> im going to act dumb, is it a bad idea to change struture etc with active
> connections then?

Generally, yes.

We always put the database into single user mode when we perform schema updates on our Classic engine deployments.

We have followed this practice for the last 9 years and we have never had a problem, so we never tested how the later FB versions might actually react. {If it ain't broke, don't mess with it}

> "it seems likely
> that you are modifying the table structure with active connections. Those
> active connections are not aware of the table change..."
>
> Any ideas of a way to get them to pick up the changes without a Db engine
> restart

In theory, it is very simple, you need to simply close existing connections and open new connections.

In practice, this may be problematic depending on how your application manages connections.


Sean