Fund Manager portable !

[Djobydjoba]

Mark,

Here's my prayer : a portable version of Fund Manager.

Today, with the cloud (r)evolution and nomadism, the fact that FM is glued to one PC begins to be frustrating. I use FM daily, and I really would like to put it in the cloud on a Dropbox-like system, for an access from different locations and computers.

Do you eventually have some plans about this in the future ?

Thanks,
Djoby

[Mark]

Hi Djoby,

Thanks for the feedback. I understand the desire here. This is something we're thinking about, but don't have any solid plans yet.

There are a couple of different levels of portability we could implement:

1) Completely remote, based off a server system, and accessed through a web browser. This is the most flexible/portable, but also the largest change to Fund Manager as implementing all the UI through a web browser is a large change. This method would also allow you to access your data from non-Windows machines.

2) Portable version of Fund Manager where you store all your preferences/data in some folder. You would still need to have Fund Manager installed on whatever PC you want to use to access these preferences/data, but you could store your preferences/data on a network drive, or carry it with you on a thumb drive. This is much easier to implement...

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

Web based softwares are probably the way computing things go, and it's certainly a strategic choice to rewrite Fund Manager for the Web. I hardly imagine this because the interface and user experience would be certainly very different. But it could be really awesome (Fund Manager is already awesome !), as I have no doubt about the developer(s) talent.

No, I don't ask a revolution. The solution 2) will suffice my needs .You said it, a portable version in a folder we could bring on a USB pen, copy easily from one computer to another, or put in a web drive would be tremendously handy. There are a lot of solutions to synchronize a folder between devices.

A lot of apps give the choice to store preferences / configuration settings not in the Windows registry but in files in the program folder. With that, and the implementation of relative paths, Fund Manager would become a real globetrotter, and always in my pocket...

Thanks,
Djoby

[Mark]

Hi Djoby,

Okay, thanks for the idea/feedback, we can consider this for a future update.

[chucksf]

Mark, you might look at Citrix and similar technologies for moving Windows applications "into the cloud" as a means of moving to a software as a service model. This would enable you to reuse most of youe application. I don't know if transaction download would be supported. You would probably want a different design for downloading prices.

[Mark]

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for the pointer. I took a quick look and it looks interesting.

[darris]

Hi Mark,

Count us in as users who would like Dropbox/Cloud capacity. In the meantime, here’s what I’m trying to accomplish. I have a Master Portfolio with Fund Manager running on my computer and need to set up a separate Master Portfolio for my husband with FM running on *his* computer. These will be two totally separate portfolios. Our computers are networked.
.

1) What’s the best way for us to view/have access to each other’s portfolios at the end of each month after we DL transactions? This will mainly be just for viewing and not to make changes.

2) I think I’ve read all the instructions on backup and restore but I’m not sure if I understand them or whether this is the method we should use. If I have two Master Portfolios on my computer is it possible to backup selectively, i.e. only backup mine to restore on his computer or is there a better way of doing this?

3)Finally, I would like to do the work of creating my husband’s portfolio for him (since I’m much more familiar with FM) and would prefer to do it on my computer. Is there a way to do this and then transfer it to his computer?

Thanks much,
Diane

[Mark]

Hi Diane,

Thanks for the feedback.

1) You could either store the data files in a common area, like a network drive, or keep them on each separate computer, and just transfer them at the end of every month to the other computer. If you do the network drive approach make sure only one of you at a time has the files open.

2) Yes, only the currently opened portfolio file and all the open investments are backed up when you run a backup. You can use a backup to transfer all the files to another computer. When you do the restore I would suggest choosing to restore everything except the global registry preferences, and restore to the folder where you want the data files on his computer, not to the original location, which would be a path on your computer.

[darris]

Hi Diane,

2) Yes, only the currently opened portfolio file and all the open investments are backed up when you run a backup. You can use a backup to transfer all the files to another computer. When you do the restore I would suggest choosing to restore everything except the global registry preferences, and restore to the folder where you want the data files on his computer, not to the original location, which would be a path on your computer.

Thanks, Mark. Can I just do a portfolio for him on my computer (with nothing by FM and no portfolio on his computerr) and then the restore as you've stated above or does he need a "shell" portfolio or some such before I try a restore?

Diane

[Mark]

Hi Diane,

You can do it for him on your computer. He doesn't need anything beside the FM program to restore on his computer.

[darris]

Hi Diane,

You can do it for him on your computer. He doesn't need anything beside the FM program to restore on his computer.

We finally did it, I created the portfolio on my computer and then instead of using a network drive we used a shared folder and everything looks great on his computer.

One quick question-- I didn't see a choice of what to restore--i.e. NOT restoring the global registry preferences. Comments?

Diane

[Mark]

Hi Diane,

Glad you got it working.

When you do a "File / Restore..." there is an option under "What to Restore" called "Restore Selected Item(s) Only". You can select everything you want to restore in the "Files in Backup" list view, and then choose this option to only restore the items you select. If you want to restore everything except the global registry preferences, select everything in the list except this. You can use Ctrl and Shift to help you select multiple items in the list view.

[darris]

Hi Diane,

Glad you got it working.

When you do a "File / Restore..." there is an option under "What to Restore" called "Restore Selected Item(s) Only". You can select everything you want to restore in the "Files in Backup" list view, and then choose this option to only restore the items you select. If you want to restore everything except the global registry preferences, select everything in the list except this. You can use Ctrl and Shift to help you select multiple items in the list view.

I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong. I do backup and it asks me for a file name and location. Then I do "restore" and all it asks me for is a file location, no other options. Right clicking doesn't help.

Diane

[Mark]

Hi Diane,

When you do a restore, you must browse to the backup file you want to restore. Select a previously created *.FMB backup file. When you select it, and click "Open" you will then see all of the restore options. You can cancel at this point too if you want, just selecting the file to restore doesn't complete the restore, you still have a chance to set the restore options or cancel.

[darris]

Hi Diane,

When you do a restore, you must browse to the backup file you want to restore. Select a previously created *.FMB backup file. When you select it, and click "Open" you will then see all of the restore options. You can cancel at this point too if you want, just selecting the file to restore doesn't complete the restore, you still have a chance to set the restore options or cancel.

Yep, that was it. Since he didn't have a previously created backup file I didn't get the options. Just tried it with my files and it works.
Thanks.