How should filePro-based updates be done with live-data and live-programs involved?

[Walter Vaughan]

John Esak wrote:
<snip>
> How do I put the upgrades out then? 

The ERP we are migrating towards has addresses this I think very well.

They address this via XML definitions for the databases, indexes, and foreign 
key restraints. At startup it compares what the DBMS reports as layout and 
issues the commands to "fix it" to match the master definitions, but also allow 
for local customizations defined in the XML schema.

The source code is all ascii java & xml & html so SVN expertly keeps local 
changes in place. If you don't know what SVN is, I'd suggest you look at it. Not 
that nearly every opensouce project is moving to SVN is reason enough... it just 
works.

When you update you can see what files are deleted, added, and modified with and 
without local changes.

Where the crazy power is the end user can revert forward/backward to any version 
without losing local customizations.

After seeing how ofBiz does it for almost 10 months now, I am sure you could 
come up with some sort of hybrid system that utilizes SVN to let people keep 
local settings.

SVN works identical on Windows/Mac/Unix

http://subversion.tigris.org/