Damage Limitations!

[Judith]

The small company I work for have suspended invoicing customers for three days so that I can replace our old Alpha4 system with Alpha5 V9
everything was going swimmingly until one of the sets became corrupt (no idea why - but it was after I'd done a back-up)

Is it difficult to put a runtime version on to another computer and then add stuff to it, (I will have to re-do the corrupt set and design a complicated report all over again), and I can't delay the company not invoicing for any longer.

Also, could I be doing something wrong when I do a back up, I DON'T select compact databases and I simply back up from my hard drive to our server.

[CALocklin]

Re: Damage Limitations!

I think you aren't getting responses to your question because it contains multiple questions and is a bit vague.

Do you need help repairing the set?

Not exactly sure what you mean by "Is it difficult to put a runtime version on to another computer and then add stuff to it". The A5 runtime is the A5 runtime and has nothing to do with the application other than running it. But, of course, one runtime could run many different applications - at the same time even. Some people put the runtime on the workstation and access the data on the server directly. Others put the runtime on the workstation then "shadow" the application. (Personally, I prefer the shadow method but there are other who claim it isn't necessary on a fast network with little other use.)

If your runtime accesses the application directly on the server, you don't have to "add stuff to it" because it will already be there as soon as you update the server.

If you shadow the runtimes on the workstations, just go to the A5 control panel in the shadowed version after updating the server and click on "Tools/Refresh Shadow". (Or, you can build a button that calls the Refresh_shadow() function.)

As for doing something wrong with the backup, I don't see how that would be the problem (and I'm always right;)).

[turbojack]

Re: Damage Limitations!

Also, could I be doing something wrong when I do a back up, I DON'T select compact databases and I simply back up from my hard drive to our server.

I had a problem after I did a compact and then a backup. I would have all kinds of problems until I would reindex the tables. After I figured out the problems I was having was after using Alpha's backup I stopped backing up with alpha and used one of our other backup programs. Never had those problems again.

[CALocklin]

Re: Damage Limitations!

FWIW, I can't remember the last time I did a "database compact". I hate that function because it always does everything whether it's needed or not. And one half of what it does is for the benefit of the user and the other half is for the benefit of the developer. It packs the tables and re-indexes them whether they need it or not (typically a user need); then it compacts all the data dictionary files (*.dd*, *.se*, <adbname>.al*) whether they need it or not (typically a developer need).

And, if I recall correctly, it doesn't tell you when something fails to compact because someone still had it open.

- If I need to pack a table, I pack the table. (My "pack_all" routine for users checks to see if there are deleted records before packing. This can save a lot of time in some cases because it eliminates the automatic re-indexing that shouldn't be needed if there were no records deleted.)
- If I need to re-index a table, I re-index the table.
- If I need to compact a data dictionary, I compact the data dictionary. I never provide the user with a "compact dictionaries" routine because they will never need it. When I do an update, I take care of that myself. (The "Compact Dictionaries" option in my AIMS Grab Bag shows which data dictionaries have deleted records that need to be compacted and/or you can look at the last modified date to determine which files you want to compact. Note that compacting data dictionaries does more than just remove deleted records so you can't just go by that. When done, just for fun, it also shows how many bytes have been eliminated.)

Data dictionaries should never need to be compacted by users and, conversely, the tables seldom need to be packed by the developer. However, the "Database Compact" routine always does both. Packing a large table can take a lot of time while compacting the data dictionaries for that same table will be quite fast. So, if you're a developer and want to keep your data dictionaries clean but don't want to waste a lot of time constantly re-indexing, either get my Grab Bag which has that and a number or other utilities ($19) or build your own routine using Dictionary.Update().

Also, my AIMS Backup routine (which I include with every app I build) seems to work even if other users are in the database. I've received many backups that were done that way and have never yet found one that was corrupted. (I can't guarantee it will never be corrupted but I've been using it for about 10 years and haven't heard of a problem yet.) For some reason A5's built-in backup will not back up tables that are in use. However, my backup routine does not have any provision for packing tables as part of the backup. I've had too many customer call and ask how to retrieve something they recently deleted and, consequently, I don't want them packing tables without understanding the consequences.