a Word document would not get corrupted, just overwritten.

As far as the intended use for the software, all is well as is, just need to manage multiple folks getting the same lists of computers.

Hopefully this makes more sense as to why I suggested multiple copies of the files.

Maybe I should have posted the error message in the first place. : )

Thanks Doug!

[doug]

vinceco – I’m sorry that you’re having problems with importing old .bps files. There were some changes made to the 2014.5.2.9.48 version that could have caused this. In any case, if you simply create a brand new .bps file from scratch with this new version of BatchPatch, those problems should disappear.

As for ways that you can share lists of computers, there are a couple:

1. You can use .bpt files instead of .bps files. With the new BatchPatch Template (.bpt) format, you can create a single .bpt file and then load it multiple times to create multiple identical tabs in an instance of BatchPatch. BatchPatch won’t let you save over a template file, so when you click the save button you’ll be prompted to save a new .bps file for the grid. You can create your own .bpt files by simply renaming existing .bps files, or you can use the File > Generate template file (.bpt) menu option to create a .bpt file from a BatchPatch grid.

2. You can use simple .txt files. If you drag and drop a .txt file onto BatchPatch, it will load those hosts into a BatchPatch grid.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions or problems.

Thanks,

Doug

[vinceco]

Awesome . . . Thanks Doug!

Peace . . . Vince

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