[FX.php List] Modification ID - what is it?

[Steve Winter]

Hi Ben,

 

Your initial 'thought' on what a modification ID is correct, it's
essentially a count of the number of times that a record has been modified,
and yes, it exists for every record in the database, yes it's accurate, and
as far as I know it's always existed as an internal flag within FMP, thus
yes, you can say that if the modID of a record is 5264, then that record has
been modified 5264 times since the database was created.

 

Do take in to consideration that modifications may not have been
significant, and if, for instance once changed a field, exited the record,
then changed their mind, and changed it back, that would count as two
modifications ;-)

 

Cheers

Steve

 

  _____  

From: fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org
[mailto:fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org] On Behalf Of Ben Bradley
Sent: 28 February 2008 14:42
To: fx.php_list at mail.iviking.org
Subject: [FX.php List] Modification ID - what is it?

 

Hi everyone

I'm using a slightly old version of FX.php (4.2) because it just works at
the moment - and the internal solution it powers is pretty complicated and
in need of change.
I often find with this solution that once I start tampering things, they
generally break! So I've left it alone.
I run FileMaker Server 5.5, with FileMaker 6 Unlimited and our 7 network
users all use FileMaker 5.5

Gradually however I'm moving our solution to MySQL for various reasons -
mainly because if I ever left the company, it would be easier for them to
find a MySQL developer round the corner than a FileMaker / FX.php dev.
FX and FileMaker have served us very well indeed!

On to my question...

What exactly is the modification ID that gets read by the XML output?
Obviously you use it to avoid data clashes.

- I've got a suspicion that it is the modification count of a record - how
many times a record has been modified. Is that correct?

- Does it exist for every record in a database?

- Is it accurate? So could I use it as the basis for a modification_count
field in my MySQL database?

- From what version of FileMaker was this introduced into databases?
Was it present in the old .FP3 format? Once we converted our files to .FP5?
Or just once FileMaker Unlimited appeared on our network?

All our database files were once FileMaker 4 (.fp3) files so I'm just trying
to get a rough date that the modification id started from. So then I can
say, modified 5264 times since April 2004 or something like that.


Thanks, Ben

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