unable to edit properites

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:06 pm

All of my non-stock properties have become uneditable in the property manager since moving to 3.0. I noticed a new field in the properties table called protection. All rows in the table have this value set to 1. Changing its value to 0 allows me to edit properties.

Is that by design?

Post by **ScottBot** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:57 am

incoronado wrote:Is that by design?

Of course

In an effort to keep folks from deleting stock properties and causing some serious irreparable damage to their configuration (it may not have been listed as a new feature), I added some protection so you can't delete stock properties. If you add properties of your own, you can delete them, but not the stock ones. This check box removes all of the stock props and only shows user ones to make it easier to manage.

Now you're probably thinking 'But I've got user added properties and they disappear with the stock ones too'. That's because, unfortunately, until now I didn't have any way to distinguish the stock properties from the user properties, so they are all considered stock properties when the upgrade happened.

The 'user definable*' properties are a hybrid. You can add and delete values, but not the actual property itself.

It may still not be foolproof, but it should keep the accidental deletion from causing serious damage.

And as you have found, if you edit the 'protection' value in the database yourself, you can change the property to allow you to delete it. So if you need to 'manage' any of your pre V3 non-system properties, that is exactly what I would suggest that you do.

markd · Post by **markd** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 12:44 pm

I don't have MS access. . . are there any alternate ways to work directly with the database?

Post by **ScottBot** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:25 pm

markd wrote:I don't have MS access. . . are there any alternate ways to work directly with the database?

There are, but I don't recommend doing so. The risk is that if you change something that HouseBot was expecting, then there can be unpredictable results. So I never encourage anyone to edit the database themselves.

However, there is nothing to prevent you from editing the database directly, and if done correctly, there should be no problems.

Since I created this situation, I'll offer a quick tip and then leave it to you. Again, I don't encourage directly modifying the DB unless you really need to.

Download this, open the HBData.mdb file in your HouseBot\Config directory, click on the 'Properties' tab/table and change the Protection value to 0 for the properties you wish to unprotect.

Post by **Richard Naninck** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:02 am

Still at work so unable to test "this", but I am very curious.
I did it by using Access and editing the dbase. Switch 1's back to 0's.
If you backup the .mdb file first, you can fiddle with it all you like and restore the backup if something goes wrong.

No access?! -> do it by script. Scott just put up an example of how to interface with .mdb files. Maybe you can have HouseBot change it's own database using a script.

markd · Post by **markd** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:01 pm

Richard Naninck wrote:Still at work so unable to test "this", but I am very curious.
I did it by using Access and editing the dbase. Switch 1's back to 0's.
If you backup the .mdb file first, you can fiddle with it all you like and restore the backup if something goes wrong.

No access?! -> do it by script. Scott just put up an example of how to interface with .mdb files. Maybe you can have HouseBot change it's own database using a script.

I haven't had a chance to try it yet- my question was more generic than specific. Seems that there are incidents (especially when working with new extensions) where the database can get confused- would be nice to be able to see what is happening. Also, I've done some hand edits to update themes (see testing new extensions above

working pretty much blind. the edits worked well, but it would be easier if I could see what reference numbers were hooked to what.

I haven't gone to 3.0 yet- waiting for the dust to settle a bit, especially as I don't have immediate use for the new features.

thanks

Markd

Post by **Richard Naninck** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 4:36 pm

markd wrote: waiting for the dust to settle a bit

No dust here at all

markd · Post by **markd** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:32 pm

ScottBot wrote: Download this, open the HBData.mdb file in your HouseBot\Config directory, click on the 'Properties' tab/table and change the Protection value to 0 for the properties you wish to unprotect.

Brilliant. Well, it will be if I need it. Nice little program! Muahahahah! Yes! Yes! The power! The absolute power!

(5 point bonus for quote ID)

What can I say, sometimes I prefer working at this level rather than fighting with an interface. Like the pain of adding multiple properties one by one by one. . . or modifying 24 buttons to point from one device to another. . . much faster in notepad++ acting directly on the theme. I'm always careful to back up.

No dust here at all

thanks guys!

Markd

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 11:26 pm

Open Office (Free) has the ability to edit Access DB files and a lot more. This is what I use. It can't open them directly, but can very easily using data connections. This link will explain how to open .mdb files for editing.

http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget ... 05,00.html