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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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New Developer Questions

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    #1

    New Developer Questions

    I inadvertently posted this in the "Announcements" section. Sorry. There are two responses on the other stream. I have added one more question (Q 6) to this question list since then.


    I just received my first ever Alpha product, Version 4.5. I am excited about trying it. This message board is extraordinary and a great asset for a new user. I have not yet installed Alpha 5, but am already a little nervous about using it as a development environment. I have been following most threads on the message board, and consequently have many questions/concerns:

    1. Stability is absolutely critical, yet there is a thread discussing system crashes and *.muf files, etc. and it seems to be an all too common problem. How bad is it really, and should I wait for Version 5?

    2. Is the Runtime installed separately on each user's machine or just on the server (or designated server)? Can one machine have a full version for user reporting, etc. while all others are using the Runtime?

    3. Some database products, especially the "Professional" versions have "InstallShield Express" which is typically a stripped down version of InstallShield, but specifically pre-configured for that products installation requirements. I would be willing to pay more for a Runtime product if it had this capability built in. Conversely, without an install program, it is much more difficult for the developer to package and install applications for end-users. Is anything being done to address this issue?

    4. I have historically used database development products that have full SQL functionality. A very complex query can be constructed with a single SQL statement but a comparable query in Alpha 5 seems to take an incredible amount of XBasic code to accomplish. Are there any plans to incorporate SQL into Alpha 5 such as that Visual FoxPro has?

    5. Can some of you who have worked with other products give me any idea as to comparable form and report loading speed, as well as other processing speed? It seems the CodeBase engine which is known for fantastic speed should dramatically improve the Alpha product line, is that your experience?

    6. Can Runtime users perform "Operations" such as crosstab, relations, etc.?

    Thanks to all you gurus who answer the tough questions posed on this forum. I have little doubt there would be far fewer Alpha users and new users without your participation on a constant basis. Reading the responses of Ira, Tom, Charlie and several others tells me the product is in good hands!

    Brent Warwick
    Emerald Data Systems, Inc.

    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: New Developer Questions

    I can answer 6. - yes, they can run them. BUT they can't create them.

    Comment

      #3
      RE: New Developer Questions

      1. Stability - can you live with the crashes you normally get with Windows? If so, Alpha is no more glitchy. (If you can't, you might want to think about Apple!!)

      2. Yes, you should install Runtime on each workstation. If you want to have the full version on the server, that's fine. But keep in mind that the Runtime versions can also run reports that have been designed in the full version.

      Runtime is great, because it lets the users use the program as they want, but prevents them from modifying (i.e., screwing up) the program. It's also ultimately cheaper, because you can buy one version of Runtime (several versions available, with different user counts, including unlimited) instead of one full version for each workstation.

      3. I can't help you with this one.

      4. As for queries, you might check out the Query by Form. There is a tremendous capability here.

      Comment

        #4
        RE: New Developer Questions

        Regarding question #3 about an installation routine:

        Alpha used to package the Wise installer with their professional version but it is no longer available because the people at Wise decided not to extend the contract for some reason. I understand the installer is still available from Wise for about $150. My personal feeling is that it is well worth the price. No matter who sells it to you, it will cost something so the real question is, "Where do you get something that's easy to use and reasonably priced?"

        It may be a moot point but, for whatever it's worth, the Wise installer was neither integrated nor pre-configured and I'm glad it wasn't for a couple reasons:
        (1) Distribution of an A5 runtime application is fairly simple so you really don't need much pre-configuring. (You could put the whole thing in one directory but I usually put the runtime program in the parent directory and all the data and application files in a child directory called "Data". That, and an icon or two, is all the "installation" that's really required.)
        (2) I often want to change other items such as the messages, installation screen colors and logos, installation directories, source directories, version info, desktop icons, etc. I prefer not to be locked-in to a pre-configured method.

        One further note. In the A5v1 professional edition, Alpha had a more "preconfigured" installation routine. In that case it was more useful because it was an early installation program that was much more difficult to use. Notice that Alpha wasn't more difficult to install; the installation program was more difficult to use. Hence, my earlier requirement "...easy to use..."

        Comment

          #5
          RE: New Developer Questions


          or, for another installer option, the folks at

          www.clickteam.com

          have an installer at a very reasonable price -- free. It seems to have a fairly decent feature set, and you can pay them some money and get an enhanced version.

          Comment

            #6
            RE: New Developer Questions

            Hello Brent,

            Glad to have you aboard.....
            A disclaimer, you are talking with the converted !

            >>I just received my first ever Alpha product, Version 4.5. I am excited about trying it. >1. Stability is absolutely critical, yet there is a thread discussing system crashes and *.muf files, etc. and it seems to be an all too common problem. How bad is it really,>and should I wait for Version 5? >4. I have historically used database development products that have full SQL functionality. A very complex query can be constructed with a single SQL statement but a comparable query in Alpha 5 seems to take an incredible amount of XBasic code to accomplish. Are there any plans to incorporate SQL into Alpha 5 such as that Visual FoxPro has?

            Comment

              #7
              RE: New Developer Questions

              To all who have replied to my questions:

              Thank you so much for your prompt and informative input.

              I look forward to working with Alpha 5 v4.5, and have read all the available material on Version 5. It sounds like an incredible development toolset. Hints at the client-server version (6) are also exciting.

              Your enthusiasim for the Alpha 5 product tells me it is quite extraordinary and I am certain I have barely seen all its capabilities. Even after reading Dr. Wayne's books (twice) I can see they just scratch the surface.

              Again thanks for taking the time to help me get a better grasp of the features and reasonable expectations of the Alpha 5 development platform.

              I hope to be a contributor on this forum in the future, and not just overload it with newbie questions.

              Sincerely,

              Brent Warwick
              Emerald Data Systems, Inc.

              Comment

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