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Import Genie 'blowing up'

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    #1

    Import Genie 'blowing up'

    Hi,

    I'm running Alpha 5 version 9 standard (Newbie to Alpha, not to databases, primarily Access 2003).

    I'm trying to import data from a spreadsheet given to me by with the clients data. I have matched the column title and the field titles exactly. Data type is a mixture of integer and character. There are only 13 fields.

    The problem is when I use the Import Genie, I can select the file to import and the table to import into. When I go to the advanced options to select the comma as the delimited, Alpha five stops working (message from Windows Vista) and closes. If I try to let it create a new table, it still blows up at the same point so it doesn't appear to be a table issue.

    Is there any way to get it to stop this? I am on the latest patch of the software.

    Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

    Regards,

    Bill
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

    Try turning off the User Access Control in Control Panel. It sometimes programs to quit working as you described. If that's the problem, after you use A5 for a while, it probably won't matter whether the UAC is on or off.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

      I already have UAC turned off (Bugs the heck out of me..)

      Must be something else making it explode. I might just try installing on an XP box and see what happens through.

      Bill

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

        I may be a little bitter towards microsoft...but yea, try that on an xp machine. Vista is a crime against humanity.
        Joel Domen
        Material Resources and Planning Manager
        NAFCO Industries

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

          Bill, check the column and field names. Alpha Five has specific limitations because of the underlying DBF format used in its native tables. In general each field name must begin with an alpha character (a..z, A..Z) and may not contain any punctuation symbols other than hard underscores.

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

            Must be a Vista issue. When I went to XP, I didn't have any problems. I thought about the field names as well and had them matched exactly to the field names in the table. Vista... who needs it?!

            Thanks for the assistance.

            Regards,

            Bill

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

              I don't if V8 is different than V9 is this regard but I don't have any problems with V8 in Vista.

              Are the fields in Excel always comma delimited or could they be something else?

              Just a thought. As you probably well know, you can set the compatibility of a program to a previous OS in Vista. You might try that. I've had only modest success with it. One of the few things I don't like about Vista. A good intention idea that doesn't work as promised all the time.

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

                I am using comma delimited and writing the file out to a *.csv. I'm not sure what the problem is. I will give it a try in compatibility mode. Didn't even think about trying that. I keep a VM of Windows XP Pro available on my desktop so I can always drop to that if I need to. It's a pain to have to jump in and out of OS's just to get your work done.

                Thanks for the ideas.

                Bill

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

                  Originally posted by wmarquardt View Post
                  I'm trying to import data from a spreadsheet given to me by with the clients data.
                  Don't.
                  Save the spreadsheet as a dbf file. Open alpha, add the saved file.

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

                    Out of curiousity, how do you save a spreadsheet as a .dbf file. I was looking at the "save as" file options in Excel 2007 and didn't see that option.

                    When he said that A5 closes with a Vista message, I suspect he might want to turn the UAC back on, restart and try again. This feature is the only thing that's caused that problem in my experience. I wonder what the exact Vista message is.

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

                      Robert,

                      I did a google and looked at a couple of results and found that Excel 2007 removed the capability of saving as a dbf. A work-around I saw mentioned was to open in Access 2007 and save it that way.
                      Mike
                      __________________________________________
                      It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
                      It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
                      Henry David Thoreau
                      __________________________________________



                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

                        I had a similar issue while importing notes for a customer. It seems alpha five kept trying to import these really long note fields as character fields and would crash on the import before i could ever change it. I found that Alpha Five would import the data into a temp table just before it crashed and that you can add that table to your database and then change the data type of the long field in the structure and everything works.

                        -Eric S.

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

                          I did a little test in Excel. I filled out a couple of rows and columns. I then went to the "format as a table" option in the "Home" tab. It asks you to select the data for the table. I did that. Then I said save as a "comma delimited csv" file. When I did that, I got all kinds of messages from Excel and said yes to all of them and Excel saved the file. I then went to a database I have and went to "operation", "new". I selected the import operation and imported the .csv file using the ASCII option and setting the comma delimiter later in the process. During the process, A5 said that it was saving the file as an excel.dbf and in fact it did in the folder where my Excel files are kept.

                          So I think Bill's solution is to create a table out of his data in Excel as discussed above.

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

                            Originally posted by robert View Post
                            Out of curiousity, how do you save a spreadsheet as a .dbf file. I was looking at the "save as" file options in Excel 2007 and didn't see that option.
                            This feature might have been dropped in the 2007 version. I don't know, but before you come to that conclusion, search the Excel for "File format converters". It might still be there and you just have to add it.

                            I wouldn't be surprised if those morons dropped it because that's just what morons (which is anything and anyone affliated with Microsoft) do.

                            If they dropped it, it's not the end of the world.There are many sharware file converters you can use but you probably do not even have to go that far. I don't know what specific problem you are having, but if you can't import a file in a csv format for whatever reason, save it say as wk3 or some other format and try again.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Re: Import Genie 'blowing up'

                              Just a FYI,
                              What I mentioned in post 11 regarding a possible work-around mentioned on a google search turns out to be true--for those of you who have Excel 2007 you can import it into Access 2007 and then save it as a dbIV dbf file which can then be simply added to Alpha with Add Table.

                              Just another way to accomplish it and only takes a few to do.
                              Mike
                              __________________________________________
                              It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
                              It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
                              Henry David Thoreau
                              __________________________________________



                              Comment

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