I copied a FE and BE to a users laptop and re-linked the tables.
When he came back to the office I copied the updated BE to the
network, changes to some of the records that were in his copy, no
longer showed up on the network copy. Is there an explanation for
this?would replication solve this issue?
What issue? You copied one file over top of a file that had changes
in it that weren't in the file you copied. Is that what you
intended? If you thought the data would be merged, where did you get
that idea?
Replication is appropriate if:
1. you need two or more users to work on the same data, AND
2. they cannot work on the same data file simultaneously.
In the case of a laptop user, if he needs to use it while out of the
office, then replication is a great solution. To set it up:
1. move the LAN back end to a folder where you want to keep your
Design Master. This location should not be accessible to most users
-- you want it to be safe.
2. create a replica of the original back end name in the back end's
original location. This will be your production replica.
3. copy that production replica to the laptop. This is the only
circumstance in which you ever copy replicas via the file system,
when you're initializing a new laptop or location.
4. when connected to the LAN, the laptop user can then open the back
end, navigate to TOOLS | REPLICATION | SYNCHRONIZE NOW and synch
with the LAN back end.
There is the possibility of conflicts, which happen when the same
data is updated in more than one replica. Those will have to be
resolved if they pop up. If you have many of them, you may want to
restructure the way you store your data.
