Depository

Before I will describe first steps in GenTle, I pay some attention to depository. This structure is very important and wrong handling can corrupt all data stored in it.

Depository is a directory where all project and shared data is stored. Nearly everything in the depository directory is managed by GenTle and you don't need to do anything by hand there. You don't even know where this directory is placed. There are some operations that you can do with depository manually but these are exceptions and will be mentioned later.

All data the GenTle works with is and must be stored in depository. It is done automatically when you create new project. For each project, a directory is created in depository directory. Project directory consists of project name and project ID as extension. It contains several files

• tree.gt contains project data

• projectrc contains project specific settings

Depository directory contains special directory called GENTLE. This directory contains shared data, e.g. contacts, research, places, IDs etc. You can use this shared data in all projects stored in depository. How it helps you will be written in respective sections.

It is important to mention dangerous operations with depository directory now. This is of crucial importance since you can successfully damage all your data stored in depository doing of of the following

• changing content of GENTLE/ids file. This file contains IDs. IDs are used to identify things in GenTle, e.g. each project has its ID that is unique in depository, IDs are used to identify persons, events, sources, places, citations etc. All these IDs are unique in depository, not only in a project! This enables to use data in all project. But if you will change content of GENTLE/ids file, all references may be mixed and confused. The problem will occur if you will copy GENTLE/ids file from another depository or from another version of the same depository. IDs are managed automatically by GenTle and you don't need to change anything there.

• copying project from another depository or from another version of depository. Even if the project directory will have proper name, it will not be integrated in depository correctly. Project data contains a lot of references to shared data that are unique for each depository and cannot be mixed up. Import of projects from another depository will be possibly implemented (I am not sure if this will be needed).

• renaming project directory. You can make your project invisible in GenTle. If you will change name of project only, no harm will be done. Renaming of projects is not implemented till now but it will be a part of GenTle's functionality in the future.

• changing content of share data and/or project data directly in the files. This is not necessarily destructive activity, but you can damage references to another data so this activities are considered as dangerous. In addition to this, you can edit all data in GenTle.

As I have mentioned above, there are some special activities you can do in depository directory safely

• deleting of project directory. This activity is save for data stored in GenTle's depository but you can do this from GenTle as well.

• adding non-project directories. If you will add a directory that will not be confused with project directory, you can do so. For instance it is useful to place your digital archive in the depository directory since when backing it up or moving to another location, you will have all data in one place. You can place here your photos, sounds and voice records, videos etc.