Corruption Test Tool

[Heckate]

I have a file with 8 tables and just over 13,000 records. Sometimes it causes the entire FileMaker application to stop responding.

It is usually when doing a find in one of the tables, but has also happened when debugging a script that looped through records in a different table.

I am using FileMaker Advanced 8.5 and the file is served on a G5 Mac running FileMaker Server 8.0v4.

Is there any way to test if this file is corrupted, or any best practices I should be routinely following to keep the file 'clean'?

[stanley]

Heckate:

Corruption can be a bit of a mystery in FileMaker, but it sounds to me like you have a corrupt record. If you purge this one record (or records) your problems with looping and finding may well go away.

One way to spot the problem would be to write a script that does a loop through all records, and writes the serial number (key field) of the current record into a record in a secondary table. Run it until it crashes, then look at the serial number that is in your secondary table's field. That should be the record directly before the corrupt record. Create a layout with no fields in it, navigate to the corrupt record and delete it. Run the process again until there are no more crashes.

On the general topic of corruption, I would recommend that you begin with this paper from the New York FileMaker Developers' Group:

http://nyfmp.org/1/57

-Stanley

[Heckate]

Hi Stanley,

thanks a lot for your reply. I'll try the loop idea and have a read through the paper.