Making basic synchronization settings

Regardless of whether you are synchronizing forms, global objects, or the Explorer (singly or in combination), you must first make some basic settings.

These settings must be made before any synchronization takes place:

  1. Launch FormSync.
  2. Select the Source and Target configurations and click OK.
  3. If FormSync was already running, establish the default settings. Select the correct option on the Synchronization Options page:
    • In the form version of FormSync, click Restore Defaults.
    • In the stand-alone FormSync utility, on the main page, click Options; and then, on the Synchronization Options page, click Initial settings.
  4. Specify how you want to handle these basic settings:
    Synchronization base level
    Select the base level to use for the synchronization. You can elect to use Vendor versions, Site versions, or Group versions as the basis for synchronization.
    Only process objects changed at the synchronization base level
    To specify that only objects that have been customized at the specified base level are to be processed, select this option.

    If you have customized or updated forms and objects at a different level, you must run FormSync again for those.

    If this option is cleared, forms and objects at any level are processed.

    Delete only matching base level forms and objects
    Normally, all forms and objects at the base level are deleted during synchronization and then replaced with new base-level versions.

    If this option is cleared (which formerly was the default), then ALL forms and objects in the Target are deleted—regardless of whether matching versions exist in the new Source—before the new versions are inserted. This means that, if you have your own Vendor version of a form that you created, the upgrade installation process would delete your form.

    This option was created to address that problem. Selecting this option tells FormSync to search for form names in the Target that match Source forms, before deleting forms in the Target. Selecting this option ensures that, if no matching form name is found in the Source, then your form (in the Target) is not deleted.

    Process scripts as single objects
    This option applies only if you are using Visual Basic (VB) as your scripting language.

    In cases where you might have a complex script that contains multiple methods or subscripts, FormSync normally attempts to parse them as separate, individual script objects. This option tells FormSync to treat the entire script as a single script object and not try to parse the contents.

    Note: The FormSync parser is not able to parse out C# scripts at all, and in some cases, very complex VB scripts (for example, VB scripts that contain multiple versions of a function or multiple namespaces). In these cases, FormSync automatically treats the script as a single object.
  5. (Stand-alone utility only; if you are using the form version, skip this and the next step.) Click OK.
  6. (Stand-alone utility only) Set these options:
    • To respond to prompts during processing, select Display prompts during synchronization.
    • To respond to prompts later, select Log prompts for replay later.
  7. (Both versions) From the Log detail drop-down list, select the level of detail you want to record in the log.
  8. (Stand-alone utility only) Click Options.
    Note: Do this step only if you are making other selections and setting other options. Otherwise (if you are doing a basic default synchronization), you can skip this step.
When you are finished making all these settings, proceed to select whatever options and make whatever settings you need to synchronize the forms, global objects, Explorer, or any combination of these.