Missing Data

[Omar Mohammed]

Hi all

I've never had this problem before.
I have a customer who uses one of my off the shelf applications (a
payroll program)

The problem they are getting is that data goes missing at times.
For example, they would enter a week's work print all the relevant
payslips and reports etc. then when they go back to reprint reports,
there would be no data. even if I take the dbf files and browse with set
delete off I see no data. It does not happen all the time, once every 3
months or so.
And what is strange is that it only removes a week's work, no more no
less. I though it may be a backup/restore issue or something like that
but I cannot figure this out at all. And because it's intermittent I
cannot recreate it.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks

[Greg Hill]

Post by Omar Mohammed
Hi all
I've never had this problem before.
I have a customer who uses one of my off the shelf applications (a payroll
program)
The problem they are getting is that data goes missing at times.
For example, they would enter a week's work print all the relevant
payslips and reports etc. then when they go back to reprint reports, there
would be no data. even if I take the dbf files and browse with set delete
off I see no data. It does not happen all the time, once every 3 months or
so.
And what is strange is that it only removes a week's work, no more no
less. I though it may be a backup/restore issue or something like that but
I cannot figure this out at all. And because it's intermittent I cannot
recreate it.
Any ideas/suggestions?

Be sure to look at the data without activating an index along with set
deleted off. A corrupt index will hide rows.

Do you use any loops in your app for deleting data? For temp tables as
well?

It could be that under some unexpected circumstance the loop deletes the
wrong stuff?

Greg Hill

[Omar Mohammed]

Post by Greg Hill
Be sure to look at the data without activating an index along with set
deleted off. A corrupt index will hide rows.
Do you use any loops in your app for deleting data? For temp tables as
well?
It could be that under some unexpected circumstance the loop deletes the
wrong stuff?
Greg Hill

Thanks for the response. I do not have an index. Also I do have loops
that delete temporary data but I have this program installed at over 100
clients and this is the first time it is giving that problem. I don't
understand what could be different here. Antivirus? Server settings? Not
too sure what's going on

Thanks

[Greg Hill]

The fact that it deletes one week of data leads me to believe that it is in
your code.
Possibly this customer is doing something different than other customers?

Another possibility is table corruption. In that case you will have to
recreate the table from scratch as follows:

use badtable
copy stucture to goodtable production
use goodtable excl
append from badtable reindex

Give that a try.

Greg Hill

[Omar Mohammed]

Post by Greg Hill
The fact that it deletes one week of data leads me to believe that it is in
your code.
Possibly this customer is doing something different than other customers?
Another possibility is table corruption. In that case you will have to
use badtable
copy stucture to goodtable production
use goodtable excl
append from badtable reindex
Give that a try.
Greg Hill

That was the first (or maybe second) thing I tried.

Didn't help

[Lysander]

Post by Omar Mohammed
Also I do have loops
that delete temporary data but I have this program installed at over 100
clients and this is the first time it is giving that problem.

Is the timestamp of the files any criteria for deletion?
There is still a bug in DBF which will put a wrong time stamp on files
that only have been SELECTed!

[Omar Mohammed]

Post by Lysander

Also I do have loops that delete temporary data but I have this
program installed at over 100 clients and this is the first time it is
giving that problem.

Is the timestamp of the files any criteria for deletion?
There is still a bug in DBF which will put a wrong time stamp on files
that only have been SELECTed!

No. The delete loop just looks for blank records. They may enter time
for someone without a pay rate, or something like that. It deletes those
before it closes off.

[Bruce Beacham]

Post by Omar Mohammed
And what is strange is that it only removes a week's work, no more no
less. I though it may be a backup/restore issue or something like that

I reckon you're right.

You might build into your app a routine that at the end of each cycle
there is an automatic backup to a serially-numbered directory tucked
away on the disk, so you can examine history files of your own making at
leisure later.


Bruce Beacham

[Omar Mohammed]

Post by Bruce Beacham

Post by Omar Mohammed
And what is strange is that it only removes a week's work, no more no
less. I though it may be a backup/restore issue or something like that

I reckon you're right.
You might build into your app a routine that at the end of each cycle
there is an automatic backup to a serially-numbered directory tucked
away on the disk, so you can examine history files of your own making at
leisure later.
Bruce Beacham

Bruce
I'm thinking I may have to do that. But this is such a rare case that I
need to figure out if it's worth it. The customer isn't by any means
unhappy which makes me believe they may be at fault and know it. At
present I have the IT guys there doing periodic backups just as a test.

Regards

[Greg Hill]

Post by Omar Mohammed

Post by Bruce Beacham

Post by Omar Mohammed
And what is strange is that it only removes a week's work, no more no
less. I though it may be a backup/restore issue or something like that

I reckon you're right.
You might build into your app a routine that at the end of each cycle
there is an automatic backup to a serially-numbered directory tucked away
on the disk, so you can examine history files of your own making at
leisure later.
Bruce Beacham

Bruce
I'm thinking I may have to do that. But this is such a rare case that I
need to figure out if it's worth it. The customer isn't by any means
unhappy which makes me believe they may be at fault and know it. At
present I have the IT guys there doing periodic backups just as a test.

Do you know if they have access to your tables via dBASE IDE or any other
methods / tools?


Greg Hill

[Greg Hill]

Post by Greg Hill
Do you know if they have access to your tables via dBASE IDE or any other
methods / tools?

And what BDE table level? If 4, they can reach the tables with eg Excel.

Good point!

Greg Hill

[Omar Mohammed]

Post by Greg Hill

Post by Greg Hill
Do you know if they have access to your tables via dBASE IDE or any other
methods / tools?

And what BDE table level? If 4, they can reach the tables with eg Excel.

Good point!
Greg Hill

No they do not have access to the tables and it's level 7.

It really a strange issue

Thanks

[Bruce Beacham]

Post by Greg Hill
Do you know if they have access to your tables via dBASE IDE or any other
methods / tools?

And what BDE table level? If 4, they can reach the tables with eg Excel.


Bruce