Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook
Devcon 2020 Goes Virtual! LEARN MORE >

Announcement

Collapse

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:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


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:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


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:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


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.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

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.
See more
See less

Is there an easy data backup?

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
    #1

    Is there an easy data backup?

    What is the best way to backup the data from an Alpha Five database. Which file extensions are necessary?
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: Is there an easy data backup?

    Check learn alpha.com. There's an excellent article there on backing up the data using pkzip.

    Data is in the *.dbf table, memos in *.fpt and indexes in *.cdx.

    Comment

      #3
      RE: Is there an easy data backup?

      Ken Nordin recently pointed me to powerarchiver.com which offers a freeware zip program. I just implemented a backup and restore routine using sys_shell() and powerarchiver.

      Attached txt file has my script.
      1. It checks to see if it can find powerarchiver where it installs itself before proceeding.
      2. It creates backups in a directory called "Backup" WHICH YOU MUST CREATE before running this thing. (could be done in xbasic - I just ran out of time. I am my own client..)
      3. It creates file names based on the date, so you can create daily backups.

      THIS HAS ONLY BEEN USED A FEW DAYS SO BE CAUTIOUS!!! Make a full backup in a safe place before you mess with it.

      (But I have successfully backed up and restored my application using it.)

      Comment

        #4
        RE: Is there an easy data backup?

        Well, this is what happens when you rush into print...

        I just found that powerarchiver includes subdirectories, and I do not see any choice here. I can't be bothered separating out the files by extension, so I will simply move my backup folder to a completely seperate location...

        The script as it runs creates zip files that include old zip files so it bloats the file...

        If anyone is interested feel free to email me at [email protected].

        Comment

          #5
          RE: Is there an easy data backup?

          Walter,

          If you make changes to any of the tables, forms, reports, etc. you will need to back more than just the *.dbf, *.fpt and *.cdx files as Ohlen recommends. What I've started doing is to zip the entire folder, assuming each application is in its own folder. Then I copy the entire folder to a CD-RW. I'm sure there are other methods, but for me, one of the main reasons I make a backup in the first place, is to make sure the material is there if and when I need it. With a CD-RW you have everything in one place and you don't have to mess with 3.5" diskettes which tend to get lost and/or damaged.

          Good luck,

          Dave Jampole
          Dave Jampole
          www.customalpha.com

          Women and cats will do whatever they want. The sooner men and dogs realize that, the happier they will be.

          Comment

            #6
            RE: Is there an easy data backup?

            Right on:

            oh, does that date me?!

            And, check each and every time that the data is actually
            on the disc. Open it up briefly--or establish a time
            period that you are willing to fall back on.

            Good luck

            Comment

              #7
              RE: Is there an easy data backup?

              Try a backup program written by Grsoftware. They can be found on the internet. The program is called GRbakup. It is extremely easy to use and backup procedures can be scheduled etc.

              Comment

                #8
                RE: Is there an easy data backup?

                I use Seagate Backup Exec. Works great. I have it scheduled to backup each night at 10PM. I do a full backup to a tape each night and rotate 3 tapes. Backups work great and restores work great too. I've never had any problems with it.

                Mike
                Thank you,
                Mike Konoff

                Comment

                  #9
                  RE: Is there an easy data backup?

                  I use an inexpensive backup software called "Backup Plus" from Avantrix Inc. (check it out at www.backupplus.net or www.avantrix.com )

                  It allows you to create any number of "backup sets" - each of which can include any wildcards, files and or folders, and exclusions can also be specified. The "set" is a text file so can be incorporated into a batch file or an icon for a one-click backup on demand.

                  Each set can also have a different destination and be scheduled for any time from an hour (I think) to 30 days. Backup Plus will work unattended with floppies, super(120)disks, other hard drives, network drives, most backup devices: ZIP/JAZ/Orb/SPARQ/etc, and also with CDR or CDRW (with packet writing - eg. CDDirect). It can be setup to span muliple removable media. It will preview the data to determine number of media required.

                  The archives are actually conventional zip files so can be read with any zip software. Data can be restored to a different destination. I found it to be very fast also.

                  It doesn't work with any tape systems.

                  Comment

                  Previous template Next
                  Working...
                  X