HELP! All Relationships have disappeared

[ddinisco]

I was attempting to exit the Define Relationships pane (hit OK), when I had to force quit Filemaker 9 Advanced (not responding according to my Mac). As a result when I reconnected to my client's FM server, none of my hundreds of relationships are present. The tables, fields, and scripts seem to be intact, but there is NOT ONE relationship occurrence in the Relationships pane.

Would the Recover feature restore them? What should I do? Not sure how often my remote client backups.

[David Jondreau]

Your database is hosed. This is one of the dangers when working on the relationship graph or field definitions on a hosted file.

Find a back up and hope it's recent.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Even if the Recover feature did restore them, you wouldn't want to continue to use a recovered file. I do hope you have some backups.

Steven

[ddinisco]

Is there any way to prevent this in the future? Client is on the west coast and I am on the east coast.

[mr_vodka]

Try to work on the files when all users are out of the system so that you can work on the unserved copy.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Is there any way to prevent this in the future? Client is on the west coast and I am on the east coast.

Yes there is.

1. Don't do schema work on hosted files.

2. Use The Separation Model™ to make updates easier.

Steven

[ddinisco]

I have heard the separation model discussed in the past. I am a little fuzzy on how all of the data is displayed. Do you know where I might view an example of such a solution.

Thanks

[Colin Keefe]

I'll just add in addition to Steve's advice:

If you must work on a hosted production file that's remote, logging in via Terminal Server to a machine on the client's LAN is less bad than logging in over the internet.

The issue is mainly dropped connections while schema changes are being applied to the database (basically after you click OK in Manage Databases, but before it's done).

Note that I say less bad, not good. Using Terminal Server insures that if there's an internet dropout, the remote machine isn't affected - you just lose your connection to TS. But it's still working on a hosted file, and LAN network issues can still be a problem.

Of the worst possible scenarios, logging in over internet via a spotty wireless connection tops the list for that reason.

[ddinisco]

Working on a mac from my end. Is Terminal Server equivalent using Remote Desktop to log on directly to their FM server? But if the files is still hosted, wouldn't I still need to access it via the FMserver? In other words, wouldn't the same issue apply?

Thanks

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Yu could make a remote connection to another machine inside the LAN and connect that way. But that's still a bad idea. If you're not using The Separation Model™ you need to close the files, stop the FMS service/daemon, and then open the files locally on the server with FileMaker Pro. That's the safest way if you're physically separated from the client location.

Steven

[Colin Keefe]

This is off topic, but Steve, is "The Separation Model™" actually trademarked?