Filemaker not seeing some databases

[Makk]

I have 2 databases (each one comprises of 3 separate .fm7 files) of the same name in two different folders.

Is it possible to get filemaker server to see both databases? As at the moment it sees one or the other. Would like to keep the name of the files the same as it is easier for updating purposes.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

[Razumovsky]

Very Sketchy!

How can you be sure that users are entering data into the correct file? I think you are asking for lots of problems and confusion. I can't think of any reason why you would want to have 2 files of the same name on the same network, much less server.

-Raz

[Makk]

As they have different passwords and usernames in each database the clients are set to only see database with their details

Edited March 10, 2006 by Guest

[Razumovsky]

Apologies for the disciplinarian tone of my initial reply; it is likely in reaction to a legacy database that I inherited last week that had all sorts of problems related to this issue - I think I was yelling at that guy...

Filepaths have become much more reliable within FM since version 7, but I am still very wary of identical filenames, and is not a reccomended practice. Even with version 7+, filemaker can become confused, and just look for the filename. I have noticed this happening after people have moved the DB folder around on the harddrive wihtout closing the files first, or burned folders uncompressed to CD and back. Even with unique user accounts, I believe you are asking for problems. Do the users log in to each of the three seperate files uniquely each time they openup? Does FM consider the user account each time a field in a different file is referenced through a relationship? I suspect there are also plenty more considerations you would seriously need to review if you were convinced that identical file names were essential to your DB implementation. I can not give much guidance on these as I never encountered a situation where this was neccesarry or desireable for what I was trying to accomplish. I am curious why you did not just use two different user accounts on the same DB solution? Is it the separation of data you were concerned with? Are the layouts, calcs, scripts different with each user as well? All these can be addressed within the same DB. What is the impulse behind your decision?

To address your initial question; FM can see two files of the same name at the same time. Perhaps the issue is where the folders are placed on your server, and how deep they are nested in subfolders. I seem to remember that server only looks one folder or so down in the DataBase folder. Regardless, I suggest you read the file reference sectiion of FM7 Foundations Techbrief and make sure you have a thorough understanding of how FM7 references files before you go live with your database. It contains much info which should give you pause:

"Although not recommended, sometimes during active development a developer might have multiple versions of a solution on a hard drive or a copy on the local machine and a copy on the server. With multiple copies of fi les located in various places it is easy for FileMaker Pro to become confused about which is the “correct” copy of the file."

-Raz