Sparx Systems Forum

Enterprise Architect => Bugs and Issues => Topic started by: Bebert on October 09, 2017, 11:29:24 pm

Title: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: Bebert on October 09, 2017, 11:29:24 pm
Hi,
My main file is 0 ko size. EA can't open anymore. Obviously it 's empty.
I don't understand why EA clears my file. How it's possible.
I use EA13.5
BR
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: Geert Bellekens on October 10, 2017, 12:00:09 am
I've never seen or heard anything like that, so it seems unlikely to me that EA is the culprit.

But with a case like this I would contact Sparx support. Maybe they can shed some light on this.
I don't think however they can magically bring back your model, so I hope you still have a backup.

Geert
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: Bebert on October 10, 2017, 01:36:36 am
The other problem : our backup logs see only modification on the ldb file no on the eap. that's mean I don't have recent back up. the last one is on july. Why in july I don't know.
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: qwerty on October 10, 2017, 02:21:04 am
You only recognize that your backups did not work when you need them.

q.
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: Bebert on October 10, 2017, 02:40:18 am
Not really, the behavior of the  .eap is odd.
I thought It was the backup but it works fine with all the files .ldp included.
I could provide the backup log to the EA team.
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: PeterHeintz on October 10, 2017, 03:52:49 am
eap files in fact are MS Access mdb files.

So, more or less what .doc is/was for Word.
So if you have lost this file you have lost your model.

The .ldb is a MS Access temporary file that exist if a mdb/eap is open only. For you as a user it is more or less useless. To see what .ldb is intended for, see here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/966848/what-is-an-ldb-file

If your eap has size 0, nothing but a backup could help you.
I personally have never seen such a problem and I would assume it has something to do with your environment rather than with MS Access or EA on top of it.

Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: qwerty on October 10, 2017, 08:29:00 am
You can contact Sparx per mail, but a 0k EAP simply means you got nothing. EAP == MDB (or whatever that suffix was for Mickeysoft Access). What Peter said...

q.
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: VKN on October 12, 2017, 02:14:50 pm
EA doesn't empty your file by itself.
Looks like your model has been moved/deleted and a new model is created through the Windows folder (New | Enterprise Architect Model) which currently creates an .eap with a size of 0 (Sparx is aware of this).
Check the Date created flag.
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: Eve on October 13, 2017, 01:00:42 pm
To clarify VKN's response.

We currently know of only one scenario that can cause a 0 byte eap file. That is, the Windows Shell 'New' command creates an empty file without asking Enterprise Architect to fill it.

Unfortunately, by definition, the presence of a 0 byte file delivers no information about why it is 0 bytes. If you describe your processes that may suggest additional possibilities for the cause.
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: Glassboy on October 13, 2017, 01:21:30 pm
Unfortunately, by definition, the presence of a 0 byte file delivers no information about why it is 0 bytes.

That's not true, it tells you it's not an event that creates the database schema.  The file also has all the normal file system meta-data attached to it which tells you who and when it was created.

So as you have indicated the how, the OP just has to look at the meta-data to find out the who and then when.  Once they know the who they can ask them why.

That's quite a long way forward in clearing up the mystery.

(argumentum ad ignorantiam)
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: Paolo F Cantoni on October 13, 2017, 05:34:57 pm
[SNIP]

(argumentum ad ignorantiam)
And it's Friday the 13th!

Paolo
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: qwerty on October 13, 2017, 08:29:24 pm
Not being picky but just ignorant: where does Windoze store the creator in file attributes? I can only see Size, Created/Modified/Accessed and R/W.

q.
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: Glassboy on October 16, 2017, 07:58:46 am
Not being picky but just ignorant: where does Windoze store the creator in file attributes? I can only see Size, Created/Modified/Accessed and R/W.

My crystal ball doesn't tell me what version of Windows you're using or which of the approximately 5 local file systems it supports.  Or if you're looking at a network drive how good the underlying implementation of CIFS is :-)

But in general some metadata will be in the Master File Table (MFT), some will be in meta-files and some in Alternate Data Streams (forks).

What you see depends on the exact file system, and Windows, OSX, and *NIX all implement the same concepts in different ways.
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: qwerty on October 16, 2017, 04:28:35 pm
Me still thinking that NTFS is Mickeysoft's ultima ratio.

q.
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: sargasso on October 16, 2017, 07:23:16 pm
(This is probably a furphy, but anyway.)

I recall that about a million years ago there used to be a problem with the Jet engine when the MDB file was stored on a network drive. I did a bit of a search through the forum but cannot find anything apropos. All I really can remember is that one symptom was "suddenly" empty mdb files.  It was not an EA problem, as I said it was something about the Jet engine. 
Anyway I would presume that by now that issue would have been resolved, so this is probably a furphy.

b
Title: Re: EA clear the file. Now 's empty 0Ko
Post by: Glassboy on October 17, 2017, 07:26:44 am
(This is probably a furphy, but anyway.)
I recall that about a million years ago there used to be a problem with the Jet engine when the MDB file was stored on a network drive. I did a bit of a search through the forum but cannot find anything apropos. All I really can remember is that one symptom was "suddenly" empty mdb files.  It was not an EA problem, as I said it was something about the Jet engine. 
Anyway I would presume that by now that issue would have been resolved, so this is probably a furphy.

I wouldn't be surprised if that was still an issue.  MDB files are generally excluded in all of Microsoft's replication mechanisms like Offline files for exactly this reason.