I hope someone here can shed some light on something that is puzzling me.

I have a customer setup with FM Server 5.5 on OS X Server with PC clients. All of them can connect without any problems. We don't have any file corruption issues either.

We have 1 particular problem here: 1 database is storing related records in line items database and being pullled into a portal. So far so good. The relationship is based on a unique serial number. Ok, once in a while a user will report that a newly created record in the master database will no longer show the related records in the line items. It appears the line items are being deleted. Now, the relationship is set to NOT delete the related records if the master is deleted.

What I want ot know is if the flush schedule on the FM server can affect this behaviour? Is it possible that some records being created are being hosed by the flush schedule pausing the databases? I've since had the customer set the schedule to 1 hour from 5 minutes. It doens't happen all the time just once in a while.

Anyone else encounter this problem?

Is your "serial number" REALLY unique ?

Yes it is. Any thoughts?

Hi tpage

Have you checked the LineItems dB to be sure the related LineItem doesn't even exist, or are you taking your User's word for it? Is the related record there but just not being displayed after a new Master Record is created?

A new record isn't really *created* until a field is exited so possibly your Users *sometimes* experience no display of related portal records because FM hasn

OK, i've checked everything. I've even added a script step to exit the new record request to make sure it gets created and added some static help text so users know to exist the portal field to "save" the data.

After a user finished entering data and the database was sitting idle we saw it happen right before our eyes. The data in the portal disappeared!

Now, just so you know, the field for the relationship is not on the layout, furthermore it is set to require a value, be unique and non modifiable. There is NO WAY a user could alter the relationship field in either the master or slave database. Some thing REALLY wierd is happening.

We're tempted to move the whole thing over to FileMaker Pro Server on a Windows 2000 Server machine but we don't have a license for that, just for Mac OS X. Maybe we could try the trial version to see what happens...

Any thoughts? This is really frustrating.

Is there a script running that deletes the records?

Nope, nothing of the sort.

I moved the databases over to the W2K server with the Trial server software from Filemaker and we'll see if the problem occurs there.

Well, moving the databases to Windows 2000 solved the problem. We no longer have any issues. I knew my database schemas were fine all along.

I certainly hope that FileMaker can this their server product, there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to run it on Mac OS X server or client. They are basically the same foundation.