Repost about Table Relationships

[Noel]

Hi. I posted this yesterday and have had no replies.
Heres another try - by the way, my db now has no
relationship links shown in the view mentioned below but
still works OK. Any ideas?

Hi. I usually work in a backup copy of a database and
then export all my new and ammeded objects to the working
db when the users have logged off. When I go to Tables
view and click on Relationships, I see that some of the
table relationship links have disapeared. Probably
because I export in a new version of an existing table,
then change the names of the old and new ones to bring
the new one into play.

The database seems to continue to work perfectly well.
Does it remember the relationships I created in the first
place? Should I recreate the broken links in the
Relationships view?

Thanks, Noel

 

[Roger Carlson]

First of all, click the Show All Relationships button in the Relationships
Window. This will show you what relationships still exist. I'm not
following exactly what you are doing, but if the relationships are truly
gone, you should re-establish them. Sure, your database will continue to
function, but WITHOUT the referential integrity that makes a relational
database relational.

 

[Noel]

Thanks Roger. I didnt realise you could do that. I
thought it automatically showed you all the existing
relationships. I now see that most of my relationships
are still there. I will go in and re establish the
others. Just for info - what Im doing is this. I create a
backup of the working db, then I use it to do my
modifications. When the users have finished for the day,
I export my changed forms, tables, etc to the working
database and give them names like tblSchools New. Then I
go into the working db, change the existing object names
to old (eg frmSchools old) and rename the imported
objects by removing the tag New (ie tblSchools). I think
in doing this with tables, the db drops relationship
link, so I have to remember to go in and set it up again.
Thanks again for the help.

 

[Roger Carlson]

Have you split the database into a Front-End and Back-End?

If not, it will save you a lot of work. The idea is that you have a
Back-End that holds only the tables, while the Front-End has everything
else. Then you Link the tables from the BE into the FE. In this way, you
can work on the application (forms, reports, etc) without interferring with
the data. When you copy the FE back to the network, you don't over-write
the data (which is still held in the BE).

 

[Noel]

No, I havent split the database. Maybe something I should
look into - although its a bit late in the day for this
particular db. Maybe for the future. Thanks for the
advice. Cheers, Noel