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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 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:
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:
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.
- 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.
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Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
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Re: Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
Originally posted by emilyjacin View PostThis reply is exactly what i want as the answer, but i have another question. Is this the recommended way in alpha five that every seasoned or alpha five experts have been using through the years when it comes to desktop multi-user applications? If i will use the solution of Andrew, basing on what i read on this forum with regards to distributing applications in alpha five is that i have to install alpha runtime files on every user machine that is going to access the shared folder on the server right? pls do advice me on how to setup a multi user environment that uses alpha five dbf's without using sql server, mysql, access etc. and how to distribute my production apps.Thank you!Andrew
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Re: Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
I always use shadowed databases when sharing off a server. Some have had a modicum of success without the shadows.
No matter if you use dbf or sql db's with alpha, you will be installing runtime on each machine that needs to access the data. There are other approaches, but none that I know of that are a RAD(rapid application developement) system. To deploy any across a lan as a desktop app, there will be needed stuff of some kind on the work stations.
Alternative is to use alpha WAS as a lan system where you do it all as web pages and keep it localized as a lan based web app. That way your workstations only have you open ie and go to your ip address on the lan. Personal opinion is, it takes longer to make.
In VB, we simply made an exe on the server and it was run from the work stations. VB app I worked on took 2 years with several of us working on it. It could be done in alpha in 6 months with 1 person working on it.
I also DO NOT use mapped drives.
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Re: Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
There are so many threads and a whole lot in the help files on how to accomplish this.
You do need to make the decision on dbf or sql and then:
May I suggest you build your application, if you have not already done so? Follo alpha's example db's. I think they still include alphasports in your install.
Then copy it to another folder and test it to see you have not hard coded any paths into it?
At that time ask how to access it from another computer or look up the many areas on this forum. That along with the help files will definitely get you there.
Maybe you can get one of us to let you download one of ours for study purposes.
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Re: Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
Originally posted by Stan Mathews View PostWhat do you find lacking in the documentation?
with all the great features of Alpha Five and it's great documetation, i'm sure it's all well documented, being a beginner who wants to adopt alpha five as my new development environment and faced with overwhelming great information on how to get things done in ALPHA, i turned and relied on this FORUM for specific questions rather than searching and reading every bit of info, although it's a must and one must have to do it anyway in order to learn better ALPHA,but for the meantime i want your direct experts advice, and i consider DaveM's post to be more helpful than yours. no offense meant. thank you also for helping beginners like us appreciate the power of alpha as RAD tool.
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Re: Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
Originally posted by DaveM View PostThere are so many threads and a whole lot in the help files on how to accomplish this.
At that time ask how to access it from another computer or look up the many areas on this forum..
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Re: Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
My question really was directed at "Have you followed the link I provided?". We all welcome new users to ask as many questions as they like.
There is quite a bit of directon in that link. Do you have specific questions after perusing that information? Is there something you find confusing in the article?
Will i use the steps enumerated by Andrew to create multi - user apps?
I quite understand that searching for information in the wiki is problematic. If you know what you want to find and how it is phrased, finding it is relatively simple. If you don't, not so easy. Thus the embedded link.
1) Create a folder on the server
2) share the folder with permissions that allow your users to read and write to the contents of the folder
3) copy you dbf's, data dictionaries, and indexes to the shared folderOriginally posted by WikiEach client workstation must have read/write privileges to the database folder on the "server".
Each user must have read/write privileges to the registry on their workstation (i.e. as a Power User or Administrator).Last edited by Stan Mathews; 11-30-2011, 10:52 PM.There can be only one.
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Re: Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
Emily,
Stan is a great help to all of us. Please follow his link in post 16.
Look at how many posts he has made(just below his name) and others so you can see how much he has devoted in time and knowledge to all the others on this site. That includes me!
Simplified:
make your app in a folder
put the folder on whatever server you wish and share that folder
install runtime on a work station
I like to connect by making the shadow at this point - done from the CP of alpha five - I use \\servername\foldername\myname.adb (no mapped drives this way so people don't accidentally do something stupid).
You can make a shortcut on the desktop to start the app for the user that makes it simple for them.
ask more?Last edited by DaveM; 11-30-2011, 10:56 PM.
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Re: Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
BTW, if you like, at the top of this thread, three items to the right of Welcome, your_name use the Settings menu, find Edit Ignore List on the page you are shown. Feel free to enter my name there.
It will probably save you a lot aggravation.There can be only one.
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Re: Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
try here?
https://forum.alphasoftware.com/show...runtime+server
Stan,
Why would anyone want to put you on ignore?????
By the way, that is a very good link you posted in #16. Thanks
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Re: Client Server Desktop Application in Alpha Five
Have you tried anything yet?
To learn to swim get in the water. It actually lets you float and you start to choose your strokes.
So does Alpha - that's what its made to do.
Install one and see if it works. Install another and you have a multi-user app.
Then ask a teacher for finesse if you choose to - based on your actual experiences.
"Stan, you're a hoot" (sorry couldn't help myself, I love it, are you sure you're not from NYC, I love it there too)
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