Database string after upgrade

Hi Everyone,

I’m sure I’m just missing something here but would appreciate a few pointers.

I just licensed a copy of mobile connect client for Android and realised that my message server is not connecting. I have checked all the settings and the only thing I can see that is an issue is a blank database connection string. i recently upgraded v5 to the latest version in preparation for the mobile client. I have SQL server express installed so i just assumed that when migrating the database backup that everything would just copy across. but now I’m unsure what type of database I’m running or where it is located. if my database string is blank after an upgrade does this mean it has rteverted to the text file version and if not how would i go about locating the right details for the Database string? also in filling in the database string, will all my current data be migrated across if I enter something in the String dialogue. for reference my current install lists the following at the top of the screen:
[app:5.2.18][3/14/2019 1:56: PM] DB 150-150] SQ

Appreciate any pointers you guys can give. the ultimate aim is just to get the mobile client up and running

SQ and blanc I think sugests your using LocalDB which is single user instance of SQL.
If you have installed SQL Express Samba wont switch automatically. If you have a backup from LocalDB it should be restorable into SQL Express once you change connection string to point to your SQL Exprsess instance.
Imaging app/gql part of message server would need SQL Express rather than LocalDB to work.
If you have a backup you should just be able to point to express instance which will then make a freesh db to which you can restore your backup.

Hi,

i think you might be right, as that would explain a lot. so just to be sure; (i have 3 years of data to protect) the next steps would be to make a manual copy of the db, enter a connection string to point to a sql express instance (do i need to create a db in express first?) then restore from the backup? i’m guessing the restore function does not mess with the connections string?
Thanks for your patience :slight_smile:

I’ve only use SQLExpress for so long I’m a little rusty.
Either way make a backup first.
I’m pretty sure there is a way to migrate directly from localDB to express using SQL manager but not done myself.
Changing connection string won’t loose the localDB database and you should be able to reconnect by again changing connection string.
If your unsure maybe wait for confirmation from Jessie who will know for sure.

Thanks, the restaurant is in service right now and I’ll have to have a go at this in the middle of the night anyway. So happy to wait to be sure! appreciate the help

All you need to do to switch to full SQL from LocalDB is backup your LocalDB, install sql and connect to the instance via the connection string you can find how to do that in kb.sambapos.com the database setup portion. Once your connected to the instance just restore the backup of your localdb and your done.

Hi Jessie,

thanks for the help. unfortunately when i followed the procedure i ended up with a version of the database from many months ago, with old prices and changes to the table layout and no current data!

to be clear i followed the following steps:
1 backed up the database
2 entered the sql serve string as follows:
BARPOS\SQLEXPRESS
sa
sambapos
sambaposV5

upon reload i updated the database with the backup made just before and everything about the setup presented from several months ago, with no current data. pretty scary.

after a small panic i removed all the data connection string and rebooted and it was back to normal as before (did not upload the database again)

so back to square 1

any idea what could be happening here?

So you made a backup then loaded that backup but it had old data? That’s actually nearly impossible there is something we are missing here. Are you sure you loaded that backup and not an older one by mistake?

yup thats what i thought also, very strange. checked several times.

Weirder still was that when i removed the whole connection string and reloaded, everything was back to normal without any backup

That’s because you still have localdb running. It just connected back to that.

Hmm odd so with that connect string it connected ok?

How did you restore the DB once you connected? What steps did you take.

ah yeah ok so it just reconnected to the local db as was before. makes sense actually.

so after entering the new string (which was my original db before i ended up on a local db when upgraded previously) i saved the settings logged out and then restarted sambapos. no issues on startup. once logged in i went straight to the database backups section and restored the database from the one i had just made a few moments before. saved and again restarted. thats when i was presented with the old data.

would it help if i entered a new database name in the string? i assume this would start a whole new database that i could then upload the backup to?

You should probably rename the database yes. Then try restoring the one you want.

ok, so i guess to do this its just a case of entering a new name in the database string right?

we are back into service so it will have to be in a couple hours time but i’ll try that. fingers crossed!

Yes you can just change the name in the string. In fact I do that whenever I want to test something then I just go back to my normal db when done.

Sambapos will create a new database with that name.

Great!

Got there in the end thanks for all the support guys. creating a new database name seemed to fix most issues and i’m back up and running on SQL 14