Users may have table layouts, procedures and other project items that they want to share between various projects or between various users. Analyzer provides a mechanism called “Shared Folders” to allow project items to be shared without the need for replication.
To do this users have the option to create one or more shared folders into which they can place desired project items they want to share. This alleviates the need to maintain project items in multiple locations.
Users can create and manage one or more shared folders using the Share main menu item. The Share menu offers three choices for creating one or more shared folders:
| • | Personal Share - this is a shared folder unique to each user and is used when a user wants to share project items between various Analyzer projects but not other users. This shared folder is located in a folder on a local or mapped network drive. |
| • | Team Share - this is a shared folder for use by several Analyzer users on the same local network and is used to share common project items. This shared folder must be located in a folder on a mapped network drive that all intended users have rights to access. |
| • | Enterprise Share - this is a shared folder for use by users throughout the organization who may work remotely from different locations and therefore do not necessarily have access to the same network drive. This shared folder is established in a folder on an Arbutus Windows Server that all users access via TCP/IP. For more information on Arbutus Servers see Arbutus Enterprise Servers. |
Note: Shared folders on the Arbutus Windows Server operate using TCP/IP and therefore do not require specific network architectures to be in place. In addition, shared folders on an Arbutus Windows Server may be accessed from anywhere, whether the user is on the road or in a remote office.
You can host any number of shared folders on a local network drive or on an Arbutus Windows Server.
Note: Shared Folders cannot be a subset of an Analyzer project. The location of a shared folder must be distinct from any Analyzer projects.
Note: When setting up an enterprise shared folder, the shared folder location must not be the same as the output prefix specified in the server profile used to connect to the Arbutus Windows Server where the shared folder resides.
Because the shared folders are centrally located, they can also be centrally reviewed and maintained. This can dramatically ease deployment of new applications or new data sources to members of a group. Also, since multiple shared folders are easily supported, different groups or sub-groups can share only those items that are relevant to their needs.
Users of Enterprise shared folders should only be granted read access unless the user intends to schedule jobs and place the scheduled results in the shared folder for other users. See Establishing Shared Folders for Scheduling Jobs for more detailed information.
Shared folders can also be an easy alternate way for users to exchange project items within Analyzer when working in a widely distributed environment where physical proximity does not exist.