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

Nomenclature; creating folder/database

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

    Nomenclature; creating folder/database

    Been using A4 for twenty years in my business on a daily basis, and am now in the beginnings of the A5V9 learning curve. I would like the answers to the following questions, having to do with creating a new database. [I will be using the A4 databases that I have developed over these many years.] My basic problem is with nomenclature and relationships of the following italicized items.

    1. When asked to create a new database in A5V9 it asks for a file name. I wish to use the name New2. The instructions also advise creating a new folder. The instructions also indicate that I can place my A4 dbf files in this new database, but the A4 databases will now be called tables, rather than databases.

    2. Is the name of the folder (New2) that I wish to create in A5V9 also the name of the database that I wish to create? Or is the folder the repository for all databases that I may create?

    3. Do I create a folder such as A5databases, into which I place all my databases that I may create, with each database bearing a different name, and each database containing its respective tables?

    4. Is the filename that is requested when creating a new database in reality the folder name?

    5. Is the name of the new database (New2) in reality the name of the folder?

    6. Do I create a new folder each time I create a new database, with each database placed in its own folder?

    Thanks in advance. Charlie

    #2
    Re: Nomenclature; creating folder/database

    Hi Charlie,

    Yes, the terminology is a little different in A5 as compared to A4.

    A4 used the term "database" to refer to what is called a "table" in A5.

    In A5 a "database" is a collection of tables, indexes, forms, scripts, etc. that are used to manage the data in the tables.

    The "folder" name can be the same as your "database" file name, or it can be something different. It is recommended that you keep each database (a collection of files - see above) in it's own folder. So, you'll have two names to assign when you set up your new database. Create a new sub-folder (Directory in A4 DOS language) somewhere on your hard disk and give it a meaningful name that relates to your database. Next, create a new database and give it a file name that is descriptive of your database and make sure it is saved inside of your new folder (directory).

    To add your A4 tables to the new database you need to COPY the table files (*,DBF) from your A4 location into the new folder you created for the A5 database. Just use the Windows Explorer and drag and drop them from one folder to the other.

    Next, open your newly created A5 database and add the tables using the menu. Once your tables are added to the new A5 database they will be under the control of A5. Do not attempt to open these table files in A4. (Make a COPY of your DBF files instead of moving them. Then you can use the old A4 table files with A4 if you want to).

    Hope this helps,

    Sean

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Nomenclature; creating folder/database

      Charlie,

      Just to add to what Sean said, the nomenclature was changed to conform to standardized database and Windows OS terminology as it has evolved. This will allow you to look at different sources of info and correspond the terminology back to Alpha.

      In case you missed it, you might want to also take a look at the section of the forum titled "Upgrading to Alpha Five from Alpha Four". There is some good info there as well.

      Also, Susan Bushs' book is also available as a PDF doc for $20. Might be a small investment for the info. I have not read it myself, but have read many favorable posts.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Nomenclature; creating folder/database

        Hi Charlie,

        Make sure you also copy the *.DBT files.

        This is most important as these are the Memo files that hold the text for the Memo fields.

        The DBF tables will note open without them.

        There is a lot of help regarding this in A5V5 area of this forum.
        Last edited by Keith Hubert; August 20, 2008, 02:43 PM.
        Regards
        Keith Hubert
        Alpha Guild Member
        London.
        KHDB Management Systems
        Skype = keith.hubert


        For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Nomenclature; creating folder/database

          Keith,

          I guess it depends on what version of .DBF. I was using A4v3 where there was no .FPT files, only .DBT. If I recall correctly I was able to open the table in edit mode and delete the memo type fields and then the table would open. I made new memo fields in A5 and then used an import from a CSV file to put the memo text back into the table. It wasn't straight forward but I managed to get it to work.

          Sean

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Nomenclature; creating folder/database

            Thank you all very much for the very informative replies. You have helped me tremendously in understanding the relationships. Over the many years I have read and posted here, I have always been impressed with the quality of the responses.

            Comment

            Working...
            X