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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.
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How do you learn to use this program?

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    #1

    How do you learn to use this program?

    I am trying to build a database for myself, but how in the world am I supposed to use this? Where do I go to learn how to use this? Is this program similar to any other programs, and how does Oracle compare in the learning as well?

    Thanks
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: How do you learn to use this program?

    Hello John,
    Welcome to Alpha.

    I believe that one of the best ways is to use the Alpha tutorials. It steps you through some of the basic design steps in a progressive manner, and has examples based in the alphasport database that you can see as you progress through the tutorials.
    Mike W
    __________________________
    "I rebel in at least small things to express to the world that I have not completely surrendered"

    Comment

      #3
      Re: How do you learn to use this program?

      John, tell us a bit about your background. i.e. are you struggling with how to organize / structure your database, or are you already familiar with relational database design? Have you created databases with other tools? Which?

      There some books in the online Alpha Software store. Have you considered them?

      Have you looked at any of the samples or templates?

      Do you not know how to find or use the "User's Guide" ?

      If I were starting from scratch, but had some familiarity with other database products (Access, Filemaker, etc.) I'd probably create a new database using one of the many templates that ship with the product. Then I'd play with the resulting example learning how to enter, edit, delete, sort, filter, records in tables and in sets of tables. Then I'd use the design tools to look behind the templates to see how things are built.

      Comment

        #4
        Re: How do you learn to use this program?

        Hi,
        I can reply to your message with respect to Oracle. Alpha is WAYYYY easier to learn and work with than Oracle. Oracle is a very powerful, and very complex rdbms. For example, in Oracle I struggled with the report code for a report we wanted to make for two weeks, trying to get it to pull data correctly, format the report, etc. I ended up creating the report we needed using passive link tables and sets in Alpha5 in less than 3 hours.

        The easiest way for me to learn Alpha is to go through the sample apps that come with it and view the code. The tutorials are excellent and the support on this message board is outstanding.
        Land of the Free, Because of the Brave
        Support our US Military

        Comment

          #5
          Re: How do you learn to use this program?

          Originally posted by externals View Post
          I am trying to build a database for myself, but how in the world am I supposed to use this? Where do I go to learn how to use this? Is this program similar to any other programs, and how does Oracle compare in the learning as well?

          Thanks
          As one beginner to another -- A5 requires a number of different skills - database layout, screen layout, program design and if you move to the web there are additional skills as well.

          There are books for beginners and there are programs through Alpha and others.

          A5 is designed for beginners and yet allows for advanced designs.

          Best of luck.
          Greg Wood

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