Data Truncated Error

[JonG]

I have been renaming replicated product pop-up pages throughout our catalog. (Now at 212 replicated products.) The process seemed to be going along smoothly, until I received the following error while trying to adjust a page name:
The field is too small to accept the amount of data you are trying to add. Try inserting or pasting less data.

Cancelling, and then re-opening the edit window for the product found no change. The only field I'm trying to edit is the Extended info page name field. No others have been touched.

So.... exited the program, and restarted it and received a "Data Truncated" error immediately on restart.

I then did the following:
Compacted the Catalog and Shipping Databases. (no change)
Purged the Orders, Catalog, Emails and Customer Accounts. (no change)

Checked my external database to make sure that none of our fields were over the recommended character lengths:

Product reference 20
Short description 255
Full description 20,000
Report Description 20,000
Image Filename 50
Date prompt text 50
Other info prompt 50
Detail Link Text 20,000
Extended Info Text 20,000

(they weren't)

So I then shut down external linking and the problem disappeared.

I know the problem is with the externally linked Excel database, but I can't see what it is. Does anyone have any suggestions? I saw on another post here in the forums that sometimes this error appears when there is a corrupted record. How would I fix that?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Jan]

Jon,

Have you deleted the linking for the extended information page number in excel and Actinic to resolve the duplicate page names bug, have you done this? (You would do this in File/External Links - just delete the entry in the middle column for extended info filename).

I have a workaround for PRB that uses an access database instead of an excel spreadsheet, I think that you should consider moving over to this method - if you want to do this, I can send you the new program. This will remove problems with long fieldnames and doesn't allow you to link the external information pagename field.

Regards,

[JonG]

Hi Jan,

Yes, I did that before I anything else. Your previous instructions were very helpful, thank you.

I'm really not thrilled about the idea of re-entering more than 200 replicated products to make the switch from Excel to Access without knowing what the underlying problem is. Is there any possibility that the Linked Excel file could be repaired or that the info could just be copied into a fresh linked file?

Many thanks,
Jon

[Jan]

The workaround uses the same tables that the excel spreadsheet uses - the only thing you have to change is your linking in Actinic.

I'll forward the email to you anyhow and you can have a look at it and make your decisions.

It might not make any difference what at all, but it might give you a clearer starting point for the problems you are having.

Regards,

[JonG]

Thanks!

Even if switching did take a lot of time, it'd be a lot better than what I'd already been doing, but I'm glad to hear it won't.

Thank you!
Jon