Version 14 Hybrid Cloud scenario with multiple remote worksites

An office decided to shift from a single office location to a mixture of working from home as well as on-site. SalesPartner was previously mounted on a server in their office local area network where several workers could collaborate simultaneously. The new approach mandated that operators would be able to continue working on the same data in real time but from remote locations.

Instead of pursuing a Remote Desktop solution, we opted for a hybrid design where the larger media and template files would sync automatically through their preferred cloud storage service DropBox. The data (Rezy.SQLite) is mounted on an SSD drive equipped server in a local data center and accessed via the internet.

Several conditions support this design:

• All workstations shared the same DropBox account (although any similar cloud service would work).
  
• All worksites are on the Ultra Fast Broadband network.
  
• All devices are running Windows 10 which means that the SalesPartner application can run locally despite the data and media being stored online.

Overview

On a virtual machine in the datacenter a new MariaDB database is configured via HeidiSQL. A new user account is created specifically for this database and granted remote access privileges. The SalesPartner data is then restored into the MariaDB database. In the Network Address Translation settings for the VM's network, a new port rule is configured for TCP tunneling  connections to MariaDB. A port checking tool can be used to test this configuration before continuing.

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Note: All computers are running SalesPartner 14. DropBox is installed on all workstations and an 'spartner' directory is created in the root folder. Ideally the DropBox folder is situated in C:\ because shorter INI paths appear to perform faster. The shared media folders: Letters, Pics1(including Media), Reports are copied into DropBox. The INI paths in SalesPartner settings can now be pointed to the relative DropBox folders.

Now to create the data connections on the workstations, a new entry is added in each PC's FDConnectionDefs.INI in C:\spartner\ using the layout below:

[DATABASE_NAME]
DriverID=MySQL
Database=[DATABASE_NAME]
User_Name=[USERNAME]
Password=[PASSWORD]
Server=[PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS]
ResourceOptions.AssignedValues= [rvAutoReconnect]
ResourceOptions.AutoReconnect= True

Finally the desktop shortcuts are edited to point to the new alias.

Once the new database is stood up, the local copy's data should be emptied so to avoid confusion in a scenario where the local copy is opened - in which case any entered data would not sync to the linked workstations. Open the local copy of Utilities and double check the data location before continuing. Click Advanced, Empty / Reread Datafiles, Empty All Tables and drop the System File when prompted. This step ensures that the local copy is practically inaccessible.