Couchdb

[wongalain]

Dear Brendan,

I am using couchdb sync for my tapform 5 database, will it be possible to use the same couchdb setting for Tapform Pro?

Best regards.

Alain

[Brendan]

Hi Alain,

I’m sorry but Tap Forms Pro does not support CouchDB. Tap Forms Pro now uses Apple’s CoreData database (and an SQLite database), whereas Tap Forms 5 used the CouchbaseLite database engine. So CoreData doesn’t support CouchDB.

But Tap Forms Pro does have WebDAV, so you can setup your own WebDAV server on a local network to sync to that in a similar way to CouchDB.

[Cornelius Fischer]

Hi Brendan

Would it be to run an SQLite server (on a NAS) and connect TapForms Pro to that database? That sounds like a better solution then Webdav. There are docker containers for SQlite Servers also it would be possible to install a Apache Server on a NAS and implement a SQlite server that can host the database.

Would that be an option for TapForms Pro and a future update?

[Brendan]

That wouldn’t work with the CoreData part of my database. The way Tap Forms Pro works is all forms, media, fields, layouts, pick lists, pick list values, and categories are stored within a CoreData database that’s contained within the .tfpro document container. Along side the CoreData database within the .tfpro container is a regular SQLite database which stores all the field values for all your records and also the search index.

I don’t know how that would all work with a server based SQLite engine. Tap Forms Pro looks specifically within the .tfpro document container for the SQLite files, opens them, then reads and writes from/to them.

WebDAV can be installed on a NAS though. WebDAV is used to exchange the files that the Ensembles sync framework I use generates with all the devices you’re syncing with. It’s basically a history of transactions that have occurred since the previous sync. It generates these event files and uploads them to the sync service, then other instances of Tap Forms Pro will download those sync files and then apply the data within them to the local copies of the database. This happens to both the CoreData and SQLite database files.

I don’t think that whole mechanism will work with a separate SQLite service running on a NAS, outside of the .tfpro document container.

[Cornelius Fischer]

To bad 🤷‍♂️ Would be nice if that would have worked with SQLite server.

I keep an eye on the users here which are using WebDAV and their reports. As my database is close to 1GB I still have some concerns that WebDAV works fluent enough for our daily business.

[Author]

Posts