I have a client that asked for some changes in his system and for the changes he asked for I didn't need to change all the files so I only saved the files that I changed in order to take the files and subsitute them at my clients office.

I saved the files that were changed as a clone and I also tried saving them as a current file. Both ways the relationships disapear and shows <filemissing>

Do I need to copy all the files , not only the ones I need ? Why doesn't the save as clone save the relationships ?

Because relationships are based on file names.

So you have to maintain the original names of files(it matter only for related file however) if you want your rels to continue working.

Dj

Best thing to do is to simply to make the changes to the actual system. Another good option is to take a complete copy of the solution offline, preferably to a system with networking turned off, or one not connected to the client network and make the necessary changes. Then when replacing the files, just import the data from the previously online versions.

Danger, danger, warning Will Robinson!

Always make a copy of the solution first. That way, if you screw things up (and in any sufficiently complex solution, you occasionally will -- don't take that personally; everyone else does too ), you still have a pristine copy where you can start over.

Remember, FMP has no "Save" function, allowing you to quit without saving changes, so having a backup is your only safeguard.

You may also find a problem because you saved the files as clones. If your relationships had any global fields in them, saving as a clone clears global fields. If you delete all records (from a duplicate of the file, or course) then you will be left with a file containing zero records but the contents of global fields will still be there.

In addition to this thread, it's 'dangerous' to have related files copied into other folders with the same name (the files I mean.), I have heard. Does Filemaker have a search order when searching for related files? For instance that it searches in the same folder the parent file is in, first?

harryk

...Does Filemaker have a search order when searching for related files?

Yes. It always finds the wrong one first!