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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 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:
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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:
  • 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.
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Database Basics online?

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    Database Basics online?

    Hello all,

    I started using Alpha Five back when it was Alpha 4. I've used it on and off for the last several years, mostly for personal use, to set up a few membership databases for small organizations and to keep track of my extensive collection of children's literature.

    My databases, however, have always been flat databases. I get how to use the basics of Alpha Five, and I can write queries, create forms and browses, export data, whatever. But I have very little understanding of basic database theory, especially as it applies to setting up relational databases.

    I have checked out library books, purchased college textbooks -- you name it -- in an effort to teach myself. It has become clear that I need a guided course of some kind, with an instructor who can help me get over the rough patches.

    Can anyone recommend an online course? I have looked at Alpha Five's training partner, but their training is for version 9. I haven't even begun to tap the capabilities of version 7, so there's no point in my upgrading to v9. And a 2-day cram of information is going to slip just as quickly back out of my brain. :-)

    Thanks,
    Marcy

    #2
    Re: Database Basics online?

    Hi Marcy

    Are you looking for help with relational database theory or how to use Alpha Five? If relational database theory then I would certainly recommend a book "Database Design for Mere Mortals" by Michael J Hernandez. That covers the basics very well indeed. I am not sure of what online courses are available for database theory but for me that book created the "light bulb moments" ie: it all fell into place and then enabled me to move forward very quickly.

    As for online help with Alpha Five there is probably none better than this very forum!

    Regards

    Glen
    Glen Schild



    My Blog

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      #3
      Re: Database Basics online?

      "Database Design for Mere Mortals" has been recommended in previous posts to this message board. Here's a link to the Amazon description:

      http://www.amazon.com/Database-Design-Mere-Mortals-Hands/dp/0201694719

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Database Basics online?

        Glenn, yes I am looking for relational database theory. I am pretty comfortable with Alpha Five -- in the limited way I currently use it, anyway.

        Thanks to you both for the book recommendation. I can certainly give it a try, but as I said in my original post, trying to grasp the theory from a book has proved discouraging for me, and I have not been successful. I was hoping the pace and accountability of a course, and the help of an instructor, would do the trick. Perhaps I just haven't found the right book, and this one would give me my "light bulb moment". :)

        Marcy

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Database Basics online?

          Marcy,

          Have you looked at Alpha Sports that ships with Alpha?
          It is a ready made database, that you can play with, change, etc. Take a good look at it. It is a very good source of seeing how to make tables, sets, forms, reports, etc.

          Regards

          Ed

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