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weird "errors" and data loss!!!

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    weird "errors" and data loss!!!

    OK, I will be changing jobs soon, and have been crunching to get Alpha Five to a point where my current company can use it. I am a little concerned, because of weird bugs or errors i've encountered lately. I will have table look ups on fields that I have never touched. Buttons that disappear. and today, a whole table was emptied!!! There are plenty of bugs that I know exactly what I've done incorrectly, but then there are these other kind that I can honestly say, I haven't the slightest clue how something can happen.

    Have any of you encountered strange things like this, and can you give me peace of mind (along with solutions) so that I can move on to my next job knowing i didn't leave my current employer high and dry??!!

    Thanks,
    Tom

    #2
    RE: weird

    Tom

    That's a very tall order. You may want to find a consultant in your area and have them look at the system and prepare your soon to be previous employer to prepare for you to leave and for the time after you're gone.

    Certainly without looking at the system, one can only repeat all of the caveats that have already appeared on the message board.

    I'd certainly figure out why a table got cleaned out. Most things like that have a logical explanation.

    There are plenty of bugs that I know exactly what I've done incorrectly

    You have a good place to start.....
    Al Buchholz
    Bookwood Systems, LTD
    Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

    Occam's Razor - KISS
    Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
    Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
    When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
    "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
    Albert Einstein

    http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

    Comment


      #3
      RE: weird

      Tom,

      I don't want to break through an open door here, but did you consider a possible virus contamination ?

      Regards,

      Marcel

      Comment


        #4
        RE: weird

        hmmm, i guess you can never rule it out. Our computers here all have Trned Micro's anti-virus software on them. So I would hope we don't have to worry about it. My system did a scan yesterday and found nothing.

        I better do another scan just to be safe :)

        Thanks.

        I've just restored my DB, but hate to think that it may happen again after I leave. Not exactly how I want to leave my "legacy" at my current employer, heheh.
        Thanks again,
        Tom

        Comment


          #5
          RE: weird

          Tom,

          Layouts (forms, reports, labels, etc.) are stored in the dictionaries for the table or set upon which they are based. A button could seem to disappear if an earlier version of the dictionaries was 'restored' on top of the latest version, in cases where the button was added to the layout in the latest iteration. Otherwise I can't think of how this could happen without someone opening the form in design mode and manually deleting the button object.

          The most likely reason a table has been 'emptied' is that somewhere in the database a script was run which zapped its contents. Less likely, but also possible, is that someone used a third party tool to open the table outside of Alpha Five and then either deleted the records, or experienced trouble which corrupted the table.

          Perhaps other more experienced hands can offer other possible explanations for what you're seeing.

          -- tom

          Comment


            #6
            RE: weird

            Hi Tom,

            Thanks for the reply. The button disappearing was discussed in another thread, and it just seems that when you add a lot of instructions to a button, it can only accept so much. Once you pass that threshhold, it disappears. It limits me to what i can do, but there are always other solutions. I have temporarily solved that problem, but the fact that it exists makes my faith in alpha five start to fade.

            I went through scenarios in my head on how a table could get emptied. I know none of my scripts do anything even remotely like that. I don't believe i even do any sort of delete anywhere. The user has to explicitly delete a record, and even then, can only delete one record at a time. I will take your idea though, and double check my scripts and routines to make sure nothing is out of place.

            Thanks again,
            Tom

            Comment


              #7
              RE: weird

              "i"and it just seems that when you add a lot of instructions to a button, it can only accept so much. Once you pass that threshhold, it disappears.
              "/i"
              Hhhmmmm...I'll have to take your word on that one. Never have seen that. But I would suggest if your scripts are that long, you move them to global scripts, then your button has only one line...script_play().

              Peter
              Peter
              AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

              [email protected]
              https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


              Comment


                #8
                RE: weird

                In Version 4 folks sometimes encountered a limit on the allowable size of an Xbasic script. The solution was to break the colossal script down into smaller pieces, store them as separate 'global' scripts in the Code page of the control panel, and then call them with one line script_play statements. I suppose it's possible your button script exceeded the current limit in Version 5 somehow. The solution is probably the same, break the long script down into smaller pieces, as Peter G. recommends.

                -- tom

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: weird

                  Another possibility for some things (not the disappearing button) might be your Opportunistic Lock settings.

                  The Windows default settings are optimized for Client/Server databases but can cause index and even data corruption (MicroSoft's words) on "ISAM" databases such as A5. There are other discussions on this board about this topic and some good links to the info on Microsoft's own board.

                  One of my favorite links is: http://www.biscount.com/Newsgroup/_disc1/00000178.htm

                  So far, my success rate with implementing this on systems that have been experiencing index problems has been what I would consider phenomenal. One customer went from 2-4 index rebuilds per day to.... none in 3 weeks.

                  Because of this, I created a routine of my own that will automatically change the registry settings.

                  Cal Locklin
                  www.aimsdc.net

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: weird

                    very nice suggestions by everyone here. Thanks a bunch.

                    I browsed over that article and forwarded it to the appropriate people. Thank you very much. I hope they take that article seriously.

                    Thanks again everyone.
                    Tom

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: weird


                      Many thanks to Cal for providing this info and bringing this issue to the forefront. Cal has an article on this issue in the newsletter which should be out tomorrow.

                      Thanks Cal,
                      Jim

                      Comment


                        #12
                        RE: weird

                        Tom,

                        Do you have a form for Utilities? This would be a form with buttons to 1) perform a database compact and 2) update the indexes. As you said, there are bugs that 'you created'. Thus you might want to consider putting the code in one or more places to automatically perform these little duties. Theses can be created with action scripting so it's pretty easy to do.

                        If I'm off base on this, perhaps Tom Cone or others can weigh in on this.

                        kenn
                        TYVM :) kenn

                        Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          RE: weird

                          the issue is now out

                          it can be accessed (maybe I should use a different verb :))
                          at www.imakenews.com/alphasoftware

                          or by clicking the newsletter tab on www.alphasoftware.com

                          thanks
                          Richard Rabins
                          Co Chairman
                          Alpha Software

                          Comment


                            #14
                            RE: weird

                            Thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone. Today is my last day, and I think I actually have their DB up and running fairly flawlessly. Yeah I know, no such thing, but hey, close enough :) I'm fortunate, that I'm leaving it in the hands of someone that is very familiar with Alpha 4, and seems to be picking up Alpha Five pretty quickly.

                            Thanks again...what a great forum.
                            Tom

                            Comment

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