The Local Database Options dialog (in the Rails menu) allows you to customize how the current Panorama database interacts with the Rails server.
Environment
The Panorama database can only be synchronized to one environment at a time. The default is the development environment, but you can use the pop-up menu to select a different environment. (After you change the environment you'll need to re-download the data from the Rails server, see Downloading Data).
Note: Each environment has its own connection options. See Host Connection to learn how to change the connection options.
Synchronization Mode
Track Magic has three synchronization modes for uploading data: Immediate, Manual and Off. Use the pop-up menu to select the mode for the current database (the default is Manual, see Uploading Data for more information).
In Immediate mode Track Magic will immediately upload any changes made to the Rails server. The disadvantage of this mode is that there will be a delay as you edit each cell.
In Manual mode (the default) Track Magic will save the changes you make until you choose the Upload All Changes to Rails command from the Rails menu (see the previous section).
In Off mode Track Magic will not upload changes at all, and in fact will not even keep track of changes. Use this mode if you want to be able to make scratch changes to the local Panorama database and want to make sure that the Rails table will not be modified.
Download Sort Order
Track Magic normally downloads data in whatever order it is supplied from Rails (usually this means it is ordered by the primary key), but you can specify a specific order for downloading the data. There are three pop-up menus that allow you to specify the primary, secondary and tertiary sort keys. For each key you can specify whether the data is to be sorted in ascending or descending order.
Once the sort order has been specified it will be used for all downloads from this Rails table, both for subsets and downloads of the entire table.
Note: This preference only controls the initial order of the data as it is downloaded. You can use the Sort menu to re-sort the local data at any time, see Sorting for more information.
Automatically Launch Mongrel
When this option is checked, Track Magic will automatically launch the Mongrel web server whenever this Panorama database is opened. See Working With Mongrel for more information.
Delete from Rails When Record Deleted
When this option is checked, deleting a record from the local Panorama database automatically deletes the corresponding record from the Rails database. (Panorama will ask you to confirm before it actually performs the deletion, but you can bypass the confirmation step if you hold down the option key.) See The Data Sheet for more information on deleting records.
Bypass Rails Validation
Enabling this option tells Rails not to check to make sure that data is valid before it is uploaded from Panorama to Rails. When this option is checked you can enter any value into any field in this table. Be careful! (Note: This option only affects data modified in Panorama. Your Rails application will still validate data normally, whether this option is on or off.) See Uploading Data for more information.
Unlock "Magic" Fields
Track Magic normally locks the special __rid, __Changes and __Exceptions fields so they can’t be accidentally edited. Checking this option turns off this special protection and allows you to manually edit these fields. We recommend you leave this option disabled, as manually editing these fields will most likely cause trouble.