Manual transfer of resources

Question

I’m working in an Internet-challenged place, and when I migrate a project later today, I don’t want each of the computers to have to download the resources for themselves. My understanding is that the files in the \My Paratext 8 Projects_Resources folder can be copied from one computer to the _Resources folder of another computer. Does that action actually install the resource, or is there something else that must be done on the recipient computer to install it? If it actually installs it, then does that bypass the security check for access of resources? I.e. if I have access to a resource on my computer because of my organization or role that another project doesn’t have access to, and I copied that resource to their computer, would they have access to it, or is there a check somewhere in the unzipping of that resource that would make sure that they are actually allowed to access it?

Thanks for clearing up these questions for me.

Answer 1

It is possible to share resources in PT8 by simply copying the _Resources folder to the other computer. Resources will show up if the user has permission to use those resources. Users will not have access to resources that have been copied to their folder if they don’t have organizational permission.

If you copy the folder to a memory stick (or some other location) you can use File > Download and Install Resources to install resources by pointing to that location.

So, I could download all of the resources available to me and put them on a machine where the user is not a member of any organization and they would only have access to the public domain resources. If however, their organization changed, they would gain access to the additional resources.

Comments

It is perfectly fine to move resources between computers. If you copy something that the recipient does not have permission to use, then Paratext will not even put it on the list of available resources for that machine. This was done intentionally to help specialists set up many machines without using the internet. Copy with confidence.

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FYI Although this is an old conversation, new subscribers who look through this may be helped by this link on the paratext website that explains how to do it : https://pt8.paratext.org/ufaqs/can-text-resources-be-installed-offline/

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anon848905:

If you copy the folder to a memory stick (or some other location) you can use File > Download and Install Resources to install resources by pointing to that location.

If there are resources of the flash stick that are already installed in PT, will this intelligently copy only the newer ones?

If however, their organization changed, they would gain access to the additional resources.

I did this the other day with a user: had them join an organisation when they were previously not a member of one. I was interested to note that the PT Registry issued the user with a new registration code* – does it always do that when a user’s resource-access rights change? After entering the new code, the available Resources changes as expected.

* Before we entered the new code, PT displayed an error regarding the current registration information. The fact that it was an error,not a warning, and the fact that it did not say it was because of a change of organisation were confusing to us, and it wasn’t immediately obvious that what PT really wanted us to do was to enter the new code. This message could be improved for clarity.

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wdavidhj:

does it always do that when a user’s resource-access rights change?

Yes, the registration code encodes some information needed by Paratext (including the user’s organization) so a new registration code is created whenever those things change.

Answer 2

My understanding is that you can (legally) copy the resources
directly from one computer to another, and Paratext will
automatically adjust which ones are viewable on the target computer
- depending on the license that they hold, and which organization
those resources are available to.

And, no, you don't have to do anything else - it finds them there
and makes them available without you having to install them as a
separate step. (That has been my experience so far anyway).