Export takes way too long

[G Gabriel]

RE: Export takes way too long

Ray:
I went ahead and indulged myself in reading the thread. You have to forgive me, but whenever I see threads with responses with half page long xbasic, I feel something ain't right and I move on !! but your thread addresses an interesting issue. I have few observations:
1-If all you are trying to do is export to a text file, then how about the following suggestions:
a-Have you tried to use a blob? I am no expert on blobs, but the xbasic most likely would be something like this:
"TBL".RECORD_DATA_GET()
FILE.FROM_BLOB()
In this case there are no filters involved and no querries.
b-Have you tried to simply save the form layout as txt, or create a report then print it to a text file? Would that be any faster? The xbasic would be:
query.filter = ""
query.order = ""
:Form.SaveAs("form_name","TXT",query.filter,query.order,"",.T.)
c-How about merging into a text file instead of exporting? how does that compare in terms of speed?

2-I am not sure I see where does the speed comes from in your work-around: you are still using a query and a filter. In the filter, instead of using between(), you are using query.filter = "recno() = " + record_number which is still a filter. I thought you blamed the delay on filters and you were trying to get away from having to use a filter. One would conclude then that the delay comes from the expression itself (between()) and not simply from using a filter per se.

3-Your thread opens the door to an important issue: while I am not in the importation/exportation business and I suspect a lot of users are not, but more often than not users need to perform functions on the current record, more like printing the current invoice or the like. The method I use to accomplish that is the one I suggested earlier. I do not have a million-record DB and as such never sensed any delays. But, if there is a better way to export the current record more expediously, then maybe the same concept should be applied to other more commonly used functions on current records. As I said, it might be simply a matter of changing the filter itself.
Gabe

[Raymond Lyons]

RE: Export takes way too long

Gabe,

The bottom line is that none of this is any longer pertinent as Selwyn is fixing the problem (see my bottom post on this thread). Now, everyone can stop reading!

But just a comment or two anyway:

I did not blame the problem on a filters per se. It was only when one ran the saved export from an action script genie that is supposed to filter for the current record only. Put the same filter in some Xbasic code that the saved export generates and with one somewhat minor exception the problem goes away. That was a pretty clear indication that something was wrong inside the bowels of A5.

As is almost always the case, there are a number of ways around all the problems. However, none of them (except hopefully Selwyn's fix in the next patch) accomplish what is really needed: a way for novice users to create and modify exports without resorting to Xbasic and all kinds of other sophisticated rigamarole. This is so important to my client, who is deeply into the import/export aspect of A5, that having this fixed in v6 may be enough to move him into v6 (his v5 has the same problem and of course it will never be fixed there). And remember, the time lag would never be bothersome on samll tables.

As for the length of some parts of the thread: The initial post was not really all that long and the initial question was pretty straightforward. But things did grow once the real issue and possible solutions beacme clearer. Also, what you note about these kinds of posting is interesting and almost universal and applies equally to e-mails. I hate to think about the number of times I have sent an e-mail to a client asking 3 questions in no more than maybe an inch of text, only to get back an answer to only one of them, as if the other two did not even exist. For some reason in these kinds of environments, ... what? I don't really know, but it is an interesting phenomenon.

Ray