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Distribute Programs only

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    Distribute Programs only

    I want to be able to distribute working programs without over writing the data that is in the customer's databases.

    Please Advise

    Thanks
    Louis

    #2
    Re: Distribute Programs only

    Hi Louis,

    How will your customers be able to enter data without having the application to enter data in the first place?
    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


      #3
      Re: Distribute Programs only

      Keith

      Thanks for getting back to me. I will explain further, I do distribute the complete system the first time for installation. As I make changes to the application I want to then send the updated software to my end users. If I do it with the licensing package and select "application only" it will overwrite their databases with their data in it.

      Louis

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Distribute Programs only

        Originally posted by LSpano View Post
        If I do it with the licensing package and select "application only" it will overwrite their databases with their data in it.
        There's the easy answer - don't use Alpha's built-in installer because it's far too limiting. If you actually expect to sell multiple copies of this, spend a little money and get a third party installer. Some are even free so it would be very little money but I have little experience with them and am not sure if they have the necessary feature.

        I use Astrum from www.thraex.com and one of the features is the ability to set files that are being installed to "never overwrite".

        I've written my procedures many times on these boards so I'm pretty sure a search on "Astrum" would find more info - although you may have to try the boards for the other versions as well.

        Edit: Here's another hint. I'm sure it's mentioned in at least one other thread but it's worth repeating. If you use a third party installer such as Astrum, you can also have it register the necessary dll/ocx files. So, I build an "update" installer that is exactly the same as the original "full install" installer but, to make the download faster, I remove all the runtime files except the dll/ocx files that need to be registered. This way, if someone does something to "lose" the registration of those files, they can just re-install the latest update to solve the problem.
        Last edited by CALocklin; 02-23-2009, 01:11 AM.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Distribute Programs only

          i appologize if i am misunderstanding your question...

          ... I think that what you want is to update an existing a5 application with changes to forms and reports etc but you do not want to copy the entire app folder as this would overwrite the client's data. If this is what you would like to do then simply copy all files EXCEPT: *.dbf,*.fpt,*.cdx
          I use a program (freeware) named xplorer2 (http://www.zabkat.com/). It allows filtering & synching of files from my development dir to my distributable folder, from which i create a ZIP & email to client.

          NB! if you have changed table structure eg added/subtracted a field then this WILL NOT WORK... try a search on the forum to see more sophisticated approaches if tables have been altered.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Distribute Programs only

            Louis,

            and select "application only" it will overwrite their databases
            If you select the built in Alpha-5 backup and choose 'application only' and then restore that, it will not over-write the data. Don't know if this is what you were asking or not. As mentioned by others, though, if you've changed table structure in any way this will not work and you'll need to get a little more sophisticated.

            ba

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Distribute Programs only

              Originally posted by Bob Arbuthnot View Post
              If you select the built in Alpha-5 backup and choose 'application only' and then restore that, it will not over-write the data. ....
              Based on your comment I took another look at it and am happy to see that you are correct. Apparently they set it up so that it will not overwrite existing data files even though they are included in the package - much like the "Never Overwrite" option I mentioned in Astrum.

              Based on that, it would seem that you could also use the built-in installer when adding fields or changing field sizes IF you set up the autoexec to make the changes. That way the changes will occur before any forms are opened. As you said, those techniques are discussed elsewhere on the board.

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