I just ran into a problem with FactorySQL. After opening up another project and sending it to the service, my original project (file) is now completely empty! I know that FSQL can only have one project loaded at a time. I am talking about when I go and open up my old project file again, all it shows is the project root. All my folders and groups are gone. I am quite OCD about saving changes (and I think I read in the manual that it autosaves as well), so what happened? My original project file is still there, it is just completely empty!
Anyone have any idea what might have happened? Do I need to export separate copies instead of just saving the file?
I’m not trying to point fingers or anything. I just want to know how to avoid this in the future.
It sounds like you may have thought that after exporting a project backup, FactorySQL was continuing to save to that file. While connected to the service, however, that’s not the case- when you hit save, or when you make edits, it saves to the service.
Is it possible that you created the file originally by going to “File->New Project”, and then connected to the service, “uploaded” the project, and then worked on it from there? In the sequence I just described, the created project file would remain empty. After connecting to the service, you would now be working on the service project. Only by going to File->Export and doing a project export would you be able to get that project as an independent file.
So to say it a different way: it’s true that FactorySQL only runs one project at a time. Furthermore that project is always the system project, stored in the system_database.fdb file. Anytime the frontend is connected to the service, you’re operating on this file.
Don’t feel bad if this is all a bit confusing, it’s always been a bit difficult to explain. The next major version will be different in how projects are handled.
Thanks for clearing this up. I was not exporting regularly, only saving, so it must have happened like you described. It’s a good thing I figured this out now and not while I am on-site doing an install!
Ok, yesterday I created a new project, added some groups and a bunch of action items, and saved the project with a new name. This morning I had to switch to a different project for a while, and now when I came back, the groups (and actions items of course) are gone. Looking at the above, when I did File>Save and gave the project a name, was the project actually saved anywhere? Can I get these groups back somehow?
Well, something about the description of your workflow is a little off, since File > Save never asks for a new name.
If you went to File > New Project, you would give the project a name. That will be a .fsp file somewhere on your system. The only way that project would get swapped out would be to connect to the service, create a new project with file>new, or open a different file.
Are you saying that you now open the .fsp file that you created originally and it’s empty? You might do a file search for *.fsp on your system. If you were editing groups, they were being saved somewhere. The only way I know of that you could actually lose them would be if it was actually the service you were editing, and then you accidentally uploaded a new project to it.
Yes, I made a new project, and gave it the name “Logistics”. I made my changes (added the new groups) and did File>Save while that project was open. I then did a File>Open PProject and opened an old project, and when I did File>Open Project again, my Logistics project was empty. But the groups might still be stored somewhere?
