Integrating Pleco with iCloud: as hard as it sounds?

[etm001]

Hi,

Recently The Verge published an article titled, Apple's Broken Promise: Why Doesn't iCloud 'Just Work'? iCloud integration/sync for Pleco flashcards has been a long awaited feature (at least for me), so I'm interested to hear the Pleco development team's perspective on how easy/hard this has been to implement. (Unless I'm mistaken, some level of iCloud integration will be available in the next major release of Pleco).

 

[mikelove]

Recently The Verge published an article titled, Apple's Broken Promise: Why Doesn't iCloud 'Just Work'? iCloud integration/sync for Pleco flashcards has been a long awaited feature (at least for me), so I'm interested to hear the Pleco development team's perspective on how easy/hard this has been to implement. (Unless I'm mistaken, some level of iCloud integration will be available in the next major release of Pleco).

Mainly, it's not very good at database sync - it doesn't work reliably at the granularity of individual database records, and there are technical reasons why it may not ever work that well.

So we're basically just going to sync your whole flashcard database as if it was a document file - this will be a bit slower / more awkward than syncing individual records, but a major benefit is that we can also support other sync services, like Dropbox. (we may even use those exclusively if Apple doesn't approve of our syncing databases in this way) We're even building our own little file sharing service that could theoretically support flashcard sync too, though initially we're only planning to use it for public sharing of vocabulary lists / learning texts / etc.

 

[character]

Seems like a pain to support multiple synching backends. May be best just to pick one which works across platforms or make your own (with yearly charges for going over a certain size).

 

[mikelove]

Seems like a pain to support multiple synching backends. May be best just to pick one which works across platforms or make your own (with yearly charges for going over a certain size).

We pretty much have to do that anyway, honestly - betting on just one backend is leaving open the possibility that said backend will run afoul of the Great Firewall. (even iCloud is not guaranteed) Plus, a file-based sync with some well-designed binary diff code can potentially serve us in cross-platform sync on Android (and even other future platforms) too.

 

[etm001]

Hi,

Just a small note that Google announced a few new features to Google Drive that move it ever-so-slightly towards iCloud functionality, at least in terms of being able to store application data. From the announcement:

Today we’re introducing two new ways for apps to build even richer integrations with Drive: app data folders and custom properties.
In order to run smoothly, your app may depend on data it stores in Drive. But occasionally, users may accidentally move or delete the very file or folder your app needs to function. The app data folder is a special folder in Drive that can only be accessed by your app. The app folder’s content is hidden from the user and from other apps, making it ideal for storing configuration files, app state data, or any other files that the user should not modify.
Although users cannot see individual files in the app data folder, they are able to see how much app data your app is using and clear that data in the Manage Apps dialog.

Apps can also now add custom properties to any Drive file. The new properties collection gives your app the power to create searchable fields that are private to your app or shared across apps. For example, a classroom app could keep track of the grade for a document or a project management app could keep track of the current status of a document going through a review process.

No need for a reply, I just thought it was an interesting development in light of my original post.

 

[gato]

Google Drive is blocked in mainland China, btw. Nowadays even Gmail and Google search are often un-usable without a VPN most of the time.

 

[mikelove]

Google Drive is blocked in mainland China, btw. Nowadays even Gmail and Google search are often un-usable without a VPN most of the time.

We're working on a private sync service now for that very reason - we plan to support Dropbox and (assuming we don't pull it due to it taking too long to debug) iCloud too, but the only system we can really count on to work well in China is one that we run ourselves.