Please Read This First! Very Important!

Enabling Complex Manufacturing makes permanent changes to your FFL Tools Database.  Due to the way Complex Manufacturing works, the "main" or "existing" FFL Tools Database and Boundbook will be referred to as Retail Database or Retail Boundbook.  Complex Manufacturing adds a new manufacturing database which will interact with the retail database.  Because of this interaction between the databases, below are two methods of testing the FFL Tools Complex Manufacturing Add On.

 

Use a test computer.  This can be done by downloading and installing FFL Tools on the test computer.  Then copy a backup file from the C:\FFLTools\Backup folder on the production computer and saving it to the C:\FFLTools\Backup folder on the test computer.  Restore the database on the test computer.  Proceed to Introduction to learn how to enable and test Complex Manufacturing.  Once all testing has been performed, and FFL Tools Complex Manufacturing is considered a good fit for the business, enable and purchase Complex Manufacturing on the production system.

 

While this is a more intricate process, with a couple of guidelines and by using the Backup and Restore features of FFL Tools, testing Complex Manufacturing on a production installation of FFL Tools can be safety accomplished.

First some basic guidelines:

Before enabling Complex Manufacturing, back up the retail database by clicking  .  Then go to C:\FFLTools\Backups in Windows File Explorer and rename the .bak file that was just created to something like BeforeCM.bak. This will allow FFL Tools to be restored if it is decided that Complex Manufacturing is not a good fit for the business. 

Once Complex Manufacturing is enabled and configured, clicking will create two backup files, FFL Tools Retail and Manufacturing. The backup files will be in the C:\FFLTools\Backup folder and will have the following naming structure:

Retail Database: MM_DD_YYYY_HH-MM_AM_NNNNN.bak. 

Manufacturing Database: Man_MM_DD_YY_HH-MM_AM_NNNNN.bak.

 

MM = Month

DD = Day

YYYY = Year

HH = Hour

MM = Minute

AM = AM or PM

NNNNN = last 5 of FFL Number.

 

Restoring of the databases can be done independently.

 

Rename these files so they can be easily located for a restore process. Keep the Manufacturing database that was just created so that when purchasing the FFL Tools Complex Manufacturing Add On has been decided, the Manufacturing database can be restored removing all the test data

 

Now that Complex Manufacturing is setup and base backup files have been created, follow the below steps before and after each test session of the Complex Manufacturing Add On.

 

1.     Before adding any Manufacturing data perform a backup by clicking .

2.     Perform testing.  If items are disposed to "self" (the FFL # that is defined in the Retail Database Store Information) in Complex Manufacturing, an acquire record will be recorded in the Retail database.

3.     After testing, restore the pre-testing retail backup. This way all the test Manufacturing data will remain in the manufacturing database, but test data will be removed from the Retail database.

 

Following these guidelines, and pre and post test processes, will allow for testing to be done on a production system without interjecting "test" data into the Retail database.

 

While the preferred method of testing would be on a test computer, it is understood that not everyone has a spare computer for testing purposes.  Testing on a production system should give you pause, and if any part of the process is unclear, please give support a call @ (855) 788-3737.