Best Practices for Database Administration

This section provides tips and best practices for maintaining a TaskMerlin database in top working condition.

In day to day use, users can generally update tasks when and how they wish. TaskMerlin takes care of maintaining data integrity, and preventing overwrites of other user's changes. However, the person designated as the TaskMerlin Administrator may also like to keep the following points in mind.

• Make regular database backups. This protects against the possibility of a database corruption, or a user permanently removing important data.
• From time to time (perhaps monthly), compact the database (via the Tools | Compact database menu option). This reduces the database size and improves efficiency.
• If upgrading TaskMerlin and multiple users share the same database, the same upgrade version should be installed on all PCs running TaskMerlin.
• Empty the Bin folder occasionally. This will permanently remove deleted tasks from the database.
• Note that copy-and-pasting a lot of images can significantly increase the database size over time (though TaskMerlin does internally compress all images). For large images, it is recommended to use hyperlinks to external filenames instead.
• The Database tab in the Options window has all the settings that apply to all users (the other tabs are per TaskMerlin and Windows user respectively), which only Administrative users can update.
• Each user should have their own TaskMerlin login. It's not recommended to log onto the database from different PCs using the same username.
• The Refresh button turns from green to red when another user has added new tasks or made task updates. However, note that a refresh is not required prior to adding or updating tasks, since TaskMerlin retrieves the most recent relevant changes automatically.
• The database is a Microsoft Access Jet 4.0 database - for further information on keeping it in top working condition, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303528/.