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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:
  • 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.
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  • 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.
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Newbie learning the ropes

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    #1

    Newbie learning the ropes

    I have a strong background in VB, VB6, Access and SQL Server but am a newbie in Alpha 5.
    I am tinkering with my A5 V10 and will be seeking help here if I get stuck, as it is the best way of learning.

    And I am glad that we have some very good experts here who like helping newbies like me.
    I have just started on my very first A5 project and set up the tables, primary keys, foreign keys, sets, and field rules.

    In Tasks table, I have four dates, PlannedStart, PlannedEnd, ActualStart and ActualEnd.
    The first two are required, the others optional as they may be entered only after the actual task is started.

    I am validating PlannedEnd, ActualStart and ActualEnd to be on or after PlannedStart, with a suitable error message for each.
    I am also validating ActualEnd to be on or after ActualStart. ActualStart and ActualEnd are valid if their length is zero.

    1. However, if I enter a date in any of the three fields earlier than PlannedStart, the field remains blank without the error message popping up. What could be causing this problem?

    2. I also want to be able to trap any user from editing the PlannedStart field to a date that is later than any one or more of the others. If I place a validation field rule on this field then it fires for new records too, when it is the first of the four date fields to be entered. How can I make it fire in edit mode only?

    Any help will be appreciated, thank you all.
    I will be shouting for more help issues while this project unfolds.
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Newbie learning the ropes

    Welcome.

    Some validation is best done with a validation as you have described. More complex situations may call for form level object event code where you can if...then...else...endif multiple object values more easily.

    Example of from level object event code attached. Also note that an uninitialized table date field evaluates to {} which is previous to any other date.

    atest.zip

    Unzip and add the table to your workspace.
    Last edited by Stan Mathews; 02-28-2013, 06:02 PM.
    There can be only one.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Newbie learning the ropes

      Thank you, Stan.

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Newbie learning the ropes

        Bilal,

        Welcome to the message board.

        Here's a tip for you. When you post a NEW thread choose your TITLE carefully. Try to describe the issue or problem. (I know this can be difficult) Then, after posting if you review your post, and scroll way, way down, you'll find that the message board itself has tried to locate other posts on your issue for you, using the key words you used in your Title. For this reason you'll get more help, faster, if you use a title like "Need help with table lookup". Instead of a title like "I'm lost".

        Please come back often. Then, after you "learn the ropes", come back to help others.

        -- tom

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Newbie learning the ropes

          Thanks, Tom. My mistake - I was more intent on introducing myself, I guess. Will make as note of your tip next time.

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Newbie learning the ropes

            Bilal

            Welcome to the forum. I have been working with A5 on a more serious level for about a year. Like you I came from a VB, VB.Net, SqlServer world. A couple of things I can share from my experience.
            - first accept that there will a learning curve, it can be steep at times. This message board is the best place for help, you can often simply search it and find the answer. The documentation has a good amount of information, but takes a while to learn how to search it. Its not always as intuitive as I think it should be.
            - Second - learn to use the tool, it does so many things we had to code in VB. Instead of running to the code editor window I now look at the built in functions and use them when possible. Since you can see the xBasic code the tools create it is also a good way to learn the coding.

            Have fun and ask for help when you need, the people here want you to succeed.
            Regards,

            John W.
            www.CustomReportWriters.net

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Newbie learning the ropes

              Thank you, John Willems, for the encouragement. Now I will feel less constrained when seeking help here.

              Comment

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