possible to inadvertently delete records in WebDirect?? (no delete button on layout)

[Alison Young]

Hi folks,

 

I am fervently hoping that someone out there has a possible explanation for the following.

In a file accessible to our clients uniquely via WebDirect, at a time when only our newest user was logged in, 2 invoice records went missing several days ago, presumably deleted... except that there is no delete button for the invoice on that layout.

A bit more info: the invoice layout contains a portal to a child table for individual sales items and the Invoices table does have record creation/deletion privileges over the Sales table. So it *would* be possible to delete all the Sales records in the portal one by one using a delete button within the portal. However the new user has absolutely no reason to do so -- on the contrary, he is the business owner and will have to pay someone to re-enter the data. Also, each invoice consisted of over 50 sales items, so that's not something a person could manage to do by accident.

But the biggest mystery of all is, even if someone did delete all the child records, there is still no delete button for the Invoice itself. Invoices can be voided, but not deleted. I did also check all TO's to make sure that a cascade deletion from elsewhere could not have been responsible.

Again I stipulate that this file is only accessible to users via WebDirect.

So... does anyone know a way that records can be inadvertently deleted in WebD??

thanks!

Alison

[Fitch]

That is indeed a mystery. Are you sure the invoices were created in the first place? If so, maybe you could restore them from a backup.

Welcome to the forums. Please add your OS and FileMaker version to your profile, it helps people to better respond to your questions.

[IdealData]

As Fitch says, prove the data is missing first - it may just be missing the relationship key or other data that's obscuring it. In particular look at the data as a list or table view - and check the Get(RecordID). If there are gaps then that proves the records existed at one point.

You don't need a button to delete records in WebD...

1. Are the menus available to the user?

2. Did you check ALL the relationships? Cascade deletes happen if there's any single instance of a table occurrence (with "delete related") even if you didn't delete the record from that context?

3. Cascading deletes can work BOTH ways. If you have the relationship setup to delete the parent when the child is deleted then you could easily achieve your situation.

4. Did the WebD session terminate or lose network?

5. Is the user using a compatible browser? Check application and version compatibility with your server. Your application should be checking and validating the web browser at start up. FileMaker does not prevent incompatible browsers.

6. Is there any scripting involved? That's your bag. Getting the wrong context is all too easy.

7. New user?? Mmm...

 

I'm taking note of your "newbie" status so some of the above might be obvious if you're a more experienced developer.

[Alison Young]

9 hours ago, Fitch said:

That is indeed a mystery. Are you sure the invoices were created in the first place? If so, maybe you could restore them from a backup.

Welcome to the forums. Please add your OS and FileMaker version to your profile, it helps people to better respond to your questions.

I am sure they were created and they are present in all backups prior to July 10th. Restoring them is not the issue, it's determining why they went missing...

Hi folks, I'm not actually a newbie at all. Just new to this forum (usually on the other). I'll edit my profile when I have a couple of spare minutes

8 hours ago, IdealData said:

You don't need a button to delete records in WebD...

How do you mean? What would you do instead? I know that Cmd-E does not work.

8 hours ago, IdealData said:

1. Are the menus available to the user?

Menus are not available.

8 hours ago, IdealData said:

2. Did you check ALL the relationships? Cascade deletes happen if there's any single instance of a table occurrence (with "delete related") even if you didn't delete the record from that context?

All relationships and TO's were checked, nothing that could cause this.

8 hours ago, IdealData said:

3. Cascading deletes can work BOTH ways. If you have the relationship setup to delete the parent when the child is deleted then you could easily achieve your situation.

Yes I'm aware of that, thank you.

8 hours ago, IdealData said:

 

4. Did the WebD session terminate or lose network?

That is a possibility and I'm trying to determine with the new user whether they remember anything like that.

8 hours ago, IdealData said:

5. Is the user using a compatible browser? Check application and version compatibility with your server. Your application should be checking and validating the web browser at start up. FileMaker does not prevent incompatible browsers.

I wondered about this myself. I did not realize I need to validate browsers myself -- thank you!

8 hours ago, IdealData said:

6. Is there any scripting involved? That's your bag. Getting the wrong context is all too easy.

Went through my scripts with a fine-toothed comb but I will certainly keep re-checking until I get to the bottom of this!

8 hours ago, IdealData said:

7. New user?? Mmm...

Yes, that's what made me wonder about the browser compatibility!

many thanks for your thorough help!

[Alison Young]

Quote

IdealData asked: Did the WebD session terminate or lose network?

 

Hi again IdealData, I was able to determine that the user did experience being booted out several times that day, presumably due to losing network. 

In your experience can this cause inadvertent deletion of records?

I can also elaborate further, as follows:

• The user was trying to create a new invoice when he lost his connection and had to log back in
• 2 *blank* invoices were also created on that day, in addition to the loss of two existing invoices (note that the lost invoices were quite old and from different dates)

I am most grateful for your ideas/speculations!

- Alison