You may wish to work with gINT and Datgel software from outside your office. Sure you could work with the library and project locally on your laptop, but that is only useful if you don't need to live share the database with others.
If you do want to share the database with others real time at a usable speed, it normally can't be done over a VPN file share.
Datgel uses a Windows Server with remote desktop services, hosted in Microsoft Azure (Cloud). This first server has gINT and Datgel software installed, also has other apps like MS Office. We have a second server hosting SQL Server. Our team members remote into this server to use gINT, working with the live shared gint library and project databases - both Access and SQL Server. As our user count increases we can increase the VM size to have more CPU and RAM. We use the Datgel processor Affinity manager to distribute the gINT processes across the CPU cores. You would need a VPN to a physical computer that hosts Datgel's Network license usb keys.
Datgel can assist with setting up a system described above.
I'm regularly asked by our clients for recommendations for electronic field data collection. Here are a few ideas to consider.
A. gINT Logs on a Rugged tablet PC
- Use graphical data input, and see the log report as you enter data
- Use a component description
- At the end of each day zip the gpj and email it to your office
- By working in the same software you want the data to ultimately reside in data transfer problems are minimized
- PDF log reports while in the field
B. Excel on a Rugged tablet PC
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I've seen some elaborate spreadsheets developed for field data collection on a tablet or laptop, including lookup lists, validation and VBA code. But considering gINT Logs costs between US$1000 and US$1500, the superior data validation inherent in gINT, and the time and hassle saved by having the data in gINT from the beginning...in my mind gINT Logs wins hands down.
C. PDA applications such as PLog
- Ok for simply logging such as test pits and logging for the purpose contaminated land. I think the interface on a PDA is too small for detailed logging, and it is a major disadvantage that you can't see the log as it will be presented when you're in the field.
- PLog uses a Palm OS, and has a strong connection to gINT. There are a number of apps on the market for WindowsCE/Mobile.
D. Other data entry applications on a tablet
- A few commercial tablet based data capture applications are on the market. Mostly coming from the mining industry. If you look at these then consider if they are set up to capture geotechnical/contaminated land logging data, if they can show a log report as it would be presented, and if they can get data into gINT or a format gINT can import.
Hardware suggestions
Automatic backups
When using field devices one must consider automatic backup of data. There are 3rd party apps that can upload automatic backups of gpj files to a webserver. One such app is https://spideroak.com/