Upgrading database

[boykin]

This has got to be a stupid question, but I need to ask it anyway:

I have a database I've given someone that is now in production. I, of course, continue to make changes to it while they keep entering data. What I need to know is the proper sequence of steps to correctly move my user from one version to another. The version of FM will be the same.

There are a number of tables with data entered by the users (this is a concert ticket reservations system so it has: table of buyers (name, address, phone), price list, table of seats). But there are also tables with data that the user did not enter. These I created under the covers and contain much of the relationship information. That is, for each contact I create a unique "Contact ID", and there is a table that relates a particular user with a particular seat they purchased. There is one such record for each seat the person has bought. This way, from the "seats" table, I know who has bought the seat and from the "contact" table I know which seats the person has bought.

So, is the right thing to do the following:

In the new database: Save a copy as... Clone"

From the old database:

Export data from each of the tables: contacts, seats and my "hidden" tables.

Import each table into the cloned database.

Am I missing anything?

[JerrySalem]

Custom Value Lists!

This one can be a problem. Value lists do not export or import (without alot of tricks, this may have changed in 7 correct me if it has).

If you have any value lists that the end users can change, then these must be manually upgraded.

Jerry

[boykin]

I hadn't thought about Custom Value Lists. However, the only value lists there are are the ones I created; the user's can't change them.

Note: I've tried doing exactly what I described above. Indeed, I put the import/export into scripts so the process would be automated for the next time around. All of this *appears* to work with one exception: Global Data. When I did an export/import, the global data was not re-imported. For the most part, it doesn't matter, but for one particular table it definitely does...

[-Queue-]

There should be no problem with exporting and importing global fields. Just make sure they're selected for the export and are matched up during the import.

[swf]

Is there a way to import everything at once or do you have to import data into each table separately?

[Ender]

Import each table separately.