What Happens When ABM Service Is Updated
When your company's ABM Service is updated to a new version, you may meet two things: a notice saying The database is being updated while the database catches up, and a single automatic reload of the page when a screen you had open belongs to the version before. Both normally pass in moments. The version you are on is shown at the foot of the menu.
What does "The database is being updated" mean?
The notice The database is being updated means your company's ABM Service has just been updated and its database is being brought up to date for the new version, so no screen can load or save anything until that finishes. It covers the whole window, with one sentence explaining the reason and a Try again button. Wait a moment, then select Try again.
The sentence gives the database's version and the version the new ABM Service needs, followed by one of these:
- it is being brought up to date now. Try again in a moment. — the update is running; it normally takes moments.
- another process is bringing it up to date. Try again in a moment. — another copy of ABM Service that uses the same database is already doing the update.
- another process has been bringing it up to date for more than 2 minutes. Try again. — the other update is taking longer than expected; try again, and tell your system administrator if it persists.
- and it could not be brought up to date. followed by what failed — the update did not work, and trying again will not help until somebody fixes the cause. Tell your system administrator or IT support, and read them the whole sentence, because it names the step that failed and the database's own error.
Two shorter sentences can also appear on the notice. This site's database is being checked before this build uses it. Try again in a moment. means ABM Service is still checking whether the database needs updating. This site's database is being updated. Try again in a moment. is shown when the details could not be read. For both, wait a moment and select Try again.
While the notice is showing, the screens behind it cannot be used; the keyboard stays on the notice. In the ABM Service desktop app the notice covers the window's content but not its title bar, so the title bar's menus still work.
Will "Try again" lose my unsaved changes?
Try again on The database is being updated notice reloads the page, because that is the only way to ask every screen for its information again once the database is ready. Reloading ends any unsaved changes in the tab, so if something is unsaved your browser asks before the page reloads.
The screens behind the notice, including a call or customer you had left with unsaved changes, are still kept exactly as they were while the notice shows, even though the notice hides them. Nothing can be saved until the database is ready, though, because every save needs it, and the screens cannot be used while the notice covers them.
If your browser asks when you select Try again, choosing to stay keeps the notice and your unsaved changes where they are, and you can try again a little later. Choosing to leave reloads the page on the updated database, and the unsaved changes are lost.
Why did the page reload by itself?
ABM Service reloads the page by itself, once, when it has been updated while you had it open and you then open a part of a screen that belongs to the new version, for example the customer map or a call's documents. You see a short blink, the same screen comes back on the same address, and you are now on the new version. Nothing is wrong, and you do not need to do anything.
This happens because a tab that was open across the update is still running the version before, and the parts it had not loaded yet no longer exist on the server. Reloading once brings the tab up to date.
As with any reload, unsaved changes in the tab do not survive it, and your browser asks first when something is unsaved.
ABM Service reloads by itself only once in about half a minute, so it can never get stuck reloading. If the same part still will not open straight after the reload, ABM Service does not reload again. Reload the page yourself (press F5), and if it still fails, tell support.
Tip: Opening ABM Service in a new tab, or refreshing with F5, always loads the current version.
How do I check which version of ABM Service I am on?
Open the menu: the product's name and version are shown at its foot. After an update that happened while you were away, this is where you can confirm which version you now have. On a development site the product's name reads ABM Service Development.