Multiple auto-enter fields ona "sync" layout?

[ignotum]

I read the below... we are syncing tables in a file on FMS with SQL Server tables. We have ALL fields ont he sync layout, including all of the usual auto enter account, user, date and time fields. We have not experienced problems.

Are we OK because we are syncing a FM Server file with SQL (that will be modified by web users once we get this all up and running) andnot syncing FM users to FMS?

 

mark

 

 

 

Can I have more than one modified auto enter field on my sync layout?

No, MirrorSync only allows for one "modified" auto-enter field on the layout, the modified timestamp. That field does not get treated as a data modification by MirrorSync. MirrorSync will treat any other modified auto-enter field the same as it would any other data field on the sync layout. The reason why these are not allowed on the sync layout is because they will always result in a conflict. For example, User A and User B both sync a Contacts database at 12 PM. User A modifies the value in the "first name" field to "John" on a record in their file and User B modifies the value of the "last name" field to "Smith" on the same record in their file. At 1 PM user A syncs their file with the server. At 2 PM user B starts their sync. At this point, MirrorSync sees that User B last synced at 12 PM but the Server was updated at 1 PM by user A. MirrorSync sees that this could potentially cause a conflict. It then sees if these two changes can be merged. Since two different fields on the same record were modified, MirrorSync will merge the changes. However, if a "modified by" auto enter field had been on the layout, a conflict would happen because the "modified by" field will always be different between users and thus the conflict has to be resolved before the sync can continue. This will either result in a loss of data or a canceled sync depending on the conflict resolution strategy. This problem will happen anytime the same record is modified by different users.

[sean360Works]

Hello,

Yes, you should be fine syncing a FileMaker with SQL server. The documentation section you included in your post is referring to fields like 'modified timestamp' and 'modified by' that update automatically anytime a field in a record changes value. You should only include the modification timestamp field in your sync configuration.

To clarify, syncing modification fields other than the timestamp will produce conflicts because the data will likely update to values different from what MirrorSync writes to the records. Since MirrorSync is unaware of any other modification fields beyond the timestamp, any data discrepancies between what MirrorSync has written and what exists in a database will be processed as a conflict, which will slow down sync performance, and possibly compromise data integrity. The reason you can include the modification timestamp is that MirrorSync references that specific field when evaluating record updates, and it is the only modification field MirrorSync can account for because it is specified in the sync configuration.

Other fields you will want to exclude from the sync layout are calculation, summary, and global fields. MirrorSync cannot write to calculation and summary fields. Global field values are specific to the database sessions---their values should not persist.