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Making development and production copies

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    Making development and production copies

    Hello all,

    I want to separate my development data as it exists now into another copy which will not be damaged as I continue to develop.

    The new copy will contain only those tables and forms and data, etc. that will be in the final version of my system. The development copy currently contains live data that was converted from an old DOS system and has been cleaned up and configured as needed and I don't want to risk damaging this data.

    How can I do this simply?

    Les

    #2
    Re: Making development and production copies

    Originally posted by Les View Post
    I want to separate my development data as it exists now into another copy which will not be damaged as I continue to develop.Les
    That would be a backup as things are presently?

    Originally posted by Les View Post
    The new copy will contain only those tables and forms and data, etc. that will be in the final version of my system.Les
    The new copy of what? You would continue from the present state of the database before the backup and remove certain tables?

    Originally posted by Les View Post
    The development copy currently contains live data that was converted from an old DOS system and has been cleaned up and configured as needed and I don't want to risk damaging this data.Les
    That's the point of doing a backup.
    There can be only one.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Making development and production copies

      Thanks for the info Stan.

      I was looking to have a copy of a clean database with all the applicable forms and data apart and separate from any development version.

      My reasoning is to prevent any missteps in development from getting into a now usable version. This is the approach I have always taken with prior software like Access and earlier ones.

      Les

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Making development and production copies

        Define

        Code:
        a copy of a clean database with all the applicable forms and data apart and separate from any development version.
        This would seem to me to be a backup at some desired point. A backup will contain all the tables and their support files (containing all forms and data).
        There can be only one.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Making development and production copies

          I think you mean to have a version of the database for development and then the same one with unneeded tables and forms removed for production.

          If that were the case and I were working on development, wouldn't I have to switch between a development setup and production setup of the same DB when implementing changes? If I am correct, it seems to me to be tedious and making it easy for errors to creep in. I also would prefer to operate on copies of the data so as not to trash stuff that was needed.

          Les

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Making development and production copies

            Les --

            I presume you already have your application and data in one folder -- perhaps called DevelopmentFolder1. I suggest that you:

            - Create a second folder for your development application and its data, perhaps called DevelopmentFolder2, and copy everything you have done so far into that folder.
            - Create a third folder, perhaps called DevelopmentBackups.
            - In your application, create a button called "Backup", and put the "Run Custom Backup Job" action script on the On-Push event of that button. Configure the Custom Backup Job to backup both application and data files in a numbered zip file located in your DevelopmentBackups folder.
            - Create another button called "Create Version". The on-push event for this button should also run a Custom Backup Job, but it should only backup the application files, and not the data. I suggest you call this backup your "VersionUpdate", and put it in the same DevelopmentBackups folder.

            Using the Restore capability in A5, I believe you should be able to extract a "Versionupdate.zip" to an empty folder, and then restore only your original data files to that same new folder. Restoring the VersionUpdate.zip on top of an existing application will also work if you have not changed your table structure, but with this you must be a little careful. This should get you started.

            -- Dick James

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Making development and production copies

              Hi Les,

              I am really lazy, and do backups with Windows. Just do a copy and paste of your development folder(hopefully all the files for the application are in there). The paste will be "copy_of_*". Rename it to whatever you like as Dick suggested. You can make as many copies of this as you wish. Each one will have your complete data base, as of that development period.

              Make lots of backups as you go along. Before each session you develope, do a backup of your preference. Things can happen during a session. I learned this early on. Do lots of them.

              The preference is yours.

              If you are developing away from work, say for a few days, and have made some improvements with forms, reports, etc. You could do this.

              Make a separate copy of the entire database folder that you just made improvements in. No sub folders in this case, all the application files need to be in the one folder. The data will be in the DBF's, CDX's, FPT's. All the support file extensions, will be the balance of the files. For instance if they have been using your database say at work, and have been adding data all week long, you can take your new development copy strip out the DBF, CDX, FPT extension files, add the new data files from work, and you will have the new data plus your new developments all back together. Make backups of the whole data base at work, and make sure you have a backup of your new development work. This is a pretty basic way to do it, you could test at home. This assumes you did not add tables or fields.

              Ed
              Last edited by Ed Barley; 10-12-2008, 09:47 PM.

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