Topic: Symphony Synchronization Server

This section covers features relevant to the Symphony Synchronization Server.

The Symphony Synchronization Server helps team members to collaborate on projects. The server manages the "official" copy of the project on behalf of the team. The project owner registers the project with the server by "sharing" it. The shared project resides on the server, and each team member keeps a local copy that they download from the server. Team members make changes to their local copy, then periodically synchronize with the server. Synchronizing sends changes that a team member makes to the server, then the server sends back to the team member an updated copy of the project. This ensures that each time a team member synchronizes, he/she ends up with the most current version of the project.

The most significant benefit of the Symphony Synchronization Server is that all team members can make changes to the project at the same time. In contrast, without the server each team member would have to take turns making updates to a common copy of the project, then pass it on to the next team member, much like you might do if several people are taking turns editing a Word document. If team members can logically split up the workload, this makes it possible to get a lot more work done in a smaller time span, reducing project deadline pressures.

Initial Setup

To begin using the Symphony Synchronization Server, you need an account on a Symphony Synchronization Server installation. Normally your copy of Symphony will be pre-configured with the necessary settings, or your administrator will provide you with the necessary information.

Shared Project Visual Indicator

When a shared project is open, Symphony provides an indicator in the lower-right corner of the main Symphony window, showing the status of the project and the server. There are three color-coded states:

-- your local copy of the project contains all the changes made by other users and is considered in synch with the server.
-- one or more team members have submitted updates to the server since the last time you synchronized. Synchronizing at this point will provide you with a more up-to-date version of the project.
-- the server is unavailable, either because you do not have network connectivity or because the server is down.

Sharing a Project

To begin sharing a project, open the project then choose Server/Share Project from the menu. The Share Project Form will open.

Making a Project Available to Specific Team Members

Shared projects are not automatically available to any team member. To give individual Symphony users access, you have to add them to the project.

With the project open in Standard view, right-click on the Project Members node in the Project Tree, and choose New. A list of users registered with the Symphony Synchronization server will appear. If the user you want to add does not appear, click the Refresh button. If the user still does not appear, it means they have not registered with the Symphony Synchronization server and they will need to do so before you can proceed.
Choose the user you want to add from the list by double-clicking the name or by single-clicking and choosing OK.
Synchronize your project with the server.

Synchronizing a Project

You need to synchronize your local copy of a shared project with the Symphony Synchronization Server from time to time in order to make your changes available to other team members, and to gain the benefit of changes made by other team members. To synchronize, do one of the following:

Choose Server/Synchronize from the menu
Double-click the Server Status indicator in the lower-right corner of Symphony.