System table – relationships (a2k)

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Does anyone know if it’s possible to repopulate a system table? In particular, the MSysRelationships table. I have a user that is using packaged software with an Access backend. For some reason the relationships are gone from this database. When I look in the MSysRelationships table, the only 2 rows that are in the table, and these are the only 2 relationships that I can see in the relationship window. I’m assuming these were created at a later date.

The software vendor is at a loss as to how/why this would happen. There are a sizeable number of tables, probably > 100. Before I send it back to them and ask them to rebuild everything, I just wanted to check if there was a way to just repopulate this table. I know i can’t manually add a row when I open it. Can it be overlayed? or imported and then deleted and renamed? And would this even solve the problem?

Any input appreciated!! Thanks.

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If you establish relationships in the relationships view, that will add the entries back, but of course you need to know what previously existed. They can also be added in software, but you still need to know the structure. As to how they ended MIA, corruption of the database would be the most likely. Is this issue going on in a front-end or a back-end, or in a single database with both forms and reports in addition to tables?

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If they have to be added back in I’ll get the software vendor to do that. I would have no idea of the relationships because there are too many tables. It’s a backend database which is on a network and used by about 3 people simultaneously. I’m not sure what the front end is written in. It does have a lot of both reports and forms. Are you thinking that would somehow affect these?

Thanks for your response.

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You can’t directly edit the relationships table and you can’t delete or rename system tables. If you’re system tables have gone up in smoke you have a corruption problem of note. Does your software vendor indicate that there *were* more than two relationships at some point? I’ve seen a frightening number of custom databases where the developer didn’t seem to know anything about creating explicit relationships between tables.

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I know what you mean about the developers who don’t create these relationships. But I know for sure they were there at one point because I used them several months ago to determine how a number of tables were related so that we could import data. It’s sounding to me like I’m going to have to have them work on it.

I was just hoping there was a quicker way using that system table to get these back. Thanks for your input.

Frances

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Do any of your users have Access and the ability to open the back end? All they need to do to remove the relationships is to open the relationship layout and start clicking on and deleting relationships.

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