How to connect MS Access to Roots Magic 8

Someone in the RootsMagic facebook group mentioned that they couldn’t delete a task folder.
I have foud a way by connecting a Microsoft Access Database to RootsMagic 8.
Details are here:
http://stevejjones.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1129

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several of us reported this rm8 bug and have been promised a fix in the next long delayed update. Few people would want or need a microsoft database program to handle bugs in another program.

I have use the OBDC connector – works great with Excel, Power Query and Power BI. I have built numerous dashboards to display info and/or to identify things that may need attention… one example…

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Kevync1985, That looks brilliant and also shows how other software is able to supplement what is built into RM8.
In my circumstance I had recently completed overhauling all of the citations. One of the greatest improvement in RM8 is that they are now displayed and you can make alterations once when an individual citation has been used several times - such as a census record, where in RM7 you would have had to copy/replace that same citation many times.
Having completed that which took several months, I then wanted to go through my list of tasks and as I complete each one I would then want to delete it.
Although the RootsMagic developers have said they are going to “fix” the issue of not being able to delete them, the delay in this “fix” was preventing me from getting on with the job in hand and so with all due respect to Rooty, some of us DO need other software to supplement RM8.
In fact one of the favourite pieces of software being used extensively by several RootsMagic users is SQLiteTools for Roots Magic which has quite a large library of routines on its website.
https://sqlitetoolsforrootsmagic.com/

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I have had good luck using SQLITE with RM. The challenge I have run into a few times is updating thing and RMNOCASE. Sources and citations will be my next major task after 1950 Census.

Yes I do all my reporting via the ODBC connector in Excel or more recently, Power BI, since I use that for work. It’s a nice way of having a refreshable report from a sql query. You just have to cast the RMNOCASE fields as text in the SQL query.
But I wouldn’t bother with MS Access to delete records when you can do that with just SQLite Spy or other SQLite tools that run a query.
Anyway we developers regard Access as a tool of the devil, only to be touched when replacing it with a real SQL database :wink:

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Its a case of knowing how to do something. I have used MS Access since version 2 but stopped upgrading at version 10 when I retired and so no longer used it in a workplace and so quite competent with it up to that version. I had a brief look at SQLite tools and like the ready made routines on their website especially the one to “downgrade to RM7” - the reason for that is that RM7 has a built in module for creating a website on my own computer, unlike the one built into RM8 which only creates a website on the RootsMagic provided internet site. On my own server I can tweak the website created to include my own needs - mostly a replacement index.html page.
However I did not find a routine there to perform the task of deleting no longer required task folders and didn’t know how to create my own. However I did find that using MS Access a program with which I am familiar I am able to do that.
The purpose of posting the method is to assist anyone else who may be in possession of MS Access and would also like to delete those unwanted folders. I am not suggesting that people should go out and buy a copy!

(Access tool of devil) so in other words, it was to demonstrate how NOT to make a database? :slight_smile:

The database was already created by RM, Access was only used as a tool to pull info out of it.

has anyone used MS Access to perform updates to an RM db?

Just want to remind users that RM doesn’t recommend or support databases being manipulated outside of the program. If you’re not sure what you’re doing use a play database, otherwise you could damage your database beyond repair. Happened to see such a file today.

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As an exponent of sqlite ops on RM data files, I’ve always advocated taking such precautions as backing up before modifying data or operating on a copy. Failure to do so is tempting the fate that Renee observed.

Which is why I wrote in RED lettering at the start of the procedure
" Before doing this for the first time I would suggest you copy/paste your RM8.rmtree file so that if you make a mistake you can simply replace your RM8.rmtree database with the copy you just made."

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