Re: Version Control
Try this link, I posted a number of routines I use for adding fields and changing their size. It also shows how I check for the lastest update and skip the routine if it already exists:
http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...68&postcount=5
This is another reason I use a third party installer - I can include new tables with the update with no concern about them rerunning it. The install routine is set to overwrite everything except the data files. Those are set to "Never Overwrite". That way it doesn't matter how many times the user re-installs an update. In fact, the only difference for the user between my "install" routines and my "update" routines are that the "update" downloads faster because it doesn't include the runtime files. They could also re-run the original "install" routine as often as they wanted and there would be no concern about overwriting data. If they really wanted to start from scratch, they'd have to 'manually' delete the .dbf/.fpt and, preferably, the .cdx files.
Note: There is a slight difference in the internal setup of my update routines because I allow the user to install the program under any folder they choose and put the application in a subfolder under the runtime but, although it's not that difficult, it takes awhile to describe so I won't go into that here. Later: I found a previous post of my method: http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...8&postcount=17
That's also one reason I normally use install programs even for single-user updates. With a zip file it may be possible for them to mess something up by unzipping again later. The way my install routines are set up, it doesn't matter - the worst they can do is to re-install an older version by mistake. Even newer table changes will usually work fine with older versions since new fields are added at the end of the table. There might be a problem with field size changes but those are rare. The solution would be to simply re-install the newer version - field size changes won't reverse themselves so that's not a concern.
Try this link, I posted a number of routines I use for adding fields and changing their size. It also shows how I check for the lastest update and skip the routine if it already exists:
http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...68&postcount=5
Originally posted by DickJames
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Note: There is a slight difference in the internal setup of my update routines because I allow the user to install the program under any folder they choose and put the application in a subfolder under the runtime but, although it's not that difficult, it takes awhile to describe so I won't go into that here. Later: I found a previous post of my method: http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...8&postcount=17
That's also one reason I normally use install programs even for single-user updates. With a zip file it may be possible for them to mess something up by unzipping again later. The way my install routines are set up, it doesn't matter - the worst they can do is to re-install an older version by mistake. Even newer table changes will usually work fine with older versions since new fields are added at the end of the table. There might be a problem with field size changes but those are rare. The solution would be to simply re-install the newer version - field size changes won't reverse themselves so that's not a concern.
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