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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:
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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.

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UPGRADING

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    UPGRADING

    I have used A4ver2 for many years in my insurance agency.
    I built our entire database using many related tables and
    we have been happy with the ease and ability to make changes. I need to upgrade and realize windows will stop
    supporting Dos before long. Is it possible to upgrade to
    the newest version, or should I start over from scratch? I hate to think about reloading all those client files. The
    only good thing is I can make some improvements although we
    dom't need many. How about converting to MS Access- is that
    possible. We are small and could some time-saving advice, but don't mind starting if that is best.

    Thanks
    Chris Archer

    #2
    RE: UPGRADING

    Chris:
    here is a previous post
    Charlie Crimmel
    The data in your DBF files can be used as is.
    Memo files (DBT extension) will be converted automatically.
    Indexes, Forms, Reports and menu's won't convert.

    This message board has a useful search capability. Your question has been asked and answered many times.

    The Alpha Software Tech Support page has a link to Help Documents, too. Including the following entry which is directly on point:
    http://www.alphasoftware.com/support/tech/alpha5/a53upgd.asp

    Comment


      #3
      RE: UPGRADING

      I highly discourage the convert to MS Access. My biggest beef with Access is that everything is stored in one file. With Alpha, it is super simple to update some forms and send those files to a client and completley leave all the data alone. Access doesn;t make upgrading an app that easy.

      Comment


        #4
        RE: UPGRADING

        I use both Access 97 and A5v4.5 and Valerie is "Right on!!" I will hopefully be saying goodbye to A97 B4 2 looooong.(red tape at work or it would've been history some time ago)

        While I found A97 to be easy to use, it doesn't have the flexibility, etc., etc., etc. that A5 has, especially in reports.

        kenn
        TYVM :) kenn

        Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

        Comment


          #5
          RE: UPGRADING

          Chris,

          I would echo all of the other comments. I am currently converting an app from A4v2 to A5. The user had another developer convert it originally to Access, but they didn't like it since it was harder to use that A4 and wasn't nearly as flexible. Now they have me converting it to A5. The only thing I can use are the original .dbf tables and I copied them to another file to leave the originals intact. Everything else must be recreated, including field rules. One big problem with the new versions is that they are so powerful that it is very tempting to add lots of new features and "bells and whistles" A simple app can get complicated easily. In any case, the upgrade is worth the effort.

          Jerry

          Comment


            #6
            RE: UPGRADING

            It will also convert the memo data
            ED

            Comment

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