Syncing aliases via Dropbox and having them work on both Macs

Question

I have used the date_default_timezone_set() to check and set the server time.

In the same way is this possible to get the server country in php?

Thanks in advance..

Solution 1

In your specific situation, I would suggest creating something called a symbolic link. You will have to do the following from the Terminal:

1. Open Terminal
2. Type: cd ~/Desktop
3. Type: ln -s /path/to/folder/ NAME

It will show up on your desktop and look like a regular alias, but it is not.

Adding an example: ln -s ~/Dropbox ~/Desktop/Dropbox

This will create a symbolic link on your desktop called "Dropbox" pointing to the /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Dropbox folder.

Solution 2

For those who are not comfortable using the Terminal, there is a much simpler solution to creating symbolic links in OS X.

There is a small free extension called SymbolicLinker that gives you an option in the contextual menu of the finder (i.e. right-clicking on a file or folder). It works great and I have used this method also for symlinking folders into Dropbox.

Installation of the extension is very simple. I have used this since OS X 10.4 all the way to Mavericks (10.9).

Solution 3

You may not be able to sync aliases, but you could replace the one on your desktop with an AppleScript that just opens the ~/Dropbox folder—that would have a similar effect, and to my knowledge would sync properly.

Such an AppleScript would look like

tell application "Finder"
    activate
    open folder "Macintosh HD:Users:yourHomeDirHere:Dropbox"
end tell

Or you could just put the ~/Dropbox folder in your Dock.

Comments

[Elias Van Ootegem]

possible duplicate of Get Country of IP Address with PHP

[shedd]

Thanks! Yeah, aliases don't seem to sync properly. I'll have to ask Dropbox about this. What would an Apple Script that opens the ~/Dropbox folder look like? Thanks!

[shedd]

Thanks for the response! Symbolic links do seem to sync properly - I'll replace my aliases with symbolic links - seems like the only way to get them to work. Much appreciated!

[Nick]

If I recall correctly, OS X uses a unique identifier to find the file which will not work when taken to another disk. It stores the path as a sort of "backup", but it is stored in a resource fork and I don't think too many programs play well with resource forks. This is why aliases do not work with Dropbox.