by intuitas » Tue Nov 04, 2003 1:10 pm
Hi Christian,
I gather that the current Service List operates as a small database table containing the song name (as the index key linked to the song database) plus the meta data elements to be applied to the text retrieved when the song is "loaded". Any Quick Note created has its name added to the keyed index with the text being stored in a separate temporary table.
(Sorry for the term "table" - just shows my Rbase and Access history).
In all of this I have presumed that the text (lyrics) for songs in the Service List remains in the Songs database until loaded into the preview pane and is not stored in the Service List. To do otherwise would be unnecessary duplication. Thus saving the Service List for future retrieval pre-supposes that items listed can be successfully keyed to available data in the songs database. Hence the Service List can't be saved while it contains links to the transient Quick Notes. I have just tested this by adding a new song to the database, adding the name to a service list and saving that list, deleting the song, retrieving the service list and checking the display for the (now) non-existent song. Fortunately all that happens is that the last song added to the database is displayed (even though it bears no resemblance to the deleted song). When the song is reinstated to the database the service list link then correctly displays it again. I imagine that attempting to retrieve a non-existent powerpoint presentation might cause the whole system to crash.
Would it therefore be possible to save the Service List including items such as Quick Notes , Presentations, Video Clips and References BUT when the service list is retrieved to have any items not "found" greyed out until they ar made available to the system. This would act as a visual reminder to open all the presentations necessary to running the service.
Any items remaining unavailable could of course be deleted from the retrieved service list but could not be "loaded".
I wasn't sure whether to bring this up again or not, but since we are talking of changes to the service list, I would still like some visual indication of which items in the list have default attributes (meta data) and which have been assigned current attributes (as set out in my post current/default settings in this forum).
Regards,
Paul