[TYPO3-english] Website Synchronisation

[Christian Reiter]

> and for the change in place:
> I hate it to have multiple files with the same name but different
> content. on my sites as on every website.
> if a new version is released give it a new name _including_ the version.
>


Real situation:

There is a legal conflict.
You get a cease and desist/ "Einstweilige verfügung". You need to change 
a few sentences. You MUST NOT deliver the old version from your website 
from tomorrow 09:00 otherwise you pay thousands of euros or go to court 
for a long battle.

Even more serious case:

We are looking at a medical prescription information (Medizinische 
fachinformation) and serious new side effects are discovered. This 
results in a warning ("Rote-Hand-Brief" in German - 
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote-Hand-Brief) and updating the 
prescription information.

So: - you must be sure there is no uploads/xxx_05.pdf with the old stuff.

And no fileadmin/product/123/xxx.pdf that has the old stuff and has a 
"xxx_new.pdf" to "replace" it.

If your adversary can prove a single currently served link from your 
website has the old content you have trouble.

If someone dies because the old prescribing information is loaded from 
your server and used *after* the new side effect has become known you 
may be sued for damages.

This isn't science fiction, there are several historic examples for this.

I am not talking about extension manuals here.
Properly made documentation includes a date and version INSIDE the 
document so that you know what you have independent where it came from 
(even if you only have a photocopy of a printout) - look at a 
prescription information.

If you need to access outdated information for valid reasons, you will 
have to access an archive which may be protected.

Even with extensions it is done this way: If an old  extension version 
becomes insecure, it is REMOVED.

http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/view/realurl

you cannot in fact *download* all versions from the TER.
The versions with security bugs have been removed! Only 1.12.8 and 
1.12.7 have the T3x link.
If you need to access them for analytical reasons you can go to the 
repository. But it is not publicly distributed.

In the same way you would remove a medical prescription information 
completely, if it contains information that turns out to be wrong, and 
may lead to side effects up to and including death.

However here you always have only one canonical version. With the 
realURL example there are in principle currently two "true" versions, if 
you use TYPO3 4.5 you can use 1.12.7 just as well, only for 6.2 you need 
1.12.8

But since there is not "human 4.5" and "human 6.2" for prescription 
informations there is only ever one "true" version. There are never two 
parallel versions that are "both good".

 From an content management perspective the issue is control.

In the situations described need to able to control and guaruantee what 
you are serving and not have file duplications or wrong information, 
dangerous omissions, comflicting versions etc.

Historically TYPO3 was often *against* file control. The whole idea of 
duplicating files in uploads/pics/ was to *remove* the possibility of 
central file control (i.e. it should not be posbile to say "All 
instances using this file will be changed or removed at once by a single 
admin action)

But there are use cases as described where central file control is 
important.

By implementing FAL, TYPO3 has in itself realized that central file 
control should be supported and is normal.

 > "I have a manual.pdf. on page 6 my manual says to use screw 16b and
 > insert into hole 24b to fix the attachment" (Manual 1.0 of product A,
 > filename: manual.pdf)
 >
 > "I have a manual.pdf too. in my manual it says on page 7 I should use
 > screw 14c and insert it into hole 28a to fix the attachment" (Manual 2.5
 > of product B, filename: manual.pdf)


If it turns out that using screw 16b was wrong and your oil refinery can 
*explode* because of that, you REALLY shouldn't be offering the old, 
wrong manual anymore and should contact all your customers...

So duplicating files is fine and may be the absolute right way for you 
to manage content but there are legitimate use cases where it is not right.

But really this has nothing to do with "Website Synchroniation" anymore.

The same discussions happened exactly 10 years ago! - and absolutely 
nothing has changed - some people want to keep duplicated files, some 
don't.

It is the requirements of the use case that decide which is right.

Best regards,

Christian