Files Folder
I was happy to see the Files folder mentioned in the update, however it seems we still have to import samples to the private folder? I’ve saved a project selecting ‘iCloud’ location which is in the files folder & put some samples in there thinking I could access them.
I don’t really get the use of the private folder at all, it just makes life hard, why can’t we just browse all of the files folder like many other apps? Having to duplicate samples on limited storage is a real downside atm, but hopefully I’m missing something :)
I vote for completely getting rid of the private storage for user saved content and moving everything permanently to the Files/Drambo folder so it’s available to all devices & also the ability to load samples directly from any publicly available folder within Files.
Comments
Just FYI: every app that allows you to browse Files directory structure has to copy the file somewhere in it's internal files. There's no such thing like two apps touching and editing the same file on iOS. So it's just a difference in naming - in Drambo it's called Import (folder), in other apps it may be called just "load sample", but it means it will internally store the selected sample inside the apps storage.
You don't need to be that much worried about space though, iOS filesystem is good at detecting duplicate files and just storing a link to same ones, so duplicate don't take virtually any extra storage.
So you can still have some common sample library for browsing and picking samples, and import only those you actually use in some Drambo project.
@skrat If you look at an app like Sitala it 'links' the the files and doesn't need to 'copy' anything. (each pad in practice has a 'book mark link' to the file being used, the file is only copied when you share a kit).
Same deal with Koala when you use the 'samples' tab, you can and links to any folder on your device, browse them in app and when you load a sample to your project only then is the sample copied and saved within the project so you can share it. (There would be no point in sharing a project without samples right?).
So it can be done but what sometimes looks simple on the surface takes quite a bit of error management, what if the linked file is missing and many parts of the project rely on it? Or if the file is stored on a server that is currently not available?
I due time we'll get there but it's not an over-night-operation 😎
You're right and I actually I first noticed this way of "linking" in algoriddim Djay app and actually suggested it to Drambo.
But then I realized exactly the problem you mentioned (and which requires complex solutions on desktop too) - what if you rely on links and they change / miss / move... Usually it's not something you wanted. So for music production projects, it's anyway always good to copy the samples you used in projects.
Other thing is the convenience of having the same directory in all apps always being the "single source of truth". It would be nice if you could tell Drambo to link to some directory and always start from there. There could be also benefits of hot swapping samples within a directory without the need to import all of them.
So it's kind of 2 problems:
I have a developer ID & installed Retroarch & Provenance to mess around with & Provenance can access the ROMs stored in the Retroarch folder so that was what I was thinking. Perhaps it’s just developer mode that allows that?
personally I think it should be a choice to access the shared files regarding potential missing links, that’s no different to an Octatrack or any other program. The option to save samples with the project is already there & could be made default.
just in terms of where it stands now using the Files structure, is that just for saving files that use the ‘iCloud’’ path? That doesn’t make much sense to me as iCloud storage is based on a per app setting whether they are stored in the cloud, but files can still be located in the Files structure & just kept ‘locally’ Surely it makes more sense that this path is used for all samples & projects so they can be edited/located using the Files app. If iCloud is enabled for Drambo this would mean that all of that data can be accessible simultaneously from the Mac version/iPad & iPhone :)
@hgs If you save a project or module locally (not on iCloud), it is visible in the Drambo folder On My iPad. I believe you need to open the updated Drambo app before this folder is populated. If you save a file to iCloud, it will be visible in iCloud Drive from the Files app sidebar. It sounds like you're looking at iCloud Drive, and not On My iPad. Data in the local Drambo folder is not magically reflected to iCloud Drive. But files stored to iCloud Drive can be accessed and manipulated by the Files app, so that satisfies your desire for access from multiple devices.
Since you are a dev, you should know that the Files app is in no way a "structure". It is just an interface to a collection of FileProviderExtensions. These are listed in the sidebar. On My iPad is just another file provider (LocalFileProvider?) allowing access to certain folders ("Documents") published by apps. Thus, the files and folders you see are a carefully selected subset of the full filesytem.
Thanks for the info, I develop for desktops so the iPad is not something I know a lot about, thanks for the info.