Main DB opens related DB's through network instead of FM server

[cinolas]

When I open a local copy of my main DB it automatically opens related DB's through the network (shared folder) instead of from FM Server...

The fisrt time I opened the local copy it actually asked me where it could find the related DB's and I showed it the files through the network instead of using the Hosts button... Now that I realize my stupid mistake, I want to change it to the FM server DB's... How can I do that ?

I tried closing all the related DB's and opening them manually from the Hosts but when I opened the main DB it still went trough the network and opened a second copy...

Thanks

[Vaughan]

When putting a solution on an FMP host, I go around to all the user's machines (and network servers) round up all the copies of the databases and zip them -- most often I make up one backup, zip it, and delete all the others. It's really important that only the one copy of the file is available otherwise all sorts of weird things begin to happen (as you discovered).

[Anatoli]

First - throw the network databases away or Zip/Sit them.

Then try to run your solution again and press the Host button.

[Anatoli]

Vaughan beat me by 5 minutes.

I must double the speed of my line

[ December 04, 2001: Message edited by: Anatoli ]

[Vaughan]

No Antoli, you need to change your time zone. I'm GST +10:00 here in Sydney Australia. You're probably still yesterday!

[cinolas]

The thing is they are the same files ! The folder containing the DBs served by FMPServer is shared on the network. The only reason I can access them through the network is they are multiuser...

Isn't there a way I can redirect my main DB to the ones on FMPServer without :

Removing the share of the folder

Setting the served DBs to single user

I thought maybe if I disconnect my ethernet cable while opening the main DB and then reconnect it, when asked to point DBs, to use Hosts ? Would this work permanently ?

[BobWeaver]

You could try renaming the folder, or put the folder inside another folder. Then, hopefully, FM won't be able to find them and will ask you to locate them. Then, open them through hosts properly. Once they are being accessed through hosts, you can change your folders back again.

[MeltDown]

I haven't worked with FileMaker server, but I've had similar problems when moving or copying related databases across folders. If the systems aren't too complex, the easiest way to fix it is to go into "Define Relationships", and edit each relationship (choose 'specify file', then locate the file the way you want it to be opened automatically). You also have to re-define any ValueLists you may have. Check your scripts and re-select any scripts called on from a related database - don't trust it even if it appears to be correct (the scripts will often look OK, but are still targeted at the 'old' location).

This really isn't as difficult or time consuming as it sounds...just make sure you do it methodically. And you may have to do this anyway if you put them in a renamed folder, or you could mess up your scripts, valuelists and related fields.

[MeltDown]

I haven't worked with FileMaker server, but I've had similar problems when moving or copying related databases across folders. If the systems aren't too complex, the easiest way to fix it is to go into "Define Relationships", and edit each relationship (choose 'specify file', then locate the file the way you want it to be opened automatically). You also have to re-define any ValueLists you may have. Check your scripts and re-select any scripts called on from a related database - don't trust it even if it appears to be correct (the scripts will often look OK, but are still targeted at the 'old' location).

This really isn't as difficult or time consuming as it sounds...just make sure you do it methodically. And you may have to do this anyway if you put them in a renamed folder, or you could mess up your scripts, valuelists and related fields.

[Vaughan]

It sounds like you aren't serving the files correctly. They should *not* be on a shared volume. B-I-G problems with that. The FM Server should not have any file sharing services (or any other services) as they compete for cpu resources. It should be set up so the only way people can connect through them is throught the FMP Hosts dialog.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

I would STRONGLY recommend that anyone not knowing how to set up files on a network get Rich Coulombre's book and read especially Chapter 17 on multiuser files. Then I'd also STRONGLY recommend that you get the FileMaker Server Best practices White paper on the FMI web site.

The NUMBER ONE CAUSE of file damage and corruption and a leading cause of solution misbehavior is the incorrect deployment of files on the network.

HTH

Old Advance Man

[Garry Claridge]

One of my clients, in Sydney, had been having exactly the same problem; i.e. FMP opening the related files from the Shared Volume rather than through 'Hosts'. They have, however had success by opening the first file with "Open Remote" in the "File Menu".

Hope this helps.

Garry

[CyberSport]

Okay, maybe I should be breaking this into several different posts (and moderators feel free to help me out), but the previous line of posts present several questions to me.

First, if I make the folder hosted in FMServer a non-sharable folder, how would I go about making changes to those files (such as access privileges) after I shut down Server? Right now, I am making those changes on a second computer, accessing the files via the network, as FM client is not installed on the computer with FMServer (like a good girl, I have nothing else on that computer). Should I install client on that computer?

Second, this is more the relationship question. I have a dozen schools in a conference, all running the identical base solution (customized for each school), housed on each university's campus and consisting of 7-10 related DBs for each school. The conference office wants to tap into all the solutions and be able to run its own reports. My idea was going to be to have a portal-type DB to grab the information from each school. However, I am extremely worried, since the DBs are all named the same, of having relationships get crossed-up in the conference copy. While it seems that I should be able to have the relationships in each schools' solution be IP-address specific, I don't know if I trust the "relative path only" feature. For example, if the conference is looking at records from the central DBs of 5 schools and each central DB is related to a medical DB, can I be assured that the related info coming into the conference portal is the correct relationship? Since the relationships are built by social security number, it's not as if "wrong" information would show up (a kid's SS# couldn't be in 2 different schools' DBs at the same time), but it would still be incorrect or incomplete.

The alternative, making unique DB names for each school and then recoding the hundreds of web pages, sounds cumbersome.

Whaddya think?

Bevin