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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.

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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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Totally Confused A5 Newbie

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    #1

    Totally Confused A5 Newbie

    Hi All.

    As an Alpha 5 newbie I am becoming totally confused with all the info available all over the web concerning Alpha 5.

    I have used MS Access for many years and, although it has many challenges, it is still quite straight foreward to use. VBA is very easy to understand and sql scripting is actually quite universal. If one applies the basics of database design regarding primary keys, indexing and correct relationship definitions then desktop applications can be written that perform very well.

    The restrictions of MS Access regarding web applications is what has forced me to want to move towards another software development platform. I fooled around with MS Visual Studio for a while before rejecting it as another MS environment which is very biased to MS products.

    I have now attempted to build a web app in Alpha 5 and embarked on efforts to learn the software. The videos are great, nothing wrong with the documentation either, the confusing thing I find is that I'm often not certain which version of A5 is referred to. I will watch a video on UTube only to find that the processes they refer to are not available in V11. Same with the documentation.

    For example: Does one use a Form or a Dialogue, or can you use both, in a web app? Can freeform be used in a Dialogue? Is there information available that informs about basic things like these?

    Sincere Regards
    Andrew
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Totally Confused A5 Newbie

    Hi Andrew,

    Welcome to Alpha 5, it can be confusing, most of what was available on previous versions, previous to V10 is desktop and it is still available today. To do web stick with the grids and the dialog2 (yes, there is a previous dialog too, but its functionality is limited). Personally I like the dialog2 over any other component as it is a super component, you can use it to create a simple form or you can embed other components into it (including other dialog2 components) to create anything you need. The one limitation is that it does not still display images unless they are static.

    Just so you get an idea, I have a web_content database which contains all my content, created a grid object that displays the content as html, well that object is embedded inside a dialog2 several times to create banner, menu, popups and web security, so I have the complete top of all my pages in 1 dialog2, but then I have embedded that dialog inside other dialog2 components to create all my pages.

    Do not understand your freeform question, but you may create any form with a dialog2 and the controls inside it may be hidden and combined inside another control as a freeform and you may include html in it also.

    The grid is more robust as it has been around longer than the dialog2, but it is limited to 1 table, view or select statement and it does not have transaction support for multiple IO operations.

    You will find that the msgboard community is quite friendly and helpful, of course you want to always research previous postings before creating a new one as mostly you will find most of your questions have been answered already.

    Again welcome to Alpha 5!
    Juan Silva
    My Small Bizz, LLC
    sigpic

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      #3
      Re: Totally Confused A5 Newbie

      Andrew,
      In addition Juan's comments, you must now start thinking primarily like a web developer as opposed to an Access developer. To do serious work, you need to understand (to a basic level at least) how to work with javascript, html, css, and firefox with firebug. Also need to learn xbasic (very easy and powerful) as this is the backend brains. Then you need to understand how web browser/server interactions work, and especially the fact that ajax is asynchronous (timing is always critical).
      Your databasing skills will still be invaluable when creating your queries no matter whether you stick with access (JET) or mysql or mssql (or whatever).
      Andy

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        #4
        Re: Totally Confused A5 Newbie

        Youtube is nice, but if you didn't know, this is the source for videos:

        http://news.alphasoftware.com/v11preview/videos_v11.htm

        It still has some beneficial V10 videos, and they are categorized so you know if your looking at a V10, or V11 video.

        A great introduction to Alpha 5 is Steve Workings Video Total Training. It is sold on this page:

        Total Training

        There are 3 sample videos there to try out, and If you get the subscription the video will be included. It is a good introduction, and it got me up and running quickly.

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Totally Confused A5 Newbie

          Thanks Juan, Andy and William. Really appreciate your response. Web development is totally new to me but I am up to the challenges, actually quite excited about the new fields that it presents. Just needed to know where to start. Best Regards Andrew

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