Set data items to sync incrementally

When you are adding a file or SQL data item to Sync, you can use an Incremental Process. The benefit of this option is the prevention of very large sync items when only the recent data has changed. Your historical data is retained while new data is synced. The incremental process typically syncs all data within an offset period, for example, rolling 30 days.

There are two incremental process methods, by date or by key.

Open

Incremental syncs work on purge and append. Phocas works out the earliest date or key in the item you're syncing and deletes all data from that date or key forward from the server/cloud. Then the item is synced in the usual way - all the data is added to the existing data on the server/cloud.

Incremental process - by date

The data item must contain a DateTime column, which is often the transaction date. If the item does not have such a column, this option is unavailable.

Select Incremental Process > By Date, then select the applicable column.

Incremental process - by key

Any data type column can be selected in this case. As such, this option can be used with automatic columns for text files. During the sync process, the new data is merged into any existing data. New rows (as determined by the selected columns) will be inserted. Existing rows (as determined by the selected columns) will be updated to new values of the other columns.

Select Incremental Process > By Key, then select one or more columns to be used as a uniquely identifying key for your data.

Troubleshooting

After you have synced an item using an incremental process, the structure of the item should remain unchanged for subsequent syncs. Changing the columns will cause subsequent syncs to fail. To avoid this happening, select Incremental Process > None, sync the item, then select the incremental process again.