I’ve recently started using Tap Forms for a couple of databases and I’m really happy with it. However, a source of frustration is the manual upload bit of the iCloud Sync. I’m not sure I understand the rationale behind this implementation. Why is this better than a more automatic sync? Just curious, but is there any chance we could get this in a future update?
Having said that, this is a really great suite of apps!
Hello Spiz,
The main reason for the manual upload is a technical one and a space usage consideration. Each time you sync, Tap Forms generates an SQLite database file which is at a minimum 25 KB. That file contains only the changes made to your main database since the last time you synced. That database file is then uploaded to iCloud. These sync files will accumulate in your iCloud storage space over time unless you perform the Reset iCloud Sync function from time to time. The very first time you sync on any device, the entire database gets uploaded to iCloud. So if you have 3 devices where each database file is taking up 10 MB of space, then Tap Forms will consume 30 MB of space of your iCloud storage allotment.
In enabling a fully automated sync, Tap Forms would generate far more of these smaller sync files and consume more of your space than it does today. It would have to listen for any changes you’ve made, then generate a sync file, then upload it. On the other side, it would take longer to process the sync files because there would be more of them to process.
It can also take some time to generate the sync files, especially after doing large imports from CSV files. So during the import, Tap Forms would have to make sure it’s not generating sync files until after the import has completed. Then it would generate a sync file and upload that to iCloud. All this activity just takes more time.
So by making it a half manual, half automatic process, then you are more in control of when the sync occurs.
That being said, I do plan to tackle this issue at some point in the future to make it a fully automated sync process.
Thanks
Brendan
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