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The inevitable has happened

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    The inevitable has happened

    Someone accidentally overwrote the source database here with their network optimized version.
    I have a backup from 3am this morning, but today's additions/changes appear to be gone. Does anyone know how to recover from such a mess?

    Tom Lyon

    #2
    RE: The inevitable has happened

    I'm sure you verified that the shadow tables are actually located in the source folder, and not in a subfolder? It would be hard to tell if you just looked at the tables through Alpha Five. But then the doggone thing would work, albeit slowly, right? Guess I just answered my own question. I'm sorry to say I don't have any other ideas.

    -- tom

    Comment


      #3
      RE: The inevitable has happened

      Just a guess but since you have a back up, what if you just replaced the *.ddd, *.ddm, and *.ddx. and then the *.adb, *.alb, and the *alm??

      If you left the *.dbf files unchanged wouldn't you still have your data?

      Any way just a thought. Sorry, I don't have a better answer.

      Dan
      Dan

      Dan Blank builds Databases
      Skype: danblank

      Comment


        #4
        RE: The inevitable has happened

        INCLUDE THE SET DICTIONARIES WITH THAT. EXTENSIONS BEGINNING WITH "S" THINK ITS SEM-SEX-SET. IF THERE IS A GOOD BACKUP OF THESE FILES, IT SHOULD WORK WITH THE SUPPOSEDLY INTACT DATA.

        Comment


          #5
          RE: The inevitable has happened

          Thanks for the assist, people.

          Unfortunately, once a set of shadow files overwrites the source data files, things just aren't the same anymore. dbf files become like shortcuts to the source dbf files. In this case, they are one and the same, so the source file is now gone..poof..disappeared from the 3rd rock from the sun.

          I'm just a little miffed as to why it is possible to overwrite source with shadow. Sure, users need to follow rules and operate within the confines of allowed practices, but these are computers with which we are dealing. We should be able to *prevent* the inevitable from even happening.

          I think this particular procedure needs some work. It would be very easy for a novice to wipe out a database into which they've put many long hours of work. I'd like to see something like a path definition for shadow files. If not set, then no refresh can occur. If that path is set, let it be set only by the administrator/author of the database.

          Luckily, I'm a fanatic about making backups. Once again, backups come to the rescue.

          I, for one, will be removing the optimize/shadow refresh from my menus and :controlpanel.hide() will become standard practice. No one to blame but myself on that one. Even using the runtime version doesn't prevent this. Hope everyone is cautious about network optimizing.

          Tom Lyon

          Comment


            #6
            RE: The inevitable has happened

            Since Alpha Five 'knows' whether it's opening the source tables it 'knows' whether network optimize is possible. When not possible the option to network optimize is greyed out.

            I agree that it would be nice to have a failsafe built in to prevent the user from selecting the source table directory as the 'destination' for a network optimize operation. This shouldn't be too tough since Alpha Five already knows where the source tables are located, to begin with.

            At minimum we need a 'hook' into the process so that, through xbasic, we can validate the user's choice before letting it rock and roll.

            Your experience reminds me of something similar which happened to me. Two days after installing my application and just after training was finished, one of my users wiped out my primary data table, too. My app permits them to copy selected records to a file for use with external fax and word processing programs. The user just happened to 'pick' the exact filespec for my primary table as the name and location for his copy! Worked like a charm. Wiped it clean out, replacing 4500 records with 30.

            -- tom

            Comment


              #7
              RE: The inevitable has happened

              Hi Tom:

              I feel your pain but .....

              this didn't happen as a result of anything a user did within Alpha did it? More likely an errant copy operation in Explorer? Perhaps you should limit access to Explorer in the Registry settings.

              I stop refresh_shadow operations, other than on a workstation, by using the GetMachineName function that you can find at www.learn alpha.com. This prevents the script from running on the server where, potentially, it could do harm.

              Finian
              Finian

              Comment


                #8
                RE: The inevitable has happened

                It was from within Alpha Five. I'd allowed the user to refresh shadow as needed. Unfortunately, I didn't script the entire operation, but rather let Alpha Five do its thing. I am not even sure it can be scripted, can it?

                Tom Lyon

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: The inevitable has happened

                  Hey, it saved you a lot of disk space :)

                  The pain doesn't hurt quite as badly if I laugh about it now

                  Tom Lyon

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: The inevitable has happened

                    Tom,

                    One of things that I check for when people are copying or exporting data is that they are not writing to the same folder as the application folder. This folder should not have anything but the original application that was installed. User's just love to clutter it up with temporary files.

                    If you want to conditionally allow them to write there, prompt them 1st with a warning. Of course there is not much you can do if someone wants to copy a file outside of A5.

                    In most cases, the default should either be My Documents, or the private directory. You may want it to always be the same default. However, for most prompts, after the initial selection, the last used selection remains either throughout the A5 session, or for some cases, for all invocations of A5 as I choose it to operate.

                    (These values are either in global variables or a stored value in the private directory. In some cases, it might be the real database directory for those values shared by many users.)

                    Regards,

                    Ira J. Perlow
                    Computer Systems Design & Associates
                    [email protected]
                    Regards,

                    Ira J. Perlow
                    Computer Systems Design


                    CSDA A5 Products
                    New - Free CSDA DiagInfo - v1.39, 30 Apr 2013
                    CSDA Barcode Functions

                    CSDA Code Utility
                    CSDA Screen Capture


                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: The inevitable has happened

                      Tom,

                      See the code section for an example. I'll be updating the last version I posted with a newer one today that fixes a few issues.

                      Regards,

                      Ira J. Perlow
                      Computer Systems Design & Associates
                      [email protected]
                      Regards,

                      Ira J. Perlow
                      Computer Systems Design


                      CSDA A5 Products
                      New - Free CSDA DiagInfo - v1.39, 30 Apr 2013
                      CSDA Barcode Functions

                      CSDA Code Utility
                      CSDA Screen Capture


                      Comment


                        #12
                        RE: The inevitable has happened

                        I came. I saw. I wowed. Nice stuff there, Ira. I'm anxiously awaiting your update!

                        Tom Lyon

                        Comment


                          #13
                          RE: The inevitable has happened

                          Finnian, where might I find information regarding restricting the user from changing settings?
                          Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                          972 524 8714
                          [email protected]

                          ____________________
                          "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

                          Comment


                            #14
                            RE: The inevitable has happened

                            Tom,

                            The 2nd version I posted (Optimize1.zip) is the "final" version. However, the one addition I would make is to force a full optimization even if the shadowed database is active.

                            Thus if you were in the shadowed version, you'd want to change to the path and database of the non-shadowed version and run a full optimize. The problem is getting to the non-shadowed database using sendkeys (to effectively open a new database) seems to cause global functions and inline basic of the changed to app to fail for some reason. Nevertheless, I think the autoexec script does work, and hence placing code in the autoexec to run the full net optimize after switching to the non-shadowed version (based upon a flag like "OptNet.TXT") might just work. The following code works (with the above problems still in it) to change to a new application


                            function RunApp as L(AppName as C)
                            ' Changes to new database passed in AppName

                            frm=obj(A_FORM_CURRENT)
                            frm.minimize()
                            :controlpanel.show()
                            :controlpanel.minimize()
                            :controlpanel.activate()

                            sys_send_keys("{%F}{RIGHT}{LEFT}{DOWN}O"+AppName+"{ENTER}")

                            END

                            end function


                            Regards,

                            Ira J. Perlow
                            Computer Systems Design & Associates
                            [email protected]
                            Regards,

                            Ira J. Perlow
                            Computer Systems Design


                            CSDA A5 Products
                            New - Free CSDA DiagInfo - v1.39, 30 Apr 2013
                            CSDA Barcode Functions

                            CSDA Code Utility
                            CSDA Screen Capture


                            Comment


                              #15
                              RE: The inevitable has happened

                              I was referring to things like the Windows Explorer etc .. these settings are all controllable from the Registry. I used the "Win 95 Secrets" book to figure out how to remove things like Network Neighborhood and other options from a users desktops at one client.

                              Finian
                              Finian

                              Comment

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