I am having persistent problems with a multi-user database system where some users are using a "brief-case" or "sales-man" mode, using EDB's replication capabilities.

Staff leave the office with the DB on a laptop, update it & return to the office to LOAD UPDATES.

The system regularly falls over. I am sure it is my own poor system design ... the process is somewhat complicated & there are ways it can easily go wrong.

Is there anyone out there who regularly uses EDB's Replication?

I need some specialized advise, and would like to find someone who I could consult.

An intro-email to adam at fullwellmill.co.uk could kick things off.

Adam,

<< I am having persistent problems with a multi-user database system where
some users are using a "brief-case" or "sales-man" mode, using EDB's
replication capabilities.

Staff leave the office with the DB on a laptop, update it & return to the
office to LOAD UPDATES.

The system regularly falls over. I am sure it is my own poor system design
.... the process is somewhat complicated & there are ways it can easily go
wrong. >>

We've since spoken further about this via email, correct ?  You determined
that the problem seems to be restoring a database backup as a snapshot that
contains duplicate publish IDs for the database tables.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim,

Yes, sorry I didn't see this for a while.

The replication seems to work just fine.

The issue is when new users are added greater care needs to be taken to ensure that the new user is set up correctly so their DB doesn't contain updates from another user which have not yet been saved.

If this happens two sets of identical updates start to move around the system, causing primary key clashes.

Provided the new users DB is UNPUBLISHED and then PUBLISHED _before_ they start using it things seem to work fine.

Adam