Work Flow Strategies

Help, Tips, and Tricks for deploying GoZync: our "sync" engine for FileMaker Go.
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2016 12:06 pm
PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2016 1:56 pm
I have different filters for different account types. Managers get all records, and technicians get only the records they need for that day which is at most 3. The complaint I get from technician is when they get sent out on the road with 3 records on their Ipad and another call comes in, the records they had on the Ipad are deleted from the Ipad when they grab the new service call.

How do I keep Gozync from removing the records on the Ipad and allow the technician to grab one more record at a time?
SeedCode Staff
SeedCode Staff
Posts: 190
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 2:27 pm
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 9:19 am
Hi Tim,

Great question here. How are those few records for technicians initially loaded onto their iPads? When syncing, GoZync should continue to respect the filtering rules that you have set up in the "Filter Records to Pull" script in your hosted file. That is where I would look for troubleshooting this issue.

If that doesn't seem to reveal the solution, please email me at [email protected], and we can continue troubleshooting from there.

Thank you!
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2016 12:06 pm
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 12:15 pm
Hi Dan

I created 3 global fields in my mobile file which are used to pass variables thru to the hosted file when syncing. The technician enters up to 3 company names as directed by the manager and chooses a button I named grab records. The search in "filter records to pull" is using the 3 variables to search for the companies to place on the Ipad. PerformFind(Company_name==$Var1) ExtendFoundSet($Var2) etc. Grabbing one company name could mean grabbing 30 or more records across 17 tables.

Scheduling changes so frequently its best to allow the tech to enter the customers just before they leave.

At the end of the day they use a different button which basically runs ZynIt_Everything with empty variables, this clears all data from the Ipad and updates any changed records to the server.

If I add one more variable and script it so that it re-enters what is on the ipad in addition to one more Company entered by the tech this would force the sync to take longer since the tech would be grabbing up to 120 records instead of just 30. Using the API scripts and just pulling data still deletes what's on the IPad.

If I disable the delete feature built into Gozync (I read how to do this in your online documentation) this would disable my end of day clear function. I could write a script to delete what's on the IPad after the roundtrip but I'd rather not get rid of the delete feature built into Gozync if I don't have to. How would disabling the delete feature effect the managers IPad which keeps all records on it filtered only by Date ( all records less than 2 years old)? Would records continue to be updated in a round trip sync or would I end up with extra records on the managers IPad with the delete feature disabled?
SeedCode Staff
SeedCode Staff
Posts: 190
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 2:27 pm
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 2:26 pm
Hi Tim,

Thanks so much for the details. First, do you have the Perform Script "Ignore Last Time Zync" steps enabled in the "Filter Records to Pull" script? These steps are disabled by default, but allow you to ignore modification timestamps so that all filtered records are synced at each sync.

If this option is disabled (as is default), then if you sync again, records that are already on the device will *not* be pulled again, unless there were changes in the hosted file. Changes made in the mobile file would be pushed, however. I mention this because, if you add that fourth global field, syncing for that new/4th company shouldn't cause all records for the other 3 companies to be pulled again, so the re-sync times might not be as long as expected.

If you disable GoZync's deletes, records will not be deleted from the mobile device unless the user does so manually, or if you script another process for it. So, for you managers, records that become 2+ years old will remain on the device rather than be deleted automatically. Also, records that are deleted from the hosted file will not be deleted from the mobile file. It is possible then, unless you plan/script around it, that a record deleted from the host could be modified on the mobile file, and then recreated in the hosted file upon the next sync.

I hope this helps! Keep us posted with any other questions.
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2016 12:06 pm
PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2016 4:08 pm
Hi Dan

Thanks for the info. That really helps me to decide how to organize my files. I believe I will be keeping the delete feature in GoZync. What's unclear to me is how "Ignore Last Time Zync" works. I do have that script active for one of my TO's. If that TO is evaluated in the "Filter records to pull" script and "Ignore Last Time zync" is run, will that effect the other TO's in Else IF (TOName =) down the line from it?

Thanks

Tim
SeedCode Staff
SeedCode Staff
Posts: 190
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 2:27 pm
PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2016 11:00 am
Tim,

Glad that was helpful! I'm not sure enabling the "Ignore Last Time Sync" is necessary for your implementation. This option ignores whether or not records have been modified since the last sync, and pulls all found records in the table. As long as the the Perform Script step is within the "Else If" chains, it will only affect the TO where it is enabled (not other TOs further down the script). Let me know if you have any other questions about that.

Because it doesn't sound like re-assigning a record to another Technician will actually modify the record itself, then you'll likely want to enable that Ignore Last Time Sync. That way, whenever the Tech syncs, all records (in that TO) that he/she should have will be pulled to their mobile device.

I hope that helps!

All the best,
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2016 2:18 pm
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 1:41 pm
In this scenario above, will any changes from the table that is ignoring last sync, push, to the hosted file?

Meaning, if tech A has the record, and input data about the record on the same table, notes, lets say. Will the sync wipe it out and pull the full copy of the hosted record down?

( field level merge being on for this table )
SeedCode Staff
SeedCode Staff
Posts: 190
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 2:27 pm
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 2:45 pm
Hi Kevon,

Good question here. No, the sync will not wipe out the changes to that record, provided that the changes actually make it to the hosted file, that is, the fields that were modified are included for the push in GoZyncMobile's setup.

Neither performing a GoZyncMobile "Reset" and enabling "ignore last Zync time" will affect the records that are pushed from mobile. The records that are pushed are determined by the gz_fields added to the mobile file's tables.

I hope that helps; keep us posted with any further questions on this!
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2016 2:18 pm
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 6:18 pm
Thank you for the quick reply!

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