Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Automated data Importation ideas needed.

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Automated data Importation ideas needed.

    I have approximately 44 clients who need to send in aproximately 80 to 300 records per week. after a brief survey I have found that the preferred way of sending in this information is via a Excel Type Spreadsheet.
    -
    Great, however I have better things to do than hang around to import data, so I wish to develop an automated process.
    - Can anyone tell me if my thinking on how to develop this is wrong.
    -
    1. Build Excel Templates for the clients so there is a uniform format.
    2. Set up a receiving email @ account for the said xls es
    3. Build an desktop email reciever application that a) reads the emails, logs, renames and moves the xls attachments. Then opens the xls, to import and append to the existing records.
    4. Sends a confirmation back to the client's email with a report as to how many records were processed, and if any records had errors,
    -
    Is it anymore difficult than this ?

    #2
    Re: Automated data Importation ideas needed.

    This is a desktop app, but you've posted in the web section? Not sure.

    In general, what you've outlined is fine. There are lots of variations of course.

    If you haven't checked into it, you might look at the Actions available in the Read Email features. This could really help you automate things.

    In addition, you could set a timer or other automated feature to kick off the Read Email features and, eventually, just let it all sit there and do it's job.
    -Steve
    sigpic

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Automated data Importation ideas needed.

      Or you could use the unlimited distribution license that Alpha has for desktop apps and create a simple app the collects the data and automates sending it to you. Then you have it in the form that you need immediately -> no conversion. You could set up the app to create a file name structure so that you are able to determine the client, etc. and they wouldn't need to know anything but how to click the button you create for them. It could even email it for them. Makes things easier for them and easier for you!

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Automated data Importation ideas needed.

        Steve, it is 99% a web app,
        We could also do a file upload to the xls to a web page ,
        However email provides proof to the sender that they did submit it.
        I just can't get my head around automating a web app to do this sort of thing.

        Doug,
        Or you could use the unlimited distribution license that Alpha has for desktop apps
        Personally I love that idea , I'll think a bit more about it!! Thanks

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Automated data Importation ideas needed.

          If it's web app, then different approach.

          Use a cron event on your webserver to fire at an appropriate interval. The event need only call an .A5W page, on or from-which you do all the work you need to do.

          If you can make each Excel file a different name (Maybe, CustID + Date for instance) then you can store a list of imported files. Compare a list of Excel files in your upload directory to the stored list, do what you need to with the new ones. Add each processed filename to the "processed" table.

          Process it, etc., then use email_smtp_send() to confirm all is done.

          Again, a ton of variations are possible here.
          -Steve
          sigpic

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Automated data Importation ideas needed.

            Colin, you could do as you suggested and have an upload page. The upload code could validate the information, process the records, archive the upload (renamed, dated), and send a confirmation email to whoever.
            Steve Wood
            See my profile on IADN

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Automated data Importation ideas needed.

              Steve,
              In some ways that does actually sound the simplest,
              Also if the users have logins etc then recording who does/did what is very transparent.
              (I'm glad I asked around, instead of rushing head on into this) :-)

              Comment

              Working...
              X