Pocketmoney sync

[elglad]

Hi I'm a new user of Pocketmoney and purchased it so I could enter in transactions "on the road" and then import to my Quicken account. I was surprised that Mint doesn't have this functionality since they are owned by Intuit but none the less after spending some time with syncdocs on my home pc I was able to learn how to txfr the data files back and forth from my iphone 4 to my desktop windows quicken 2011 software using my home wifi network.

My initial thoughts are yes, it does everything as advertised but is not quite as seamless as I think it could be. I know this has been brought up before on the forums but the main thing that I don't like is that the sync only works on my wi-fi network and involves multiple steps. I currently use a web browser on my iphone (icabmobile) that has an option to use dropbox if you have an account with them. After the initial login it remembers your uid and pw so that at the touch of a button it will automatically export any downloaded files from a website or your bookmarks to your dropbox account. You can also import bookmarks from your dropbox account and this works regardless of wifi/3g/edge etc..

I have my quicken data files on my dropbox account that way it doesn't matter what pc I use as long as I have Quicken installed on that pc I can access my data. So here is my request..... could Pocketmoney integrate with dropbox the way some other apps do so the action button has a fourth option called "Dropbox transfer". The benefit to this is that you can sync anywhere not just on your wifi or between ios devices or emailing a file etc. You don't have to have another 3rd party sync app running on your pc and there would be many less steps involved. If you are a single user I don't see any problems with this since there would be no "he who saves last wins" type of issues. It could be more complicated if you have multiple users depending on how dropbox handles multiple requests to save the same file at the same time etc.. but for a single user this would be a great feature.

Outside of integrating directly with the Quicken .QDF file I believe this would be the next best thing.

Thanks!

[romad]

First, are you talking about the PocketMoney Sync that is built-in to PMD and PMiOS, or the third-party SyncDocs software? If for PMD or PMiOS, we should move the discussion to their appropriate forums. If for SyncDocs, then we can continue here. With so many ways to "sync", it gets confusing when questions are asked in different forums.

If I understand your post, you seem to be requesting the addition of a new feature, i.e., support for Dropbox. I believe that has been requested by others so it may already be on Hardy's ever-lengthening to-do list of possible future enhancements. In the meantime, are you aware that you can use the File Sharing feature in iTunes for PMiOS?

[elglad]

romad,
I am talking about syncdocs that is built into the pmios but if there is another forum that is better suited for this topic please let me know and I'll move it if I can. I just purchased pocketmoney and have evaluated all the ways of syncing the data from pmios to my desktop quicken software and find it doable but more steps and not as flexible than I was anticipating. Let's just say the sync feature has an extremely low "wife acceptance factor". I earn my living as a product engineer so I certainly know all about "feature creep" and the struggles with keeping things simple, powerful, and economical. I am just making a request that's all, the software works fine.

This is what I'd like to be able to do... from within pmios i would like it to be able to store my dropbox credentials in the options screen which would just need to be done once. I am not particular to dropbox but that is what I use and am familiar with but if there is another 3rd party cloud storage company that integrates with ios apps then that will work also. After that I could select either export or import to dropbox account from the pmios action button. That is it. pmios would download a qif file to my dropbox account whenever/wherever i am. I wouldn't have to be within my own wifi network running syncdocs, i wouldn't have to e-mail a file, or configure some other server, or use itunes, etc.. It just seems so much simpler than the current pmios sync options including itunes unless I am missing something.

Thanks!

[romad]

SyncDocs is not built into PocketMoney; it is a stand alone, open source application: http://syncdocs.sourceforge.net/

PocketMoney Sync is Hardy's built-in syncing system.

Hardy is currently concentrating on the budget enhancements for PMiOS 3.2; however, he may surprise us with other additional features. Who knows, maybe one of them might be Dropbox support.

[elglad]

ok thanks again. I would love to see some sort of cloud storage backup solution integrated into pmios as an option for syncing. I started using cloud storage a few years back and have become hooked and now store everything using various cloud storage companies (lastpass, dropbox, xmarks, google docs, etc..). I never have to worry about where I am or what pc I am using, I can always access the data I need. I think it's the way the it industry is headed imo. As far as security goes if I'm not mistaken the qif file only contains transactions not passwords or anything highly sensitive so even if my dropbox account got hacked and someone got access to my qif file they would find out where I buy gas and what grocery store i shop at which isn't the worst thing in the world although I imagine some people have transactions they would rather keep secret. Not sure if it's possible to encrypt these files or not but as long as they don't contain passwords, credit card numbers, etc. I can live with the cloud solution and I have not heard of dropbox accounts getting hacked so it's really not an issue at least not yet.

The problem is Steve Jobs got us way too spoiled with how easily everything works with ios as opposed to mswindows or android. There is hardly any configuration for anything (except e-mail setup can be complicated). My 5 yo daughter is an expert at using an iphone and no one trained her it's just so intuitive. I just recently bought an airprint printer to print out emails and other stuff from my iphone and couldn't below that there was zero setup involved. you just select print and the printer automatically shows up in the iphone printer list and you tap the printer button and it starts to print. that's it, unbelievably simple but that is the bar that has been set for ios software. So again the bar has been set and that is the new standard.

I spent my youth programming on apple 2's and commodore 64's and can not believe how far things have come.

Sorry for all the commentary and offtopic stuff but that's what forums are for, right?

cheers and happy Saturday night!

[romad]

I just recently bought an airprint printer to print out emails and other stuff from my iphone and couldn't below that there was zero setup involved. you just select print and the printer automatically shows up in the iphone printer list and you tap the printer button and it starts to print. that's it, unbelievably simple but that is the bar that has been set for ios software. So again the bar has been set and that is the new standard.

Actually, if you use a Mac, you don't need to buy a new printer. I use Ecamm's Printopia utility: http://www.ecamm.com/mac/printopia/ to print to my old HP 5150 that is connected to my G5 iMac. Much cheaper than a new printer!

[HardyMacia]

Read, i'll probably add DropBox support this summer as an add-on.

[arijaycomet]

Read, i'll probably add DropBox support this summer as an add-on.

Drop box support would be awesome. That would also permit cross platform sync. If you do add this feature it would be nice to have it auto sync upon startup or when adding new entries. Yay!

[HardyMacia]

dropbox syncing isn't really an option since a husband and wife trying to edit the file at the same time would just cause conflicted files to be created and transactions lost. It would be okay for one person as long as the app is opened and closed before opening it on another device, but for backup/restores it will work okay.

[arijaycomet]

I've already been using it for backup thanks to an add on that allows you to email to your Dropbox folder. So I use iPad email, backup files, send to that address. But it doesn't really allow for a restore. While I admit I would prefer an online service that would allow for multi users at the same time, my wife and i are coming from quicken and have entirely replaced it with your app. Hence we had been using a single pc to accomplish, making us content to continue to do the same.

If you can find an inexpensive option ($5/month) that would allow for hosting a db on the cloud and multiple users simultaneously at would be the best option and maybe also allow for backup and restore to Dropbox as an alternative. That is my $.02

[Rd68jr]

How do I back up my pocket money data from my iPhone 4s to
1). iCloud
2). My iPad

Bob

[romad]

How do I back up my pocket money data from my iPhone 4s to
1). iCloud
2). My iPad

Bob

Bob, I'll try to answer this in the PocketMoney for iPhone forum. This forum is for the THIRD-PARTY software named "SyncDocs". Thanks!

Edit:

Bob, see my answer here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2983