Hi Paul.

>Things that are really important to me immediately are:
>
>1. Updating the table structures
>
>2. Having something that'll fix tables that get broken
>
>3. Reindexing
>
>Can anyone think of anythingelse that's essential?

That covers the main things your app needs to handle.

>Do people generally call these functions in code from the menu or are they writing forms to implement Stomefields functions. Is it useful to use the Database Explorer on the clients site?

You're not allowed to distribute our Database Explorer, and you really don't want to anyway -- it's way too powerful a tool to put into a user's hands.

Here's how we typically use SDT in the custom apps we build:

- At application startup, we check for the presence of a file (eg. INSTALL.TXT) that only exists when a new version of the application has been installed. If that file exists, we use the Update method to ensure tables structures are updated and then delete that file. We use code similar to the following:

if file(oApp.cAppDirectory + 'INSTALL.TXT')
    oMeta.oSDTMgr.Update()
    erase (oApp.cAppDirectory + 'INSTALL.TXT')
endif

- For reindexing, we have a menu function that calls a routine that calls the Reindex method:

if not oMeta.oSDTMgr.Reindex()
    messagebox('There was a problem rebuilding the indexes. ' + ;
      'Please contact your system administrator.')
endif

- For repair, we actually use a separate EXE that includes SDT's class libraries. All it does it instantiate DBCXMgr and then oMeta.oSDTMgr.Repair().

Doug