hornet3d posted at 11:10AM Fri, 01 May 2020 - #4387738

tsoren posted at 1:55AM Thu, 30 April 2020 - #4387734

Nice. That seems like a very extensible and reliable solution.

It has worked for me over a number of years and I rarely need to use the search function at all particularly as I also maintain a database of all my content which is updated every time I buy more content. The database holds three promo pictures of any content along with information including the marketplace it was purchased from, the date and which runtime it is installed in. All of my downloads are stored on a seperate hard drive in a folder for each year with subfolders for each month which means I can find and reinstall any content I have purchased since 2011 when I started using the database (the runtimes before that are also available but not documented with so much detail).. It also means I have access to the runtime structure, read me and any other information downloaded at the time. I can scan the database by name, name of vendor, type of content and so on, for example I can scan for something like 'drone' and get a list of all the drones I have and as I step through the list I can see the main promo for the drone in question. All of this means I rarely use the search function in the library.

I would hate to have to rebuild ether the runtimes or the database so both are backed up to a second disk, a NAS system and also to the cloud. The cloud updates are automatic but with a daily report showing the which folders are in sync. The updates are incremental but the full file structure is maintained so if I did need to reload either the database of the runtimes I can just set the reload process running during the evening, go to bed and have a everything there, ready for use in the morning, without me having to be involved in the process.

That seems like a very thorough secure strategy for managing runtimes. Nice having a database as a top level search reference. You can do a quick scan to find something maybe even just to get a view in front of you about what you have so you can see if something new may fit into the collection. Traceability back to the source is also good as a way to know if a vendor announcement impacts any assets you may have.