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Some of my projects span many files, and are handed off by the client over a period of weeks. These files go into a folder in my "Ongoing" work directory. I give the folder a descriptive name according to a strict format that includes multiple fields separated by underscores. These contain the due date/time and ends in a word count (well, this is JP-EN, so actually a character count), like this:
A _ 2021-01-15 0900 JST _ 2021-01-09 1600 JST _ Client, PM name _ PO number, End client _ document type _ 6600
When I am delivering in tranches, I might have 4,000 characters to do by Tuesday, another 3,000 by Thursday and a final burst of 5,000 to do over the weekend by Monday. At each delivery stage I return an incremental package to the client.
What this means is that I change the folder name multiple times over the course of the project to update the due date (the first date in the folder name above) and the number of characters due by that date. This allows me to immediately see, by looking at the folder names, what I need to deliver on what dates. In a seasonally busy month such as May I may be dealing with an average of one or more projects every day, so this really helps me to maintain a firm grasp of my schedule.
Sometimes clients will send me additional files in package form, but Studio usually manages to incorporate these increments to the project despite changes to the folder name. This morning was an exception. The client has sent half-a-dozen additional files, and when I unpacked it Studio prompted me for a folder name instead of automagically unpacking it into the existing folder. I can't add them to the existing project.
This prompted me to come here to ask two questions.
1) What is the mechanism by which Studio tracks projects and additions to existing projects? I'm guessing it maintains a little database of some kind with unique IDs (I can see that the .proj file contains one or more PackageGuid values), but it would be interesting to know how it works.
2) In cases such as this, is it possible to "persuade" Studio to accept a package as an update to an existing project? For example, can I manually edit the proj file for the new package to make it work, or perhaps rename the existing folder so that the new package recognises the folder, or in some way point the package to the existing folder? (I realise that this is not standard practise and could lead to tears before bedtime, and that all actions would be performed at my own risk, etc.)
Comments and discussion invited from Paul and other SDL staff, but also from my more knowledgeable peers (i.e. most of you).
Thanks in advance...
Dan
PS usual issue - cannot share files, etc. for reasons of confidentiality
PPS changed title to make it more action-based and specific
