Clone changes import script mapping

[Cortical]

FM9Av3 MacOSx.5.3

have an import script configured:

Specify data source: using relative path

Specify Import Order:

select arrange By: matching names

select Import Action: update matching records, add remaining

set a match field pair, changes Arrange By to Last Order

click OK, check autoenter, click import to close

open to check and the setup has changed; Arrange By is now Custom Order

Save as a clone, and the import script step has now changed to

Import Action: Add New records.

Quite different to the update matching, add new

Saving the original as a copy, produces the same import settings as the original.

Is this mutation in configuration when cloning a known issue?

If a clone is not actually a clone, then this is of some concern.

Is there a workaround other than save a copy and delete all records all tables, and reset serials etc. ?

[Vaughan]

Is the problem that the file is a clone, or that the tables are empty? Get a copy of the file, delete all records, and then check whether the problem still exists.

[Cortical]

The problem is that the import configuration defined in the original file, mutates when that file is cloned. So the cloned file has a different script configuration from the original. It should be exactly the same.

The problem only occurs in a clone, a copy and delete all records/all tables has the exact same import script definition as defined in the original.

Edited June 19, 2008 by Guest

[Cortical]

I have also built a simple test file to test this. The result is the same, define a update matching import, is mutated in a clone to import new, as per the below:

Original:

import

Go to Layout [ “TblA” ]

Import Records [ Source: “file:export/TblA”; Target: “TblA”; Method: Update matching; Add remaining; Character Set: “Mac

Roman”; Field Mapping: Source field 1 match with TblA::AID

Source field 2 import to TblA::txt

Source field 3 import to TblA::txt2 ][ No dialog ]

COPY:

import

Go to Layout [ “TblA” ]

Import Records [ Source: “file:export/TblA”; Target: “TblA”; Method: Update matching; Add remaining; Character Set: “Mac

Roman”; Field Mapping: Source field 1 match with TblA::AID

Source field 2 import to TblA::txt

Source field 3 import to TblA::txt2 ]

[ No dialog ]

CLONE:

import

Go to Layout [ “TblA” ]

Import Records [ Source: “file:export/TblA”; Target: “TblA”; Method: Add; Character Set: “Mac Roman”; Field Mapping: Source

field 1 import to TblA::AID

Source field 2 import to TblA::txt

Source field 3 import to TblA::txt2 ]

[ No dialog ]

If a clone is not in fact a clone, i.e. an IDENTICAL copy sans data, then this has serious implications.

[Vaughan]

"matching import, is mutated in a clone to import new"

There are no existing records in the table to match the imported data against. So they'll all be new records.

I don't think this is a problem with the cloning process, I think it's caused by the empty table. Did you do the test I suggested earlier?

[LaRetta]

I think you nailed it, Vaughan ... one would think the import would hold but an import with "Update and Add to" cannot be defined within a script if there isn't at least one record. FM simply won't allow it. And I would bet that breaks an empty clone. Should it allow mapping if there are no records? IMO, yes but that is not standard behavior.

Every time I discuss import/export process in FM, I feel my fire rise. Here FM is touting how great it is at handling external data but the import process was designed by a 5-year-old and it hasn't been improved upon in YEARS.

LaRetta

[Vaughan]

"And I would bet that breaks an empty clone."

I don't think it's the cloning that's the problem, it's the empty table. In fact I've done a test and proved that it's not, and the clone isn't "broken" either.

Get the "broken" clone and create *one* record in the table, then check the script again. The import mapping offers the "update" option and it's selected.

The FMI software engineers have done *exactly* the right thing: disabled an option when it's inappropriate, offered the only available option, but remembered the original setting for Ron*.

*Who's Ron? Later on. (It's an Aussie joke).