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
Devcon 2020 Goes Virtual! LEARN MORE >

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

Restructuring alpha filing sys

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
    #1

    Restructuring alpha filing sys

    Hi,
    I'll soon need to move all my Alpha5 files from folders in Drive D (except the program files), to folders in Drive C; and the program files from Drive C to D! (Long story as to WHY!)

    I fear that all the expressions that point to different tables/sets in any given item (field rules, forms, reports, operations, etc). Someone please tell me there's another way than re-writing everything!

    Thanks!
    Wanda
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: Restructuring alpha filing sys

    Since I'm not sure which files you're refering to, let me tell you how I define them.

    First, my program files are the ones that actually run the program, such as ALPHA5.EXE. These files never change.

    My data files (*.DBF) and support files (*.DD*, etc.) are the ones I create when I design new forms, reports, etc.

    I keep my program files in a folder in my D drive, and my data and support files in a sub-folder called DATA. By doing this, I can copy the entire contents of DATA anywhere on my network, and everything still works fine. All I have to do is change the target in the icon (the part in quotes which tell where the ADB file is).

    If I move my program files, all I have to do is change the path for ALPHA5.EXE.

    Here's a suggestion: Before you do any of this, make back-ups!!! Also, copy the files to the new location first, and test it.

    Comment

      #3
      RE: Restructuring alpha filing sys

      Thank you, Bill. Sounds like you have a well thought out structure. I am talking about ALL my alpha5 files...program files, as well as data files (tables, forms, reports, etc.).

      I just remember once trying to move a table and ran into all sorts of problems. This was when I upgraded from v3 to v4. I ended up "adding" tables to control panels, but I really don't want to do that anymore. I want to end up having a structure very similar to yours, which will require moving every single alpha5 file that I have.

      My question is still the same: What is the easiest way to move a file from one location to another?

      Thanks,
      Wanda

      Comment

        #4
        RE: Restructuring alpha filing sys

        Wanda,
        As Bill said get a good backup before you do anything.

        Program files:
        If by program files you mean the AlphaV programs themselves, It would be my guess that you would have to reinstall Alpha on your "D" drive after unistalling it from "C".
        Data files:
        As long as all the databases table are in the same folder as the database itself you should be okay by simply moving the entire folder to the "C" drive. A few operations allow you to point to an external location, so I'd check any operations (imports exports summary etc).
        Before you move anything go in your app and while in control panel/table-sets and check out the full name. Make sure that all the tables and sets are in the same folder as the app itself.

        Comment

          #5
          RE: Restructuring alpha filing sys

          Thanks...yes, I will backup first - actually, I "copy", using My Computer.

          When I originally set up my files I didn't really know what I was doing, and ended up creating control panels with the same name as the file folder...in a sense, I ended up with redundancy. I want to restructure the whole thing, getting rid of the redundancy, so to speak (as well as move files to a different drive).

          I think I'll have to re-write most of my expressions and calculated fields, sets, etc...in order to make a more simple file structure, as well as re-directing the expressions to find fieldnames in the different drive.

          I'm going to "map" out my whole structure, including notating specific calculated field names on forms, reports, in field rules, etc., before moving any files...I was just hoping there was an easier way - say a global way.

          Thanks,
          Wanda

          Comment

            #6
            RE: Restructuring alpha filing sys

            the only time alpha five stores path information is
            1) when creating a shadow database, or
            2) if all the tables and sets from an application are not contained in the same folder.

            if you put all the tables and sets and the database from your application in the same folder, you can move it around with impunity.
            e.g. you can, on one computer, keep your a5v4 in
            c:a5v4
            and your application in
            c:wanda

            you can move your application to
            d:appsa5
            and your a5v4 program files and .dll files to
            d:program filesa5v4
            without any problem.

            if you *do* experience problems, it's because you have kept some application files in
            c:wanda
            and others in, say,
            c:mydata
            in that case, a5 stores path information in the set linkages and lookup definitions, and then you're in trouble.

            Comment

              #7
              RE: Restructuring alpha filing sys

              Thank you, Peter. You hit the nail on the head...bottom line, I'm in trouble - because I didn't know what I was doing when I originally set it all up. I will probably end up restructuring, re-writing, and end up with something very similar to what you are suggesting.
              Thanks again!
              Wanda

              Comment

                #8
                RE: Restructuring alpha filing sys

                Hi Wanda,

                I assume you make backups religiously, which must reside on different drives than you are currently using. If so, try opening the database from that backup location. If everything works, then your question is answered. If not, you should see some messages indicating which pieces cannot be found. BTW, a great way to test a backup is exactly like that. Simply having a backup and never giving it a live test can be extremely disappointing at disaster recovery time.

                Tom Lyon

                Comment

                  #9
                  RE: Restructuring alpha filing sys

                  Wanda,

                  You can probably get this fixed with a minumum of work (I think :-)

                  Copy all the tables in different folders (directories)
                  to the directory were your *.adb resides. Remember to copy all the dictionary support files as well. Now open up A5 and get to the control panel for this *.adb. Right click on the tables in other directories and drop them from the database. Now right click on the Tables/Sets page and select Add Table/set and add the tables that you copied to the *.adb folder. I would hope that doing this will remove any path info stored in the *.adb.

                  Good luck
                  Jim

                  Comment

                    #10
                    RE: Restructuring alpha filing sys

                    Thanks Tom and Jim (and everyone else on this thread, whom I've already responded to :))

                    I'll hopefully be able to get back to this next week - am rather swamped with other stuff today.

                    I'll see if my "Copy" (not backup) opens easily and work with your idea, Tom.

                    As far as dropping and adding from/to control panels - I believe I've done this from time to time (when first seeting it all up), but I believe the path remains the same. I'll check into this as well, next week.

                    In any case - I'll post my findings when I find them!
                    Thanks again to all,
                    Wanda

                    Comment

                    Previous template Next
                    Working...
                    X