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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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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:
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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:
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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.

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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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Security Issues

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    Security Issues

    I am planning to use Alpha5 v4.5 to develop distributable runtime versions and would like some enlightenment as to whether Alpha5 can effectively "hide" the control panel window so as to prevent a user from accessing the "raw" data in the tables.

    I read earlier postings about the "shift key" disabling this type of protection upon program launch. Is there code that can do this?

    thanks!

    #2
    RE: Security Issues

    This is discussed in the xbasic reference manual. Check the index, Control Panel, hiding.

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Security Issues

      Elias,
      the shift key disable the autoexec script (if you have one). You van put :controlpanel.hide() in the OnInit event of your startup form (from controlpanel, select the files/database properties menu item).

      Make sure to put a secret password protected button in your app w. :controlpanel.show().
      Peter
      AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

      [email protected]
      https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


      Comment


        #4
        RE: Security Issues

        Thanks!
        I finally got the script to work after many failed attempts [cost: 1 Iced Moccachino Latte and about 2 hours labor in the coffee shop] ;-)

        As a general observation, I'd like to add that the Alpha 5 user interface is quite un-intuitive. The documentation did not help either, since it offered the code snippet along with a procedure for writing the script that never worked. Eventually I figured it out on my own by a pure "hit and miss" effort.

        On a more positive note, I think Alpha 5 has a great deal of potential. The only thing needed is for someone to unlock it.

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Security Issues

          Elias,

          I have three suggestions for you regarding your statement about the A5 interface being quite intuitive.

          First, if possible, join a local users group. I go to the one in NYC (I live near Philadelphia) and find it worth the trip every month.

          Second, keep using and reading this message board. It will not be long before you will be answering questions here.

          Third, keep using A5. Since I was never contaminated by Access, I find A5 quite easy to use, but when I have been exposed to Access (wearing full gown and surgical mask) I did not find that particularly intuitive. Finding where to set the tab order was not easy, and not having field rules attached to tables did not make sense.

          Good luck.

          Jay Talbott
          Jay Talbott
          Lexington, KY

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Security Issues

            If you're new to Alpha Five you should visit Dr. Wayne's website, www.learn alpha.com and review the list of free articles there. Lots of How To's and How Not To's that will supplement the manuals...

            There's also a FAQ page at the Tech Support site of Alpha Software's website, www.alphasoftware.com

            I find both very useful.

            As for not being very intuitive... that's entirely a matter of opinion, as it should be. Alpha Five is both an end user database manager program, and a database development tool. I think they've done a pretty decent job of melding both aspects into a single consistent interface. Like most development tools, there's a learning curve to overcome as one begins building custom solutions. If you're experienced with any of the dBase dialects you'll be very comfortable quite quickly, once you learn how objects and forms are referenced...

            This board is a good resource. Come back often...

            -- tom



            -- tom

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