How to clone a PT project for safe testing and training and experiments?

Question

I do not mean "clone" literally, I want a working copy with specific settings. I looked through the inbuilt help in PT and found ideas like Daughter Project and Auxiliary Project. I also searched through this forum here and found misc information about details but no overview.

This is one example, of what I found indirectly: "Why doesn't a daughter project inherit the spelling and Biblical terms information from the parent project?" Link to one example detail about spelling and Biblical terms

For us this would be good, having a clone with can NOT damage the spelling nor terms data.

Now I would love to see a list or table please, where I can see the technical benefits and limitations of the different options for new projects or clones or copies. How is each type of copy "linked" to the source-project or not?
The clone needs to be real, but without any "feedback" into the main project. (Except when the administrator of the main project would "pull" certain elements.)

I cannot explain our need in public, but imagine this: We want to train a certain person on the real data, and even give some authorisations for the management, but without any (possible) damage to the main project. The person needs to work alone for extended times. And if the experiment will produce useful data (like "chapters of new text" or new "entries for the wordlist") it would be great, if we could import those into the main project. This is why I think a "clone" would be useful, because at the start at least, we would have fully matching structures.

It could be that I am asking this wrong. You are welcome to give ideas, and I am muchly willing to read all the documenation, even the technical stuff. I just need to find it.

Answer 1

Hola Tim.

First, I'll share some general ideas. Once you confirm which one is most useful to you, we can tell you how to do it.

Assuming you do not need to keep the change history: The simplest option is to make a ‘Backup to file’ and then use ‘Restore backup’ to generate a new project. Depending on your goal, you can choose:

Auxiliary Project: Ideal if you do not want to register this as a separate project (I think this is the option you are looking for).

Local Project: If you do not need to share the work with other users.

New Project: If you want it to have its own record and be completely independent from the current one.

Child Project: Only if it is a variation of the original project, which I don't think is your case.

Which of these routes best suits what you need to do?

Saludos,
Pepe.

Comments

If change history is required then ConvertProject with just a project short name change might also an option? (cons: for large projects it can take a while to run)

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Yes, you can use ConvertProject, but it will only be useful if you need the history in the new project.

A simple backup copy already includes the Bible books, settings, and other sections such as spelling, vocabulary, notes, etc. (users are not copied).
Saludos,
Pepe.

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I was absent from my PT-desk for quite a while, but this is still an open question. @Pepe I am sorry, but you have not answered my question. I had shared in my request that I had already consulted the inbuilt help in PT about Daughter Project and Auxiliary Project etc. I had put in bold that I am looking for the technical benefits and limitations of the different options for new projects or clones or copies.

You have provided no new technical information.

I had written, that we need a clone or copy but without any automatic feedback into the source/main project. But until today, we have seen no documentation about how a Project and an Auxiliary Project or a Child Project handle/share/sync any data.

So when you open your answer with "which one is most useful to you, we can tell you how to do it" you have missed the point. I need more solid information to make the decision about "which option". And please note that I had not asked on how to start/create such a project, because I have launched a few in the past and I remember that the documentation in PT is rather good about the "how".

I am not writing this comment to criticize. It happens that a first answer is not right on target. This is mainly to let the community know that my question is still open as in not answered. 

Also for transparency I can share that we are now also considering how we might solve this training-project not on a technical but more on a social-level: We might authorize the person into the main project, with a well defined role (in PT and in a written contract) and with human coaching. Personally I would prefer to have a clone and only import what is really good-data.