Comparing Groove Standard workspaces and Groove File Sharing workspaces

When you click New Workspace in Groove 2007, you have three options for the type of workspace you want to create: Standard, File Sharing, or Template. So what’s the difference? The Template option is simply a Standard Workspace with a custom toolset. The differences between Groove Standard workspaces and Groove File Sharing (GFS) workspaces are more complicated.

First, all Groove workspaces, of either type, use the same underlying Groove technologies for determining which members are online, identifying changed data, and sending and receiving data across the network. However, beyond that, Standard and File Sharing workspaces have many differences.

Capabilities

A Standard workspace can support many Groove tools -- Discussion, Calendar, Forms, Pictures, and Files, to name a few. A File Sharing workspace keeps a Windows folder synchronized with another computer or computers, so it approximates only the capabilities of the Groove Files tool.

Access

In a Files tool in a Standard workspaces, all content it is kept in Groove. For example, if you have a Word document in a Standard workspace, you must open that document from the workspace to view or change it. When you open the file, Groove creates a temporary, unencrypted copy of the file and passes it to Word. When you save the file in Word, your changes are saved to the temporary copy. The next time you click on a Groove window, Groove will detect the changes to the temporary file and ask if you want to save those changes back into Groove. When you shut down Groove, Groove deletes the temporary copy that it handed to the application, and the file is again only accessible from within Groove.

In a File Sharing workspace, the synchronized files are part of your standard Windows file system, and you can access them directly from other applications and perform operations on them in Windows Explorer. Groove does not encrypt the files on disk, on in any way act as a gatekeeper to those files. (However, since the workspace synchronization uses the Groove transport mechanisms, they are still encrypted whenever Groove sends them over the network.) This outside access is more convenient in some situations, but it also introduces more ways that data can be altered or removed from the workspace in error. It also limits the extent to which Groove can distinguish new data from data that has been moved or renamed, so under some condition, simple file operations can lead to retransmitting large amounts of data.

Invitations

When you accept an invitation to a Standard workspace, the Groove installation that issued the invitation sends you the entire contents of the workspace as it exists on the inviting computer. If the inviter’s copy of the workspace contains Files tool folders that have restrictive Download options, this may not include all files.

When you accept an invitation to a GFS workspace, the Groove installation that issued the invitation sends you an index of the folder and its subfolders. Your copy of Groove then fetches the files and their contents. Again, if the inviter’s copy of the workspace contains folders that have restrictive Download options, this may not include all files.

Size Limitations

When a Standard workspace exceeds 2 GB in size, you cannot invite new members or new computers to it, however, existing members will continue to receive updates to workspace data.

When a File Sharing workspace exceeds 2 GB in size, it will no longer synchronize with the local folder, existing members will cease to receive updates to workspace data, and the workspace properties will display a synchronization error on the Status tab. Due to the invitation behavior of File Sharing workspaces, you can still send an invitation to a workspace that has exceeded this size. If the invitee accepts it, they will receive an error about the size, but can choose to receive only file stubs, and from those, can download individual files. However, any changes they make to the files will not be propagated, because the workspace is no longer being synchronized.

Backup

A Groove workspace that exists on multiple computers has some built-in resistance to mechanical failure. For example, if you lose workspace data due to a hard drive failure, you can retrieve that data from other workspaces members once you reinstall Groove. However, other data threats exist, and you should still have a plan for data backup.

In a Standard workspace, because of Groove data encryption, you should archive workspaces from within Groove. For each workspace that you want to save, right click on the workspace, select Save As, click Archive, and then follow the prompts. These archives are useful if a workspace member deletes or changes needed workspace data, or deletes the entire workspace.

Because a File Sharing workspace uses a standard Groove folder, you can back up the files in the folder using normal file backup methods. However, avoid backup programs that might alter the file in a manner that causes Groove to see it as substantially changed and retransmit it to all members. Folder backups are useful if a workspace members deletes or changes needed workspace data, or if a Windows user or program deletes or changes files in the folder.