Shadow Database Creation 2 - highly appalling

[Chet Sapino]

For something this important - automating the creation of a shadow database for a client- it is absolutely appalling that Alpha has a bogus script with a function that:

1). is non-existent
2). has no documentation anywhere.
3). and doesn't work.

I am referring to:

a5_nopt_CopyAddFiles(shadow_db_name, master_db_name)

which appears in the help file under network applications. See my posting down a little further on this topic which shows the entire script.

What is even more startling, is that there is no solution to this problem in the help file anywhere, or no update with code that actually works. This function was probably done away with some time ago, and the help entry never corrected.

The problem with the script in the help file is the use of this function to copy the database files from the master database to the shadow database folder after the master database is loaded.

Does anyone have a solution to this?

[jkukuda]

Re: Shadow Database Creation 2 - highly appalling

On a network, I had much frustration and the demand for handholding was too extreme. I switched to terminal server and all the headaches went away. I use or recommend to my clients tsplus. Its like $140 for 5 users, but well worth it.
http://www.terminalserviceplus.com/index.php Try it.

[MikeC]

Re: Shadow Database Creation 2 - highly appalling

Hi Chet,
I agree that things like this should be taken out of the help file or corrected considering the confusion it creates.

If you want to create a shadow I found two other current functions that should help....

http://support.alphasoftware.com/alp...E_SHADOW().HTM

http://support.alphasoftware.com/alp...E_SHADOW().htm

[CALocklin]

Re: Shadow Database Creation 2 - highly appalling

I know I've successfully used that command but I don't know where or when - certainly not recently.

Here's what I found in my free A5v5_Xbasic_Help file which implies that it has existed since A5v5 and was probably in their .pdf documents at that time. (Despite the name, my help file includes many functions that were introduced in A5v6, 7,and 8. However, it is still in .hlp file format)

The big advantage to my help file is the keyword searches - they are much more specific (i.e., not created by some routine that just finds every instance of a word) and there are many synonyms. For example, if you want to simply delete a file, you can search for "delete" in my Help file and find out that the actual function you are looking for is File.Remove(). In A5's version of Help, you would have to know beforehand what the function name was or you probably couldn't find it. (Some years ago I bugged Ed with some of these issues and he added search words to some functions - I think this was one of them.)

[B]Syntax:[/B]
    a5_nopt_CopyAddFiles( shadow_db_name, master_db_name ) 
[B]Description:[/B]
    Copies any files listed in the <adb_name>.Network_optimization_additional_files list.
[B]Examples:[/B]
IF a5.Get_Master_Path() = ""
    adb_base = file.filename_parse( a5.Get_Name(), "N" )
    Master_DB_Name = a5.Get_Path() + chr(92) + adb_base + ".adb"
    Shadow_DB_Name = a5.Get_Exe_Path() + "\Shadow" + chr(92) + adb_base + chr(92) + adb_base + ".adb"
    a5_nopt_CopyAddFiles( Shadow_DB_Name, Master_DB_Name )
    CREATE_SHADOW( Shadow_DB_Name, Master_DB_Name, .T. )
ELSE
    refresh_shadow()
END IF

I'm not sure why I didn't include the a5_nopt_CopyAddFiles() with the "refresh_shadow" but I suspect it was because I didn't foresee a need to copy the additional files other than during the initial setup - probably very foolish of me.

One thing I'm fairly certain of - but not absolutely positive and haven't checked recently - is that the Shadow_DB_Name and Master_DB_Name must be complete path names.

Edit: I just went back and read your original post. I'm not sure what the problem is with the a5_nopt_CopyAddFiles() function but maybe it does have something to do with the password protected database. I played with a password protected database once but decided it wasn't worth the hassle. I password protect all my global code and encrypt any data that needs to be encrypted. That's been sufficient for me and my customers so far. I never even add passwords to forms (any layouts) or events on forms. If an event code is important enough to need protecting (something like parentform.close() is not worth protecting!), I just make it a global script/function that is called from the event.

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: Shadow Database Creation 2 - highly appalling

...
a5_nopt_CopyAddFiles(shadow_db_name, master_db_name)
...

See the attached Alpha doc. Not sure if the bootstrap app om page 19-20 is the same code as the code in your other thread.