View Imports

This window is displayed by clicking on the View Imports option in the Transfers menu

This table is used to view import from another site, usually to resolve failures in the import process.

This table can be sorted by Table and key value, Table and time changed, Time imported or Time changed, by clicking on the [A/Z] button The most common order is by time imported, since that places the failures, which have this field blank, at the top of the table.

1. A site to view must be selected from the dropdown

2. Click "▲" to open an existing record in the edit frame. You can’t actually edit this table and usually all work is done in the grid.

3. [Index] will create the index file for this table if it doesn’t already exist.

4. [Mark duplicates] is used to remove failures where records were changed in both locations but have been changed to the same values.

5. [Compare] is used to display the actual field values in the main and import tables to show differences and help decide which is the correct value.

Normally you would run Mark duplicates first, since that removes “spurious failures”.

Mark duplicates

This window is displayed by clicking on the Mark Duplicates button on the View Imports screen.

This form is modal. You must close it before you can access other forms or the menu

When OK is click the program compares the values of the records in the Import database with the main database.

If the values in the 2 are the same and the import time is blank, it is set to the current time, effectively indicating the record was Imported.

As the process occurs, running totals and other indicators are updated.

At the end of this process only genuine failures should still have blank import times, ie those where the values were changed in both databases and are different. These need to be sorted out using the Compare option.

Compare Current and Import Values

This window is displayed by clicking on the Compare button on the View Imports screen.

It is used to resolve failures that occur when changes are made to the same record at different sites.

1. The table and key value of the Import record being compared is displayed.

2. The values of each field in the two databases are displayed in the grid, one line per field. The “?” column has either “=” if the fields have the same values or “<>” if they are different. In this case the SDESC filed is the one that is different. The Import value appears to have a spelling error.

3. If the current value is correct click on the [Keep…] button. This will ignore the imported value. The user at the other site will then have to go through a similar process to Import the value from your site.

4. If on the other hand your value is wrong, then you click on the [Import…] button. This will import the value from the other site, overwriting your value and marking the record as imported.

5. The [Next…] button skips to the next record with a blank import time. This will happen automatically after clicking on the [Keep] or [Import] buttons, until the last blank record is reached.

Document ViewImports.htm