Help - Unable to upload - Database problems?

[nickchad]

I'm having a few problems refreshing my site at the moment.

All my products are linked to an external database (excell spreadsheet) & have been for some time.

When I try to upload to the site - the dialgue box appears as normal & then a minute or two later nothing happens & the error 'Static' is reported.

if I try to look at the product details for any particulr product - they appear no problem - but if I try to tab to another part of the products attriubutes the following error occurs "please enter an integar between 1 & 32767" - dosn't give any indication of which field this is for.

If I try to preview a page the message - "The field is to small to accept the amount of data you attempted to add. try inserting or pasting less data" - again no indication of which field is causing the problem.

I havn't made any changes to the data since the last site refresh - other than stock quantities / prices & there dosn't seem to be any problem with these fields that I can see.

I've tried re-installing actinic - but still the same error occurs - any guidance would be much appreciated.

Nick

[wjcampbe]

I would try to open the ActinicCatalog.mdb file from Access and then run Database Compact/Repair to see if this solves the problem. It sounds as though a record identifier has been accidentally deleted.

[nickchad]

Thanks Bill - I've just tired that - but no joy - same error messages are occuring.....

[Bruce]

Have you tried compacting the databases from within Actinic itself? Go to housekeeping | Compact Databases and select both options. You will have to reopen Actinic. If this does not help, I would suggest raising a support query @ http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/register.htm.

Kind regards,

[nickchad]

Hi guys

thanks for your suggestions - I seem to have resolved the issue by exporting my product list from excel to access & having actinic read the access database - didn't change any fields - but it works !

[Mark H]

Hi - I'm getting the same problem, although I only get the "field too small" error, when trying to preview or upload. It seems to be linked to text (eg in full description) over 255 characters in the Excel sheet - such text can be used in linking, so I'm having to disable the external linking when I upload, and enable it when I want to make changes "offline" - tedious but it works. Linking to an external Access database defeats the object for me as I use Excel to make quick changes across all products - 20% off sales for instance. Any further thoughts? Mark H.

[nickchad]

Hi Mark

if it helps what I do is - I still use my original excel spreasheet for any updates / amendments to products. - save & close

Open my access database - which the auto refreshes with the excel data -save & close & then refresh the product links in actinic.

it's an extra step - but only really takes an extra minute or so - the up side being that for some reason actinic reads the Access data much quicker than it ever did with the excel sheet - so overall it dosne't take any extra time - it's just a pain that it won't work with my original spreadsheet

Cheers

Nick

[Mark H]

Hi Nick - does it work both ways, ie do changes in Actinic end up in the worksheet, or do you not do this? I suppose one benefit of another database is that you could at least generate a nice printed/PDF brochure........
Mark

[Mark H]

PS I'm still plugging away at Excel for a while before trying the Access route, For what it's worth I now think that the problem might be "carriage returns" entered in the Actinic full description, which appear in Excel as little hollow boxes. Mark.

[Mark H]

Solved it

I don't know if anyone is still listening (or interested!) but I have eventually solved my problem with linking to an external worksheet. I am using Excel 2002 and I'm just about to move to 2003. By simply saving the external data sheet as a version5/95 worksheet (last century! ) all my problems disappeared. I suppose this is something to do with the fact that it is talking to a database which is getting a bit veberable itself (Access 2000). Hope this helps someone. Mark