Managing Access to Shared Files Using Offline Caching

Managing Access to Shared Files Using Offline Caching 

Offline Files is an important document-management feature that provides the user with

consistent online and offline access to files. When the client disconnects from the network,

anything that has been downloaded to the local cache remains available. Users can

continue working as though they were still connected to the network. They can continue

editing, copying, deleting, and so forth.

Offline File Caching Options:

Offline Files caches files that are often accessed from a shared folder. This is similar to the

way in which a Web browser keeps a cache of recently visited Web sites. When you create

shared folders on the network, you can specify the caching option for the files and

programs in that folder. There are three different caching options.

Manual caching of documents:

Manual caching of documents provides offline access for only the files and programs that

the user specifies will be available. This caching option is ideal for a shared network

folder containing files that several people will access and modify. This is the default

option when you configure a shared folder to be available offline.

Automatic caching of documents:

With automatic caching of documents, all files and programs that users open from the

shared folder are automatically available offline. Files that the user does not open are not

available offline. Older copies are automatically overwritten by newer versions of files.

How Offline Files Are Synchronized?

A user can configure a file on a network to be available offline, provided that Offline Files

is enabled for the folder in which the file resides. When users configure files to be

available offline, the users work with the network version of the files while they are

connected to the network and then with a locally cached version of the files when they are

not connected to the network.

Synchronization events:

When a user configures a file to be available offline, the following synchronization events

occur when the user disconnects from the network:

•

When the user logs off the network, the Windows client operating system

synchronizes the network files with a locally cached copy of the file.

•

While the computer is disconnected from the network, the user works with the

locally cached copy of the file.

•

When the user again logs on to the network, the Windows client operating system

synchronizes any offline file that the user has modified with the network version of

the file. If the file has been modified on both the network and the user’s computer,

the Windows client operating system prompts the user to choose which version of

the file to keep, or the user can rename one file and keep both versions.

How to Use Offline Caching?

To configure offline settings by using Windows Explorer:

1. In Windows Explorer, right-click the shared folder or drive for which you want to

configure offline access, and then click Sharing and Security.

2. In the Properties dialog box, on the Sharing tab, click Offline Settings.

3. In the Offline Settings dialog box, select the option that you want, and then click

OK.

Reference:

Eng. Eman R. Al-Kurdi

Islamic University of Gaza

Faculty of engineering

Computer Department.