I'm just trying to figure out the workings of offline files in details
and it seems that there are discrepancies with the offical and third
party documentation (I've consulted many books and on-line helps but
the issue remains to me foggy).

The point is: what is exactly the role of the "Allow caching of files
in this shared folder" (on the server side) in the Caching Settings
panel, reachable through the sharing tab of a folder "Properties" ?

In particular, can a server on a workgroup (therefore without domain
policies) prevent the client to cache files on one of its shared
folders simply unchecking the aforementioned box ?

According to the documentation this should be possible, but in my
experience this works only for temporarily cached files which can be
removed under diskspace issues or at server will.

As long as I issue a "Make Available Offline" on a file or folder on a
shared folder on the client side, there's nothing which can prevent me
to store those file locally.

Is it a documentation error then, or am I missing something ?

Regards,
Giulio.

Giuliano Bertoletti wrote:
> I'm just trying to figure out the workings of offline files in details
> and it seems that there are discrepancies with the offical and third
> party documentation (I've consulted many books and on-line helps but
> the issue remains to me foggy).
>
> The point is: what is exactly the role of the "Allow caching of files
> in this shared folder" (on the server side) in the Caching Settings
> panel, reachable through the sharing tab of a folder "Properties" ?

If that's not enabled,clients can't make that data available offline.
>
> In particular, can a server on a workgroup (therefore without domain
> policies) prevent the client to cache files on one of its shared
> folders simply unchecking the aforementioned box ?

Yes, I believe so, but I don't really work with workgroups much. I imagine
it's the same.
>
> According to the documentation this should be possible, but in my
> experience this works only for temporarily cached files which can be
> removed under diskspace issues or at server will.
>
> As long as I issue a "Make Available Offline" on a file or folder on a
> shared folder on the client side, there's nothing which can prevent me
> to store those file locally.

Are you sure?
>
> Is it a documentation error then, or am I missing something ?

I'm not sure what you're trying to do - disable or enable offline files
functionality.
>
> Regards,
> Giulio.