Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook

Announcement

Collapse

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.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • 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.
See more
See less

Desktop app with SQL

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Desktop app with SQL

    I'm totally new to Alpha although I have used other like CodeCharge, Visual Studio

    I do have a interest in Mobile applications (and Web).
    However, at this point (before I start exploring Mobile and Web) I am trying to find out if Alpha is any good for common DESKTOP applications.

    I'm really interested once environment for Desktop (current and Future), Web and may be bit of mobile

    Very limited samples supplied with Alpha don't help.

    I managed to create a Simple Web app with Alpha 5 and Access MDB files

    But not got very far with Desktop.
    I made a Connection - but can't see any tables - am I missing something ??

    Any Videos / Training which will help me with this ?

    #2
    Re: Desktop app with SQL

    Alpha is great on the desktop. Alpha has been on the desktop since it's inception well over 20-years ago. Alpha runs dbf natively. You can use SQL backend (or Access mdb) on desktop using active-link tables.
    Peter
    AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

    [email protected]
    https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


    Comment


      #3
      Re: Desktop app with SQL

      If strictly desktop, you may be better off with dbf files than any other partly to do with speed. Suggest sql for all others and/or if you plan a desktop to later go to the web.

      How is it going at Code Charge. I still visit the forum occassionally.
      Dave Mason
      [email protected]
      Skype is dave.mason46

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Desktop app with SQL

        My opinion
        Welcome.
        Since I am largely a desktop SME developer, I swear by Alpha for desktop. Virtually nothing CANT be done.
        Especially with the help here. You can code purely or code hardly as you adopt.
        At this point we all talk differently about the future of desktop. Again my view, but has has been echoed around - there's not a lot more new that Alpha could add to a great product. For a newbie there's a lot to learn to get pretty good.
        But desktop will not be going away for a long time yet.
        Not so on the web and mobile side - plenty to enhance there.

        With Alpha comes an application database for playing around - Alpha Sports.
        Start there, alongside the documentation.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Desktop app with SQL

          Thanks

          Really, DBF files faster than SQL ?

          App I have in mind will have a minimum of 40 users on the LAN !!! DBF really ??

          I'm thinking SQL since there will be a Web component for External access - although mostly on the LAN

          I've yet to see ANY Web application as rich from user perspective.
          Many users don't comfortable with Webapps
          Seen nothing from Alpha Anywhere that would change users minds

          From some of the comments I've seen linked DBF/SQL slow things down ... and just don't like concept


          is there no way to use SQL directly without linked tables ?

          this could be real deal killer... I'll need to try up size a sample

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Desktop app with SQL

            Originally posted by Ray in Capetown View Post
            My opinion
            Welcome.
            Since I am largely a desktop SME developer, I swear by Alpha for desktop. Virtually nothing CANT be done.
            Especially with the help here. You can code purely or code hardly as you adopt.
            At this point we all talk differently about the future of desktop. Again my view, but has has been echoed around - there's not a lot more new that Alpha could add to a great product. For a newbie there's a lot to learn to get pretty good.
            But desktop will not be going away for a long time yet.
            Not so on the web and mobile side - plenty to enhance there.

            With Alpha comes an application database for playing around - Alpha Sports.
            Start there, alongside the documentation.
            Are you using SQL or DBF ?

            The App I have in mind will need 40 concurrent users on a LAN - it will need a Web component with handfull of users and may be feed to online shop later
            A replacement for an old app.. This App involves Invoicing, Stock and Order Processing

            I'm read comments that linked DBF / SQL is SLOW (ie. upsized app) - what are your observations

            It would be nice to have clean SQL based Desktop app but I can't seem to find any documentation or samples

            before I get too deeply into the app I'm trying to see if Aplha is the correct tool

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Desktop app with SQL

              You can actually build a web app with dbf files(did that). You can build a better web app with sql. If you are going to use a server and supply apps for internet either off your server or a hosted server, then it would do well to use sql.

              I would not use all sql in a linked for a pure desktop environment. Alpha destop does not use sql as a native, but kinda indirectly. On web apps, it is a better solution.

              My suggestion from what you just said is to go web and users can still access it like a desktop app. They will be web apps through and through. With alpha you have javascript, css, ajax along with xbasic in the web environment. Makes it pretty crisp. You can host it on your own server or use a hosted solution(I favor the latter).
              Dave Mason
              [email protected]
              Skype is dave.mason46

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Desktop app with SQL

                I can't apply my scenario to yours. My largest, a long time client doing same, stock order processing, quoting with BOM, assembly, import PO etc.. 25 seats.
                I dont work on their Servers, LINUX managing the DBFs

                They have legacy apps with DBFs which Alpha5 seamlessly (with care in design) integrates.
                Stock lines, population >100k (components/subs/finished). Full live transfer to Alpha mirror copy and index less than .3 sec
                No speed complaints.

                Edit just reading Daves post - the last paragraph would be my choice were I starting out right now. But never having tried it, just in theory.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Desktop app with SQL

                  <<It would be nice to have clean SQL based Desktop app but I can't seem to find any documentation or samples>>

                  With xdialog you can build the pure SQL-based desktop application you want. Not many people can, do or have. I have seen one major application that uses xdialog and native SQL almost exclusively and is a marvel. With xdialog you can produce a high-performing application.

                  This approach is coding-intensive, which might be an understatement. Everything needs hand-coding and customization. The "look and feel" is limited by the ui objects that xdialog provides. Finding ways to make these look "modern" and offering the color palettes users expect is challenging. But the functionality is there.
                  Finian

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Desktop app with SQL

                    Another alternative is to use web components in xdialogs. You get all of the features of web components in a desktop environment such as direct connectivity to SQL and don't have to do much coding at all.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Desktop app with SQL

                      Jerry

                      Is there a sample of this type of implementation available (xdialog & web components) for us to look over?

                      Thanks
                      Regards,

                      John W.
                      www.CustomReportWriters.net

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Desktop app with SQL

                        Jerry,

                        Does Security Framework work when using web components in a desktop app?
                        Steve Wood
                        See my profile on IADN

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Desktop app with SQL

                          Originally posted by Steve Wood View Post
                          Jerry,

                          Does Security Framework work when using web components in a desktop app?
                          Running on the desktop is like running in working preview and doesn't require the app server. The web security is therefore not active on the desktop as it is only resolved in the app server.

                          The new web app demo in V12 uses two UX components on the desktop as the desktop start page and a publish page. There are also a couple videos that show how to use components on the desktop - DT5, DT6, and V10FP3

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Desktop app with SQL

                            Originally posted by Steve Wood View Post
                            Jerry,

                            Does Security Framework work when using web components in a desktop app?
                            When using web components on the desktop, or WCD, you can use the standard desktop security system.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Desktop app with SQL

                              Jerry

                              Are there samples of using web components in xDialog to connect to a SQL database. The goal is to increase performance and unless I misunderstood your post (#10) you said this was easily done. I would be interested in such a sample.

                              Thanks
                              Regards,

                              John W.
                              www.CustomReportWriters.net

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X