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allow to sync with dropbox or other user owned server

threesheetsbrewery

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In the upcoming editions I would love it if you could sync to the users own dropbox, or server to store the recipes. Not just use the beersmith supplied cloud server. I think the cloud feature works great, but I already own a server as well as dropbox and find it silly to pay 9.99 a month to get 15+ recipe storage. When I could just sync it with my own server and store the recipes and not have to pay extra.
 
Is it really $10 a month? That's ridiculous. 
 
You get 15 recipes to store for free. If you want alot more it starts at 9.99. Like I said I have a server with unlimited storage that I pay for and would love to have a preference in beersmith that would point to a folder on my server.
 
Or just have the save file location for recipes be a dropbox folder.
 
I would think the logic behind the BS Recipes (cloud) is the ease of sharing and searching among known BS users.  We each could (and should) save/backup our own recipes with Dropbox (or equals) for safekeeping at no cost, but no one else can see, peruse, and download them.  So there's no 'community' aspect to that. 

That said, at $10/mth and $120/yr, I can't see too many people paying that just to be able to publish their recipes.  But it does make it simple to share and publish them, especially for the tech challenged.  And if Brad's software competitors are all doing it, then he's got to do it just to keep up. 

Who knows?  I saw a new software at NHC that seemed to be all about sharing recipes and less about the brewing mechanics.  There's all sorts of users out there. 
 
The number of threads started on this forum pertaining to users asking for support for Dropbox/Google Drive is impressive. Just do a search, there are many. It seems clear that there is a large contingent of users that would like to be able to have Beersmith 2 files (Recipes, Profiles, Ingredients, etc.) placed inside their Dropbox/Google Drive folders rather than on a single machine in the default installation folder. For many of us, Dropbox/Google Drive is where we keep all of our data for everything on all of our computers. It's a simple, trusted backup/sync solution in one.

My question to Brad is: are you intending to support this feature (Dropbox/Google Drive) in the near future? I understand that it competes with your own cloud feature, but it doesn't offer Android/iOS support, so for those who are purchasing the cloud storage for that purpose, you can still retain them as paying customers. I'm not sure if there is a more requested feature on the forums than this one, so it would be helpful if you made a clear statement with your position on this.
 
MaltLicker said:
I would think the logic behind the BS Recipes (cloud) is the ease of sharing and searching among known BS users.  We each could (and should) save/backup our own recipes with Dropbox (or equals) for safekeeping at no cost, but no one else can see, peruse, and download them.  So there's no 'community' aspect to that. 

That said, at $10/mth and $120/yr, I can't see too many people paying that just to be able to publish their recipes.  But it does make it simple to share and publish them, especially for the tech challenged.  And if Brad's software competitors are all doing it, then he's got to do it just to keep up. 

Who knows?  I saw a new software at NHC that seemed to be all about sharing recipes and less about the brewing mechanics.  There's all sorts of users out there.

I always have seen Beersmith as a pioneer of brewing software rather than a follower. I do see it stalling and web based software surpassing beersmith in generating revenue (moreso from advertising than by charging the users).
 
MaltLicker said:
I would think the logic behind the BS Recipes (cloud) is the ease of sharing and searching among known BS users.  We each could (and should) save/backup our own recipes with Dropbox (or equals) for safekeeping at no cost, but no one else can see, peruse, and download them.  So there's no 'community' aspect to that.
Have you been able to successfully do this? I have never been able to. Switching the Beersmith2 directory to Dropbox or Google Drive results in multiple versions of each file (Age, Age1, Age2, Age3, Age4, etc.).

Also, your point about being able to share recipes with each other is a good one. The great thing about BeerXML standards is that we should be able to share recipes with each other fairly easily, no matter what software we choose to use. In my experience with reviewing the various options out there, Beersmith2 is currently the most mature and feature rich of the bunch, so I choose to use it. However, it would be nice to be able to swap recipes with friends who choose to use other recipe software.


That said, at $10/mth and $120/yr, I can't see too many people paying that just to be able to publish their recipes.
  Agreed. Especially given the fact that the cost of Beersmith2 is less than 25% of what it costs to add the cloud feature for 1 year. My guess is that Beersmith 3 will move in that direction and be subscription based.

Who knows?  I saw a new software at NHC that seemed to be all about sharing recipes and less about the brewing mechanics.  There's all sorts of users out there.
That's great. I could see myself using other software for recipe creation/sharing, and then syncing it to or sharing it with Beersmith for more advanced editing as it pertains to my system.
 
graymoment said:
MaltLicker said:
I would think the logic behind the BS Recipes (cloud) is the ease of sharing and searching among known BS users.  We each could (and should) save/backup our own recipes with Dropbox (or equals) for safekeeping at no cost, but no one else can see, peruse, and download them.  So there's no 'community' aspect to that.
Have you been able to successfully do this? I have never been able to. Switching the Beersmith2 directory to Dropbox or Google Drive results in multiple versions of each file (Age, Age1, Age2, Age3, Age4, etc.).


After reading this originally, I uploaded the entire \Documents\BeerSmith2 folder to my Google Drive.    And I'm re-doing it right now.  It's not auto-synced, because we can't move the folder, but it's nice to have a backup in the cloud. 
 
It's still not very elegant, but I did see that it's easy to copy what you what to preserve online FROM \Documents\BeerSmith2  TO  \GoogleDrive\BeerSmith2  and that GoogleDrive then syncs it up in the cloud without any more work from moi. 

And if you sort \Documents\BeerSmith2  by date modified, you can copy only the latest version of the files, which shortens the copying and syncing. 
 
I have every version of beersmith for my Linux laptop, Android tablet and phone. I bought all 3 versions. I should not also have to pay 100 dollars a year to upload recipes.

I just want to be able to work on and save my recipe using my laptop, then bring it on my tablet to the homebrew store to pick up my ingredients. So I just need the recipe on my tablet. My current solution is to export my recipe to a PDF using BeerSmith, then I just clip it to Evernote, or to Dropbox. I just make sure I open my tablet and load the recipe before heading out.  It would be a nice feature to have that built into BeerSmith already. I already used the "cloud" to do this 15 times so now I am out of cloud credit. I cannot delete old cloud recipes to make way for new cloud recipes.

I love beersmith because of it's powerful features, like setting up the BIAB profile, equipment profiles, evaporation, calculations etc. It is excellent software. On the other hand, I liked Hopville (Now BrewToad) for the sharing and searching of other brewers recipes. There is no way I am going to pay 10 dollars a month for a tiny dropbox service + Hopville. It's just too much. A year free should come with the software purchase, and if you want to continue beyond, it should cost about 20 dollars and include software updates.

What might have been ideal would be a collaboration with BeerSmith and BrewToad, so Beersmith would handle the hard recipe and formula work, while BrewToad could host the recipes.

 
The cloud storage price (If you need more than the 15 free stored recipes) is $9.99 per YEAR for 125 recipes.  Pretty reasonable IMO.

http://beersmithrecipes.com/upgrade
 
That does seem reasonable compared to monthly. But still being fairly new to brewing, what benefit is there of looking at random recipes? I am overwhelmed with recipe queue that extends out 5 years just from credible recipe sources.


Not sure if this is a place for critique of the site.
It seems there is no place for user comments on the recipes, using the ratings section for comments is gonna make a mess imho.
You can't download these into Beersmith???? Are you fucking kidding????
 
grathan said:
That does seem reasonable compared to monthly. But still being fairly new to brewing, what benefit is there of looking at random recipes? I am overwhelmed with recipe queue that extends out 5 years just from credible recipe sources.
I also have no interest in the public aspect of the cloud site.  The reason I'm willing to pay $10 a year is to access recipes across all of my devices seamlessly, easy recipe backup and sharing recipes with friends.

grathan said:
You can't download these into Beersmith???? Are you f**king kidding????
I'm not sure what this means.  You can upload and download recipes between the cloud site and the Beersmith app (PC and smartphone/tablet).
 
Ahh you're right. I wasn't logged in last time I looked quick.


Why bother putting recipes on multiple devices though?
 
I was just going to pop in here and say that it was $10 a year not month.  Glad someone caught that! I agree that more storage should come when you buy the software (although dropbox or google drive sync would be AWESOME!!) however, as a software guy myself, i get it.  I am sure that there are quite a bit of development costs and he needs a way to help cover those. Just wish it could be done in a little different way.
 
grathan said:
Ahh you're right. I wasn't logged in last time I looked quick.


Why bother putting recipes on multiple devices though?
In my case, it's not about storing recipes on multiple devices.  That would be a pain to manage.  It's about accessing recipes using any device I may have in my hand at any given point in time. 
 
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