Reed Phillips

Warning: directly manipulating the MasterTable with Access can be VERY dangerous. However, it can be VERY useful.

For example at my previous job, the tax calculations on some of our invoices did not match the reports. It turns out that we had ~100 items that were not properly marked taxable. So the reported tax amount was always low. It took about 15min and one Update query to fing and correct all 100 items.

Would there be any interest in a web seminar on this topic? It would require a signed NDA and the magic passwords.

What kind of things would you like to be able to do?

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Reed Phillips

jims

I'm in. I once saw a link to that NDA, but now I cannot find it! The update query would be an excellent place to start learning. As long as you practice good back up proceedures when editing the db. You should be fine!

jims

I need to find duplicated model numbers across categories. For example. Chief Brackets used to be in one category, then in a later download they changed the category to Racks Mounts & Lifts.
So, I have 2 of everything now (thanks!).
I'd like to be able to find things based on the time they were added to the db, so I can find the old stuff. I'd also like to find things that have never been modified (Since they were dloaded) So I can get rid of them.
A couple years ago Vantage changed the way all the model numbers work. Almost every model changed. Now I have a mix of old and new model numbers in the dB. I can tell them apart, but others cannot.

CrystalHacker

Deleting is a bit more tricky, partucularly if you use LanSync, packages, accessories etc. The items can get woven throughout the various tables. Just email http://www.d-tools.com/support/submit-an-issue.html for the NDA. Then you can explore the tables and see how the pieces fit together.

KeithC

Originally Posted by Reed Phillips

Warning: directly manipulating the MasterTable with Access can be VERY dangerous. However, it can be VERY useful. For example at my previous job, the tax calculations on some of our invoices did not match the reports. It turns out that we had ~100 items that were not properly marked taxable. So the reported tax amount was always low. It took about 15min and one Update query to fing and correct all 100 items. Would there be any interest in a web seminar on this topic? It would require a signed NDA and the magic passwords. What kind of things would you like to be able to do?

I would like to do a mass change within the mastertable. I tried to do it recently, but it did not take. I want to move product description to client description and use the product description field to solve a qb parent item not printing issue. I need to take manufacturer and colon and model and concatenate it into the product description field. Tried to do this by exporting mastertable to excel, doing the sweeping change and reimporting the table but dtools gagged after I did that. Strange because the table looked OK. Anyway, thats what I need to do.

CrystalHacker

Once you go down this path, it will be very difficult to use product data provided by DT or other sources. That said, it straight forward in Access to do what you want to do. You should think about having one of the Partners do the first pass and then show you how to maintain it. I'm sure they must do this stuff all the time.

Are you convinced there is NO other way to solve your QB issue? Have you posted the problem in the forum QuickLinks section?

Do you use LANSync?

Do you have the MasterTable password?

integratorinaz

We signed the NDA about a month ago and have our passwords in hand but haven't opened the db yet.

I think we have some sort of data corruption. I want to get in there to identify and fix it.

I am not sure if we can readily access the pictures but that may be the source of the trouble. We can't use any word reports since the images don't appear and we get an error.

Tech Support told me that we have to be sure all of our images are pre-sized to 2x2 before loading them into d-tools and for the most part, we do that since they look better but I can't imagine that is true. We have had to just settle for things as is and it seems unreasonable to me. I would like to try and fix it ourselves if tech support can't.

CrystalHacker

Originally Posted by integratorinaz

I think we have some sort of data corruption. I want to get in there to identify and fix it. I am not sure if we can readily access the pictures but that may be the source of the trouble. We can't use any word reports since the images don't appear and we get an error.

Data problems are not easy to spot. You would need to know what DT is expecting to know if the data is structured properly. You will not be able to see the graphics in Access. You may need to run a report on all the items to see which ones are causing the problems. Before hacking the DB I would try to have support take a look. A Crystal report my be your best bet to locate the defective record/s. I think there is a way to print the DB in the "Other" reports category. I would try that first.

jims

Here is a simple task. (I think) I want a query to copy the contents of my product description to my client description field. Is that simple enough to start with?

jims

Here is a question.
I did a duplicate record query on the masterdata table (Model). Then I filtered the result to show only those duplicates with a cost of 0. It is all crap we don't use. Can I just "select all" and delete it? Seems too easy.