Using Alpha Five Files in Alpha Anywhere?

[funkz]

I have an old Alpha Five database that I'd like to access. I downloaded Alpha Anywhere but am not finding anything in the help about converting the files. I can open the .dbf and access the raw data, however there were some custom forms in the related .ddd .ddm .ddx files to display the records. Is there a way to use Anywhere to view these in the original format?

[madtowng]

I would expect Alpha Anywhere to open them without a problem (although community edition might be a problem).

[Lenny Forziati]

You need to open the ADB file in Alpha Anywhere. This is the "database" in Alpha Five, which is now referred to as a "workspace" in Alpha Anywhere. It associates all of the tables, sets, forms, scripts, functions, etc.

When you directly open a DBF file in Alpha Anywhere (or Alpha Five), you just have access to the raw data in that single table.

[funkz]

Thanks for the replies!

This may be an issue with the version of Alpha Five. It seems that with as recent as version 8 Alpha Five was using .adb files, however these files are from a version much older and only contain .dbf .ddd .ddm and .ddx. Windows 3.1 era, with the splash screen as below.

6f0fc84f10612daa234330828f3cff24b117a54fb5091c99aecb41330e7b4263.png

[Lenny Forziati]

I believe that is Alpha Five version 3. We used to refer to the figure as "star man".

Try creating a new workspace in Alpha Anywhere, then add the DBF to the workspace rather than directly opening the DBF files. That said, there have been extensive changes over the almost 3 decades since that software was released and there were specific upgrades and conversions required for some of the intervening versions so it is quite likely that this will not work completely for you to get your custom forms, if it all.

[Ted Giles]

Are you able to run the old version or do you just have a backup?

[Larry Kephart]

Apologies for opening this old thread. I have a similar situation. Thirty years ago, I coded our company database in Alpha5 Version9. We purchased the "perpetual" development package that allowed installing the runtime version on as many machines as necessary. Now that the activation server has ceased to exist, I can no longer install the runtime engine on new machines.

Now, that I've gotten that off my chest, I've resigned myself to coding a new Alpha Anywhere interface to our Alpha5 company database. I've downloaded Alpha Anywhere community edition to investigate and can't get it to work with my Alpha5 Version 9 database. I've opened the ADB file in Alpha Anywhere but can't view any files. I could use some help.

I've got the go-ahead from my employer to go with the Alpha Anywhere Development platform with Application Server on our Windows Server 2023 machine. This will be serving ten windows desktops, plus or minus, inhouse, with no outside access. At 73, I have no desire to develop applications beyond this one company database. It is crucial to our business. If I can't build a Alpha Anywhere interface around our Alpha5 database, it's a deal breaker for us.

Thank you all

I remain,

Larry Kephart
Vander Ploeg and Associates, Inc.

[Ted Giles]

Couple of issue, Larry.
1) How have you tried to load the RT on a different machine?
2) Does V9 run locally?

Ted

[Larry Kephart]

Alpha5 Anywhere community is on my Windows 10 desktop and so is my Alpha5 Version 9 development platform (same machine)
The Alpha5 database is on a mapped drive (Windows Server 2023)

Larry

[Ted Giles]

That was not the question.
Please explain what you have tried when loading V9 Run Engine on a different machine.
I have the unlimited version of the RunmEngine, but before I put a lot of time into exploration, please let me know what the problem is.

My V9 Data Dictionery works fine in the old version of V12 which I have. It is not the community edition.

[Larry Kephart]

Sorry Ted, I'm a little dense today. I didn't understand the RT abbreviation (duh). When I install runtime on a client machine, I use the following procedure

Installed VPA Database app. Copied Alpha5 folder from Teamjobs/vpa_apps to OS(C) drive. Ran setup.exe from within the Alpha5 folder. Typed in runtime engine license when requested. Activated online when requested. Config Desktop shortcut to run in Windows Vista compatibility mode. Start Alpha5 and open C:\vpadb\vpadb.adb database. Enter U:\vpadb\vpadb.adb when requested to load company database. Config Desktop shortcut again. Change target to "C:\Program Files (x86)\a5v9 RunEngine\alpha5.exe" "U:\vpadb\vpadb.adb" Change Icon to VPA 001 (found in C:\alpha5 folder and shortcut name to VPA Database. Install Install umath.ttf font by selecting it in teamjobs\winshare\fonts\symbol folder.

This is the Alpha5 folder referenced above



This is what my application looked like after a successful installation.

Screenshot (2).png

The next three images are screenshots of the runtime installation activation failure

Screenshot (1).png

Screenshot (3).png



Screenshot (5).png

Sorry for the size of these images but the medium size ones were not readable.

Larry

[Ted Giles]

Look in your Roaming Folder on the V9 installed machine. The Activation Key is in there.

.key

[Ronald Anusiewicz]

Larry, As far as I know, the community edition is strictly for WEB applications with no support for desktop applications. I do not think it even supports .dbf files.

[Ted Giles]

The application key can/should be embedded in the distributed app to save entering it separately.

[Ted Giles]

Since I am unable to edit anything above, more thoughts.
Are you building the distributable version of the application using thge Install Maker?

If not, search in the Help Text for alpha five runtime license and then scroll down to
"Using InstallMaker to Build Installation Packages"

This may be your problem. The Install Maker is tied to a specific machine, just the same as the Development version.
When you distribute apps, the build takes the essentials from the RT Engine and creates a "package" for installation on any machine. Then you need to either send the activation code or embed in in the package.
I don't think that you can just install the RT bits and expect it to work.

Suggest you try building a RT package first and deploying it on your Win10 machine to see the process.

Apologies if you knew all this. Just sayin'