I have not bought your calendar complete yet and I have a question about it. Will it be hard to move all the tables that contain the data out into a separate file from the interface? I want to be able to work on the interface of the database and just replace that so that I don't ever have to import data whenever I update how the interface works. I'm just concerned with having a million little relationships that I have to rebuild and potentially breaking things in the process. Also, should I be waiting for the new version of the calendar before jumping into the current one?

Hi. Good question. In general, separating the data into an interface file and a data file is always pretty easy if it's all in one file to begin with as it is in the calendar. There are a lot of relationships, but in what will be the interface file you don't have to edit them: you just point the table occurrence at a different file reference.

The in what will becomes the data file you can remove most of the graph, just leaving what is needed for calcs and lookups: again, this isn't editing per se in that you're not changing the relationship criteria, you're just removing stuff.

One more hint when it comes to separating... You'll probably want to leave a number of "data" tables in the interface file: tables that we use to hold interface elements. I'd suggest the following tables stay in the interface file:

Interface
Filters
Hours
GanttBars
Import
RepeatMonthDayNames
RepeatWeekDayNames
RepeatYearMonthNames

Finally, you'd asked about waiting for the new calendar. While we're getting really close ( http://www.seedcode.com/next ), that calendar won't include the Contacts, Projects, Invoices, and Mailings from Complete. It is "just" the calendar. A new version of Complete won't be available until later next year.

Hope that helps,

John

So let me make sure I understand this... If I buy the calendar complete right now, Ill get the new version that is coming out next year for free?

You'd get a free upgrade to the one coming out in January-- our Pro calendar-- the idea is that folks who've purchased really recently shouldn't have to pay to upgrade to the new version.

When we release a new version of Complete later next year you'd be able to upgrade to that at a discount. Hope that helps.

Well now ive gone and done it... I moved the tables that you said i should and a few things don't work anymore.

The gantt bars aren't visible
the horizontal schedule shows an unrelated table error
the filters aren't working

also, how do you delete a phase from a project? I click on the arrow next to it and nothing comes up.

I then made a copy of my interface file and tried moving the rest of the table occurrences over. that broke even more things.

I'm starting to think that this database cant be split into two files without a rewrite.

Hey there. Splitting is generally very easy, but unforgiving: forget a step or a table and things don't work. I'm traveling for a few days but should be back on the 26th. Email me privately at john at seedcode.com and we can help get you straightened out.