360Works - How to Set Up 360Deploy 2: Houston FM Meeting Video Recap

[360Works]

360Deploy 2 automates your process of making FileMaker changes and migrating the data to a live or production (PROD) database.

Experience an easy and safe tool to make changes to your development (DEV) file and send off the changes with the click of a button. With 360Deploy 2, all you'll need to do is use the configuration tool to set up and your users will be enjoying their new database in no time!

Joe Martin, Senior Developer at 360Works, recently presented at the Houston FMDUT Meeting where he demonstrated the setup of 360Deploy 2 and covered development topics on deploying changes to a PROD file.

Today we have a video recap of the meeting that has been shortened to 15 minutes so you can briefly observe what the process will look like for you or follow along with the setup! Below the video we have summarized a few answers to questions asked after the presentation.

 

 

Q&A Summary:

What happens when you add a new value list?
If you add a new value list, it will be pulled in from the dev file (prod value list will be wiped out) 360Deploy makes a clone of DEV file and pulls in from it Considering adding a feature to customize this in the future (alternatively pulls from PROD file)

How are accounts handled?
360Deploy pulls data and accounts from PROD, and layout and schema from DEV

What does 360Deploy do with your container data?
360Deploy does nothing with your container data. Which is the desired behavior. Externally stored containers live in completely separate folders than the database itself. If we run our database migration, and put the production database back in place, the records will still be able to resolve their external container dependency to that data. Container data is ignored, but we maintain the link to it so that when the dev file is swapped out with the prod file those links can re-establish themselves.

Is 360Deploy FileMaker Cloud compatible?
360Deploy is not FM Cloud Compatible due to FMS admin technology not made available to us. However, we can host for you. Please contact us at [email protected] to learn more about hosting.

Does 360Deploy absolutely require FileMaker Server ...can it be ran locally?
360Deploy requires a production server to deploy to, as this was the primary goal behind the product. Your DEV files can be local.

Can 360Deploy run overnight?
360Deploy can be set to run overnight using an on timer script. You'll need to leave the client open to let it run overnight. In later versions, we plan to have scheduled scripts so you can run the deployment from anywhere such as your iPad.

Story Behind 360Deploy?
360Deploy 1 was created by Sam Barnum to create a solution that did not exist (before FileMaker Data Migration Tool was released). He had to come up with several workarounds for abstracting a database import, one being able to dynamically generate a script to determine the next serial number for imported tables. However, now 360Deploy 2 can run imports and migrations faster and smoother since it leverages the new FileMaker Data Migration Tool.

Our ultimate goal was to provide a nicer way to manage files on your server, providing smoother imports and making tedious work a lot easier. We plan to continue innovating around this goal with features in future version releases.

Getting Started?
We recommend using the demo version first to make sure it is going to work for your solution. We'll be happy to help you get a license once you are done your testing. Please email [email protected] with any questions you may have.

 

For more information or to download, visit: 360deploy.com.