User talk:Xbrasil

PBworks limitations section

Ahoy! The data on PBworks doesn't get overwritten when you upload a new version of a file. I'd also love it if you worked with us directly on issues you find with the service, instead of posting them as "notorious bugs" on our Wikipedia page. :) You'll find our support team quite responsive. Dweekly (talk) 21:30, 29 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Reply

Heya, Mr. Dweekly! First of all, thank you for all of your hard work, I love PBworks and I've been using it for quite some time. It helps my graduation class a lot in organizing our classes files! I'm sorry I hadn't contacted PBworks support regarding the issue I've found, I'll give it a try ASAP!

The thing is, during this time me and my colleagues (around 250) were using PBworks (me being responsible for administrating our workspace, keeping everything working and clean etc) for the past 6 months (approximately), we noticed some files were mysteriously "disappearing" from certain folders. I'd then reupload the files to the appropriate folders and all would be fine again! However, that wouldn't last long: only a couple days afterwards, I'd notice more files had unexplainably disappeared (and I'm sure no one deleted them or anything, I always check usage logs, permissions, etc.)...

It took me some time (weeks, if not months) to fully understand what was going on! We had different files, in different folders, being uploaded with the same names... Normally, in every other file storage I've known to date, one file wouldn't replace the other, being that both were being uploaded to different folders, yet that was happening in PBworks! Ok, they weren't exactly replacing one other, no data was being overwritten or lost -- oh, and thank you for pointing that out, I've only noticed that after doing some more testing with my workspace, because of your message here ---, it was just being handled as a new version of a file already in our workspace...

However, those files were NOT new versions of one another, they were completely different files, in different folders, regarding different subjects! I still believe its a very serious limitation you can't have the following file structure in PBworks:

A folder called "Class of 21-06-2009" with these files:
- "summary.doc"
- "notes.pdf"
- "examples.xls"
And another folder called "Class of 28-06-2009" with different files, however with the same names:
- "summary.doc"
- "notes.pdf"
- "examples.xls"

If you try and upload it like that to PBworks, it will simply move all of the first folder files to the second folder, and handle these files as "new" versions (revisions) of the "old" files, even though they are NOT!

One workaround I've found is to name each file after each folder, for instance:

The folder called "Class of 28-06-2009" would have files with different names, eg.:
- "summary 28-06-09.doc"
- "notes 28-06-09.pdf"
- "examples 28-06-09.xls"'

However, thats a pain in the ass (pardon the language) to do when you have LOTS of files and folders, and many editors uploading files, like in the workspace I happen to manage... Its very annoying to try and ensure no one is uploading a file which might have the same name of a file in another folder... And when they do, going through the hassle of recovering the old version, renaming it to something different, reuploading it to the appropriate folder, etc. etc.

For all of the above reasons, I do believe this is a serious limitation of PBworks. And the reason I call it "notorious" is because there is, unfortunately, no reference I can give to this limitation, since no one (apparently) has written about this yet. Since I can't source it, I call it "notorious", meaning the only way one can verify it is trying it by himself.

And as it still remains a limitation (I've just checked), I've decided to keep it in the PBworks page here in Wikipedia, so people can be aware of this limitation before uploading files to their workspaces. If I had known about this before, boy, it would have spared me SO many hours and headaches trying to figure out what was wrong with my workspace!!! I was so glad I found out what was wrong I had to tell the world about it, so no one else would suffer not knowing this. ;)

Sorry about not contacting your customer support, I ended up forgetting to do it. I hope you guys fix that soon! Thank you very much for your time and hard work at PBworks! :) Xbrasil (talk) 03:00, 30 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

PBworks Response

We're glad you're such an enthusiastic user of the service! The issue with files of the same name quietly getting placed into the new file's folder is getting fixed today and more generally the capability for subfolders and multiple files of the same name being in different locations at the same time will be resolved in the next few months.

In terms of the specific verbage of your edit, the word "notorious" means "of wide ill fame", not "User:Xbrasil found an issue he is upset about and didn't discuss with PBworks support." ;) So I'd humbly suggest a revision / reversion. ^_^

Dweekly (talk) 21:55, 30 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

I'm glad that's getting fixed soon! Those changes will be a MUCH welcome improvement!... Subfolders are something I've been wanting since day one! ;)

I have already removed the term "notorious", I do agree it wasn't appropriately used. My bad! English not being my mother tongue, I fell into a false cognate with the corresponding word in brazilian portuguese!

Thanks for the fast response, your time and patience! Much appreciated! Xbrasil (talk) 03:56, 1 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]