best approach for a weekly timer?

[tania20]

Hi, I am wanting to prompt the user to do a routine compact and backup every week and not sure of the best approach. Ive read into using the form timer to accomplish this (though this has a max of 65000ms),task scheduler. Some users will be opening the database daily, and others are likely to keep it running continually. Any ideas in the right direction appreciated?

thanx!

 

[maxhugen]

I use a custom 'system' table for such things, eg:

[tt]Table dbSystem
sysGroup (text, 50 chrs)
sysItem (text, 50 chrs)
sysValue (text, 255 chrs)[/tt]

One row in this table could be:
[tt]
sysGroup sysItem sysValue
-------- ------- --------
Application LastBackup 15/Jun/2007[/tt]

When your application opens, check to see if it's been a week (or more) since the last backup, and if not ask the user to do it. Then just update the value in this system table.

HTH

Max Hugen
Australia

 

[tania20]

this is the apprach i had been thinking about but im not sure what to do when the user doesnt close the application at all

 

[maxhugen]

Well, in order to repair/compact and backup, everyone will need to close the db anyway. Plus, it's bad practice for users to leave a db open - prone to data corruption if the server goes down, reboots etc.

Also, unless you want every user to get these reminders, I usually restrict such messages to an 'admin' type group of users.


Max Hugen
Australia