autoname does not always work

Reply

David A. Donet, Sr. Posted: Wed, Mar 28 2012 12:32 PM

rated by 0 users

Hi Folks.

TM5 Prof. on SBS 2003 domain network with XP Prof. and Windows 7 Prof. stations.  Data resides on a shared folder on an NAS server and Files folders reside on a different shared folder on the same server.

When adding a new document, autoname works as designed on some Matters but not others.  At times it tries to overwrite an existing document.  This started after moving the Data and Files folders to the NAS server from the SBS server.

Autoname is set up as follows: Use CFG file folder for root and Matter folder/Matter file, so that as you add a new document the sequential number should increment (i.e. &1234\1234-001.pdf, &1234\1234-002.pdf, etc.

All stations are static IP and logon script maps their T: drives to the Data folder and their U: drive to the files folder on the NAS at logon (same drives as when Data and Files were on the SBS server).  CFG files point to T: for Data and U: for Files.

Any suggestions will be deeply appreciated.

Reply

Caren Schwartz replied on Thu, Mar 29 2012 8:34 AM

rated by 0 users

NAS devices are not recommended for hosting database applications like Time Matters.  If you only have the documents on the NAS device I would not be overly worried, but I would never want a client to have the Time Matters data on the NAS device. 

Reply

David A. Donet, Sr. replied on Thu, Mar 29 2012 11:10 AM

rated by 0 users

Thank you Caren for your reply.

Two questions:

Any idea of why this problem is happening?

Why is an NAS not good for db apps?  This old version of TM seems to be flying and is very stable since the transfer and I don't think that the autoname problem is connected.

Thanks,

David

Reply

Matt Stone replied on Thu, Mar 29 2012 9:15 PM

rated by 0 users

This question is going back many versions..... The answer I suspect has to do with rights on the documents.

In general you are not using auto-name they way it was designed to be used. You should configure auto-name to create a unique document name each time. Time Matters has a fail safe in the event the document you are creating is not unique. In this case, it adds the -000000 after the document name. Time Matters is just looking at the folder and looking for the document. If it can see a document with the same name, it adds the -000, if not it will create the document. If it cannot see the document but one exists, that tells me the workstation does not have the rights to that file. 

You are relying upon this fail safe to be your auto-name. I would not recommend this.

In Time Matters 5 Pro, each workstation has to open each database file and keep that file open as it works. When you add many workstations, the file is open many times. The entire file has to be transferred to each workstation. More workstations more file transfer etc etc etc This is why NAS is not recommended.

Matt