160 votes
Provide better way to detect and fix invalid table data.
We have some ideas on this, but would welcome any ideas or comments on what kind of functionality and utilties you would like to see.
We have some ideas on this, but would welcome any ideas or comments on what kind of functionality and utilties you would like to see.
Ray Long
If we could have some way to verify the content of the ADM files associated with tables. Our #1 problem over the last 5 years has been corrupted BLOB's and memo's. Our users extensively store text and pictures and getting ADM corruptions or the possibility of them keep me up at night.
andorauk's suggestion of a checksum would be excellent. If I could only identify a problem as soon as it happens we can restore from a nightly backup. Most of our major issues(my customers yelling at me) come from n... more
If we could have some way to verify the content of the ADM files associated with tables. Our #1 problem over the last 5 years has been corrupted BLOB's and memo's. Our users extensively store text and pictures and getting ADM corruptions or the possibility of them keep me up at night.
andorauk's suggestion of a checksum would be excellent. If I could only identify a problem as soon as it happens we can restore from a nightly backup. Most of our major issues(my customers yelling at me) come from not knowing the data was corrupt for weeks or sometimes months after it happens and not having a way to fix it.
Having the DB server app checking for corruptions as it writes and reads from tables and then send a message(via email) to someone would be a great help.
andorauk
Would it be possible to [optionally] generate a 'checksum/parity/ecc/crc' index on a table and have this provide error-checking or some [limited] data correction? A table-check could be run against the data and errors optionally dumped out to an error-table?
ma1
Include ADTFix (Advantage Database Table Repair Utility) inside ARC (Advantage Data Architect).
JaredSherman
I would second what pboivin77 said. I have a table right now with 9 corrupt records and 10+ thousand good records. If I could just port out the good ones and drop out the bad ones it would make my file repair work infinitely easier.
A side note issue I see frequently is if you have the "autocreate" set to true some times if the network is flakey it will wipe out your table and recreate it because it doesn't think it exists. the newly created table isn't bound to my dictionary anymore either... more
I would second what pboivin77 said. I have a table right now with 9 corrupt records and 10+ thousand good records. If I could just port out the good ones and drop out the bad ones it would make my file repair work infinitely easier.
A side note issue I see frequently is if you have the "autocreate" set to true some times if the network is flakey it will wipe out your table and recreate it because it doesn't think it exists. the newly created table isn't bound to my dictionary anymore either, which just makes it even more fun.
Lev P.
Another popular problem: a FPT file disappeared, which results in inability to open a DBF altogether...
isaac_cm
It is very important that changing the language did not corrupt the data, may be display error or even prevent open the table, but corrupt data for changing the language is not acceptable
Rodd Graham
Validate the table header with the .ADD metadata if a database table.
pboivin77
We must be able to copy good data to a new table. Something like "SELECT * INTO NEWTABLE FROM BUGGYTABLE WITH ERROR INTO ERRTABLE". ErrTable would contains a list of recno and field name with invalid data (Record 12: Field: CustNote Error: 7019 Corrupt memo field). Invalid field in the new table can just be blank, zero or null depending on the field type.
gatoz
I can only pass to you my experience:
1. The most possible problem is a corrupt table, where we get a file with different header and actual size. To resolve this i just change the filesize to be equal to the header suggested and is ok! Some automation here?
2. Another possibility, is to have new records with wrong values (e.g. filed with zeros). An arc option to open table without index?