Forum Discussion

BethanyHudson's avatar
BethanyHudson
Qrew Trainee
5 years ago

File Attachments Export

I am starting new apps from scratch because the existing ones that we have were created by a consultant. I need to be able to export documents, a table from an existing app, into a new app. When I export the documents table it just has the file attachment name instead of the actual file. So then I thought of doing a relationship between the apps but once we have our new ones up and running we will be deleting the old ones. Is there a way to do this where the document stays in my new app once we delete the other? If there is no way around the relationship from the old app, we can always keep it I guess, but only let it show for me.

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Bethany Dickey
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  • AustinK's avatar
    AustinK
    Qrew Commander
    If you move the table to the new app then your file uploads will remain in place. You will have to reconnect all the relationships after doing this, or in your case create new ones. It is a little more nuanced than that to make sure you don't screw your data up when reconnecting things but most of it is fairly simple. There may be another way to do this too. I just had to deal with a similar thing with thousands of files.

    Just don't do any testing without copying your app and working in the copy only.
    • BethanyHudson's avatar
      BethanyHudson
      Qrew Trainee
      It gives me an error because it has more than 75MB of file attachments.

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      Bethany Dickey
      Program Administrator
      Mobile Bay National Estuary Program
      118 N. Royal St., Suite 601
      Mobile, AL 36602
      251-459-8870






      ------Original Message------

      If you move the table to the new app then your file uploads will remain in place. You will have to reconnect all the relationships after doing this, or in your case create new ones. It is a little more nuanced than that to make sure you don't screw your data up when reconnecting things but most of it is fairly simple. There may be another way to do this too. I just had to deal with a similar thing with thousands of files.

      Just don't do any testing without copying your app and working in the copy only.
      • AustinK's avatar
        AustinK
        Qrew Commander
        Yes making the app copy will not allow the extra files but the app copy is to test with to make sure you don't completely break your production app. You would copy the app like that and then work in the copy to understand the steps it would take to do it for production.

        Moving the table like I mentioned can work for this but the new relationship needs to at least be similar to the old one. If it would be similar I can help with more advice on how to migrate the table over. If it will not be similar then that is going to be tough. By similar I mean you still need a way that works to identify what records belong to who and what they relate to as well. So transferring the table to a new app you then get to define the relationships again and pick the reference fields, which can be different than the old ones, but need to still work with other Related fields there too. It can get complicated depending on how many relationships you have or want to remake.

        Moving a table I don't believe there is a file limit or if there is it is really big. The table I moved had 43GB of attached files.

        The other option would be downloading all of your files and figuring out how to relate them in the new app, this would mean uploading them all again too. You can do this by creating a report including the file attachment field on it and having an extension like DownThemAll download everything in the report. This works but if you have related data that goes with the files it isn't as good.

        There is also this script by Dan but it is a little bit older now. I have not tested it, it may or may not work. It does what you are requesting though. In the same thread there are other paid options as well that are listed too. https://community.quickbase.com/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?MessageKey=db2c28cd-0b87-47dd-afb0-b7f2ff474ea1&CommunityKey=d860b0f8-6a48-487b-b346-44c47a19a804&tab=digestviewer