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

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

Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

    If I get the Home Edition of Version 5, can I use the dbf files without changing them so that they can also be used by Version 4.5. I have the version 4.5 runtime and I want to keep developing for and using that, but I would like to do some things for personal use with Version 5.
    If I make a copy of my application in Version 5 (I know that the data dictionaries are not compatible), can I share the .dbf files with the old version without corrupting them?
    Richard Urban
    Richard Urban

    Grocery Delivery Software for Stores and Entrepreneurs: http://www.urbangrocery.com

    #2
    RE: Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

    You can't "share" the .dbf files because Alpha uses the support files in the same directory (.ddx, .ddm, .ddd) to store layout definitions, etc. Version Five has additional layout features which are not backward compatible with 4.5, so any modifications will make them no longer usable by 4.5.


    You can keep two separate copies of all files and

    overwrite one or the other's .dbf files, then you'll have to reindex

    empty and append to one or the other's from the other

    and like that.
    There can be only one.

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

      Thanks. Transferring data from several dbf files will not be so convenient, so I'll stick with ver 4.5 for now.
      Richard
      Richard Urban

      Grocery Delivery Software for Stores and Entrepreneurs: http://www.urbangrocery.com

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

        You can also work with installations of both A5V4 and A5V5 on the same hard drive. While you may get the upgrade price, the installation routines install a separate working copy of Alpha Five version 5. The version 4 installation is not affected unless by happenstance you pick the same program folder for the install destination. -- tom

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

          Very simple matter to create operations in either version to empty a table and append all records from one to the other.
          There can be only one.

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

            Correct me if I'm wrong (and I know I will be :) but the dbf's alone are the same structure. I have a client that is using A4V3 and is beta testing an A5V4 version of the same program. I have both programs accessing the .dbf files without any problems since I have no memo fields in either. Seems to me that should be true of A5V4.5 and A5V5.

            Oran

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

              Oran

              A5v5 can open a database from A5V4 or A5V4.5, but the converse is not true. The data files are the same structure, but if you open a form in A5V5, you won't be able to reopen it in A5V4.5. A5V5 makes some changes that prevent the form from working in earlier versions.

              If you want to use both, the best suggestion is to make a complete copy of the A5V4.5 database and all tables and files, and put the duplicates in another directory. Run the duplicates in A5V5. If you want the data to match, you have a few options. You could zap the tables in one version and append the data from the other, or you could just try to copy the dbf, fpt, and cdx files from one version to the other. These are the same in both versions, but the ddd, ddm, ddx, adb, alm, alx, alb files are different.

              Jerry

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

                grumbling cuz you are correct Jerry, but if the tables (dbf) are in seperate folders, instead of zapping and then appending, couldn't a script in V5 be written to open the V4.5 tables and simply append unique to them and create the same script in V4.5 to do the same thing to the V5 tables?

                Oran

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

                  ORan

                  That is true. However, when you start digging into synchronization issues, it become more complex that just appending unique records. How do you handle records that exist in both, but have different data? Which record do you use? The newest, the one from the managers computer, the one with the bigger memo?

                  I have a small application that needs a synchronization system since one user has a copy on his laptop and he is the one who makes most of the data changes. Others just use his data. To make it "work" requires setting up various rules, such as what determines the latest record. The users know some data will be overwritten, so they make decisions based on that. It is also possible to end up with duplicate reciords in some cases. Then the various users get together and decide which one to keep. Only a few people can edit the system, but it is still a big hassle.

                  While running 2 versions works ok for testing, you should decide which is the "master" and has the "live" data. The other system data should be for testing only, since it could be overwritten. Actually, if you have both versions, migrate to A5V5. It has many more features. The only reasons for staying with the older version would be if you have purchased the runtime only in v4.5 and want to continue using it, or you have some problems with the database in V5, which should be minimal. I have a couple systems running in v4.5 because the users bought the runtime and don't want to purchase the V5 upgrade. For testing, I have tested each database in V5, and will also try them in A5V6 when it comes out. Then if the user wants an upgrade, I know what the issues are, if any.

                  Jerry

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: Using data from ver 4.5 with ver 5

                    Laughs, ok, ok, you win Jerry. My only experience with creating two seperate versions of the same app and using one set of .dbf files was the A4 and A5 apps I orriginally mentioned. It works simply because the dos structure and windows structure are compatible as long as there aren't any memo files.

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X