Updating records from an oracle database

[Divegeek]

I've throughly confused myself. I have an oracle database which I import into filemaker. If I want to update filemaker, and only import the records in oracle which have changed, how to I do that? Similarly, if a record is deleted in oracle, how do I tell filemaker to ditch that record so it's just as up to date.

My current import reccord script is just a simple sql query I made in the scriptmaker feature. I just import records that match a sql query, but how do I get it to delete records that no longer exist in oracle, while at the same time, not duplicating records already imported into filemaker.

Thanks folks,

Jake

[Brian C]

Have you thought of using an intermediary database table to import the data into first?

Once that data is in filemaker - you now have the option to import from one filemaker table to another - at which point you can then use filemakers ability to update matching records and add remaining new records.

As for handling the records that you want to delete:

When you import records, only the newly imported records or updated matching records will be in the found set.

If you are careful - you can show the omitted records and delete those if any exist at that point manually.

If you want a slightly safer way:

Create an Import Date field.

Flag the import date field with the new import date so that only the most current records have that date.

Then you can search for any records in a date range prior to that import date and delete those.

This does 2 things for you. You know exactly when the last import was done on any record.

It provides a safer means of selecting older records using normal find criteria.