Trouble with Synching

[mpierro]

I use Data Exchange for MS Access to convert a table in Access to a HanDBase file, but no matter where I save the pdb file, it makes a copy in "My Documents" when I use HanDBase Desktop to transfer the file to the iPhone. Now I have two files of the same name in different folders. I realize that the default location for these files is My Documents, but it would be nice to be able to change that location - ideally, I'd like to have it synch to a network folder where files are backed up regularly.

I'm also having trouble synching to Access. I place the converted file in my "Sync" folder and use Sync Exchange to connect back to the Access table and get sync errors (Index or primary key cannot contain a Null value). When I remove the primary key, I get duplicates (merging, not synching?), and the synch is to the file in "My Documents", not the one in my Sync folder that I set in the Sync Exchange settings. Also, contrary to the documentation, whenever a file in the Sync folder is modified, HanDBase Desktop asks me to install the file on next sync - I thought files in this folder automatically update without re-installing. What am I doing wrong?

I'm using the latest iPhone App and HanDBase Desktop version 4.1.5 (with HanDBase Professional for iPhone Add-on 4.1 Build R1) and documentation from 2007 - have either of these been updated?

p.s. Actually, the only reason I'm synching to Access is to generate simple reports. Here's hoping that HanDBase Desktop will get more robust report writing capabilities!

[dhaupert]

Sorry to hear of your troubles. You can indeed choose a different path for syncing. The folder we use is for when you don't have a central location for your files, so we create one for you. To use a different location, copy the PDB file to where you want it, and then choose the button in the Sync Settings to add a shared database. You can then browse and point to that for your syncing.

I'm also having trouble synching to Access. I place the converted file in my "Sync" folder and use Sync Exchange to connect back to the Access table and get sync errors (Index or primary key cannot contain a Null value). When I remove the primary key, I get duplicates (merging, not synching?), and the synch is to the file in "My Documents", not the one in my Sync folder that I set in the Sync Exchange settings. Also, contrary to the documentation, whenever a file in the Sync folder is modified, HanDBase Desktop asks me to install the file on next sync - I thought files in this folder automatically update without re-installing. What am I doing wrong?

You can't have a primary key set to sync in the table that you sync to- it's a limitation of ODBC that we can't create and modify records where a primary key resides in one of the fields we're modifying. That said, the tutorials for setting up MS Access syncing explain how to set this up:


http://www.ddhsoftware.com/knowledgebase.html?read=227
http://www.ddhsoftware.com/knowledgebase.html?read=216

The basic issue you're probably seeing here is that if you use Data exchange to first create your Access table, it creates copies of all the HanDBase records you had. Then if you start syncing to it, you'll wind up with 2 of each record since the starting point for both tables had a copy of each record. So you should set up the table using Sync Exchange and let it create the Access table for you- it will create the additional fields needed to sync to it, and we can then safely get a true sync going.

Let me know how you make out!

And re: reports, have you tried the reports feature built into HanDBase Desktop? Is it that it's too difficult to use, or that it's lacking a certain feature that you are using Access for this?