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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 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:
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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
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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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Native Vs. External

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    Native Vs. External

    Hey guys and gals, I am new to Alpha and fairly new to databases (after 6 years of MS Access I still know nothing!)

    I am building a database for customers, invoices and employee time logging. Our users will manage the data almost 100% of the time from a mobile device, and at least for now, we will create the application as a web project. I have dabbled around a bit with Alpha for about a week now, and realized I really didn't know much about how the connection strings work. I already ordered hosting with ZebraHost, and we already have Office365, complete with a working (word is used loosely) SharePoint.

    Now with the background out of the way, could you please tell me the pros and cons of:

    A) External: Creating SQL tables and connection strings through Alpha (Tools>Create SQL Table...) that reside on a SharePoint
    B) Native: I don't know much about this yet but I am guessing the tables would reside on the ZebraHost server within the Alpha files?)


    Some of the functionality I need that may limit this would be tables that can be backed up easily, an application that can be updated (I'm talking about front end code stuff, not modifying table structure) but can still retain data that may have been added or changed while the update was being developed, and the ability to initially import data from our existing MS Access 2013 desktop database (or from one of the export options available for Access).

    Again, I am new to this. Any and all info will definitely be appreciated, so if you need to school me or offer an alternative to how I am looking at this, I am all ears.

    #2
    Re: Native Vs. External

    I am not going to get too deep in this because others here have more experience with alpha and certainly zebrahost.

    Most(not all hosts) will retain the database outside your account, but only accessible to you. Some hosts allow you to put your database where you want to.

    Most use something like navicat, sqlyog, or to manage the database. You never said what databse but a lot of people prefer ms version of sql with alpha. The database you choose may determine the tool to a great deal and some are free. I normally use MySQL and have mysqlyog because of that. Others use toad or navicat, but these are all premium. Some hosted sites supply tools for the database and some do not.

    Using Zebrahost, and since you already signed up, probably mssql and navicat. When you connect alpha to a sql database, it will help you immensely with the connection strings.

    Most people need a backup method and that is included in most of the sql tools I mentioned.

    Updating from the front as in Data is done by your programming in alpha.

    Generally, on a windows server, your db is in it's own folder and your application is in it's own folder.

    Others will jump in here with more and maybe better answers.
    Dave Mason
    [email protected]
    Skype is dave.mason46

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Native Vs. External

      Thanks for your reply David. That certainly helps me see the spectrum of possibilities out there for Alpha. I believe my DBs will be the MS version of SQL you mentioned.

      As far as I know, none of the tools you mentioned or even any other ones have been made available to me by ZebraHost. I either remote in or FTP their server and just transfer over the app files.

      ZebraHost mentioned a backup option for 25 a month I believe, but I did not see a need for it while we are still in development, and I wanted to see what my options were.

      Due to A record updates taking a long time between GoDaddy and Microsoft name servers, I haven't even managed to view any of the tests I've made online, and I still haven't figured out what the URL of the app's main page would be in order to test the app in a real environment yet.

      Today I figured out that I was aiming my connection strings at a database that resided on the SharePoint. so I moved that to over on the ZH server, but I am wanting to do the same thing with the work space, but I haven't managed to be able to do that yet. The goal here is to not be reliant on SharePoint or any one local machine at all for the development and hosting of this app, and I was wanting to do that all with Zebra Host, if possible.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Native Vs. External

        Jack,

        Welcome to the forum

        May I suggest you do this same post in the Alpha Anywhere section of the forum Here: http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...r-Applications
        I think you will get better/more responses.

        I either remote in or FTP their server and just transfer over the app files.
        That is kind of normal Do you use some kind of control Panel like ??

        It has been several years since I did much with alpha web side, but when I did, I built it on a local computer and the placed it on a hosted server.

        Clive(and staff) will help you with information if you ask.

        I think(big word here) most build locally using the c:\a5webroot with data being in another folder somewhere and then copy/backup/install to the hosted server.
        Dave Mason
        [email protected]
        Skype is dave.mason46

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          #5
          Re: Native Vs. External

          Ok thanks Dave, that helps and I will post there as well.

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