Before you install our plugin new or as an update, please make a backup of your databases. Best is to have an automated hourly backup to make sure you have a copy of all the databases, external files and the current software, so in case something breaks, you could go back.

You should have:

• Real Time backups.
  An application like Backblaze watches for new files and uploads them directly. This allows you to have it keep multiple versions and provide a history.
• Hourly backups
  e.g. Time Machine on a Mac or the built-in backup for FileMaker Server can do an hourly backups to a folder.
• Daily backups
  to another computer. In general you should have at least 3 backups in 2 different locations.
• Monthly backups
  e.g. rotating various backup disks between a safe in a bank and the office.

Folders with text files like source code or configuration files can also get tracked with git or svn. Keep versions and changes automatically by running a script automatically hourly/daily to commit any changes with a timestamp.

Please consider what happens to your data and whether you still have two copies after something catastrophique happens. Like your house burns down or gets floded, someone steals your computers or a cyberattack encrypts them. And even then you need two copies as your backup disk may fail.

Testing Requirements

We kindly ask you to test that every script does what you intend to do. Don't just type a script and run it. Use the debugger to step through and see if all the functions return what you expect them to return. Use our Trace function to log calls and look for error codes.

Common problems

• A function may have worked with the old plugin and silently failed in some cases without reporting an error. The updated plugin now reports an error and that breaks the logic of your scripts.
• A function got a new parameter and your function calls contains a value for that parameter. In the previous version the extra parameter was ignored, but now it has an effect.
• You update to a new version of FileMaker. An old plugin doesn't load or is missing, so all calls to plugin functions return "?". There is the risk, that your scripts have a logical error, which interprets an error you get as something different and they do actions based on this.
• After an update you may still have scripts with an old registration code. You may see dialogs telling you that the license is outdated even if you updated one script. But depending on which script runs first, the old license dialog may show.
• You updated the plugin, but forgot to update DynaPDF, LibXL or other library files. Then the new plugin misses functionality in the old libraries or the function crashes as data structures changed. We try to prevent this with various checks.
• You write SQL statements. A small typo in the statement may change or delete thousands of records. While developing you may not see the change or not trigger it, but in production you may damage your data.

In general when a client reports a problem, we ask for logs with our trace function, the debug log from CURL if that is used or for a copy of the script to read.