Take a look at our clone?

[Clare]

Hello FileMaker whizzes,

Our database has been behaving strangely for a few months now, (see "Mysterious Portal Problem" and "Difficulty Deleting Records") and I have been unable to fix the problems. I'm still learning about FileMaker, and maybe it's just that I haven't got my head around some of the concepts wholly yet - but fixing problems is made harder as the database creator no longer works for us.

Anyways, our clone file is too big to attach, even zipped up, and I was wondering if anyone who felt like a challenge (or possibly something really easy!) would be happy for me to email them the clone and take a look at it? We'd be very grateful for any clues. Otherwise it looks like I'm designing a new database for our business next week! It's not that I wouldn't find that really interesting, (I am a graphic designer and have found unexpected enjoyment in working with databases!) but we are a small business with limited time on our hands.

If you're willing to look at our clone, thankyou, and I'll get it to you on Monday (it's currently 9am Sunday).

Thankyou!

PS: Can anyone suggest some good free written resources online for learning about FileMaker? Or good books? Cheers!

[Breezer]

what kind of problems? Did you recently upgrade?

My favorite book for Filemaker 7 is "Using Filemaker 7" by Bob Bowers, Chris Moyer, Scott Love who happen to have been great speakers at the recent Filemaker DevCon.

I would be happy to look at your database but only after I have more info as to the currently known problems.

[email protected]

[Clare]

Thankyou - here's a rundown of what I can recall. I'm at home at the moment, but I'll ask other staff before I send you the file tomorrow so we can tell you as much as possible.

We have client card files set up, that display ad booking info and article submission info in portals. Around July, some records started failing to show up in these portals. At first it seemed to be any created after a certain point, but more recently the Ads Card File portal seemed to start working normally again (without anything being deliberately changed), while the Articles one isn't. I can't see a problem with the match fields. The ad / article records are created with a script from the Card Files, but I couldn't pinpoint a problem with the script either. Changing which TO the Articles card file is displaying records from, seems to make all relevant records show up in the portal, but much of the other info on the Articles Card File layout then does not display for *some* records.

And while I was experimenting with the Articles Card File the other day, the Booking Form (also a layout using a portal) stopped working properly. I can only assume that I changed something that affected other relationships, I don't know what. I wonder, and have had it suggested, if maybe there are just too many relationships dependant on one another, so that problems can crop up easily. I have attached a screengrab of the relationships graph in case that gives any indication.

A more recent problem seems to be that when staff are deleting records (specifically, People records that display in a portal on both the Ads and Articles card file records), they reappear later on (later that day usually). They are not deleting them from within portals, but while viewing the record itself, and always get the "Delete ENTIRE record?" message. I haven't had much of a chance to look into this one. Could it be to do with the portals' setting "Allow deletion of portal records"? I would have thought that only applied to deletion from WITHIN the portal, but maybe I am mistaken.

I'm sure there are a couple of other problems that we have been ignoring due to lack of time... if you're still willing to have a look at the clone, I'll let you know when I email it.

Thankyou, Breezer!

[Clare]

Oh - and we're using 7.3 and have been for as long as I've been at Eco Voice, about 11 months.

[Lee Smith]

I'm not sure I'm understanding you correctly as to what has happened. However, when a file starts acting differently, it is usually an indication that the file has become currrupted.

The best practice is to revert to a clean clone and import your data.

[Breezer]

Make sure the primary key field and the secondary keys are of the same data type, ie, if the primary key is TEXT, then make sure that the secondary key is also defined as TEXT and also that they are STORED (indexable).

As for the deleted records showing up is that the primary key was deleted but the secondary key was not. To delete the related records you need cascade delete (by clicking on "delete related records using this relationship" found in the define database) which can also be very dangerous and yet so powerful at the same time.