Before the release 3.8.6.01, NDS Professional allowed the exchange of farm data through import/export procedures only.
A new feature has been added to provide a more flexible approach to share farm data among different users, consisting in the capability of directly opening the .farm files generated by an export. The feature applies only to farm files generated with the current version of NDS, older files can still be imported, but cannot be directly opened, since they lack of some custom data that are necessary to correctly interpret the contents of the farm file. Trying to open an old farm file will result in a message box informing that the operation is not possible.
Farm files are generated in the usual way through an export, with the difference that the file name, after the name of the farm, contains now the date and time of the export with the “yyyymmdd hhmmss” format (date and time separated by a space); this way serveral snapshots of the farm can be stored, each one with a different filename, containing an image of the farm at a certain date.
The farm owner (i.e. who exports the farm file) can then send the file to other users, that can review and, if necessary, modify its contents without the need to import it. One farm file provides a full functional environment, like a user database, with all the main features of NDS to manipulate stored data. Finally, the owner of the file can synchronize his user database with the data of a farm file modified by another user.