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

Lots of Help

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

    Lots of Help

    How can I do : [non programmig if possible please!]

    1) Have an evaluation period lock (eg 14 days) attaached to my distibuted run time programmes ?

    2)Have Company's Details typed in once but allowing those fields to appear on multiple documents

    3) Labels.I have a multilevel set .Can inforamtion be transfered from all levels (granfather father child etc)to the Labels.If I print 4 labels and then decide to reprint one of them can I do it ?

    4) How to I update a problem or new feature into a clients programme eg the programme needs a new table or report .

    Thanks Haroon

    Thanks for reading

    #2
    RE: Lots of Help

    Haroon,

    Perhaps it would be of benefit to you to study database normalization. This will not only answer these questions but greatly help you in structing the databases. A good book to start with is:

    "Database Design for Mere Mortals" second edition, by Michael J. Hernandez

    kenn
    TYVM :) kenn

    Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Lots of Help

      Hi Haroon -- good to hear from you. Let me take a shot at some:

      1) Have an evaluation period lock (eg 14 days) attaached to my distibuted run time programmes ?

      This takes some programming -- I just got done building a 30-day trial into a database, and the details can't be accomplished without some mid-level work. I suppose there's a way to do it via action scripting but I'd be worried about its integrity.

      2)Have Company's Details typed in once but allowing those fields to appear on multiple documents

      One way is to have a table called "Company", with name, address, city, etc. At startup time, set the values in the fields to global variables. I think you can even do this with action scripting.

      Once they're set up as global variables, you can just get them off the drag-drop list anywhere you want.

      3) Labels.
      I'll let someone else tackle this.

      4) How to I update a problem or new feature into a clients programme eg the programme needs a new table or report .

      There are lots of earlier threads about this in this forum. Under most circumstances, you can usually just send them the .ddd, .ddm and ddx files, or if you made changes to a set, the .set, .sem and .sex files. Stuff from the code tab is the .alm, .alb and .alx files. Use the search feature of this forum for more help on this one.

      Hope some of this helps.

      - Steve



      -Steve
      sigpic

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Lots of Help

        Haroon,

        I found this thread that might help. Alan Lucas and Cal Locklin contributed. Hopoe this helps...kenn

        Alan, you go through an awful lot of work copying files! I, too, use Astrum but I never copy files to another folder. Your method is certainly not wrong and there may even be reasons that it is preferable in your situation but, just for another viewpoint, here's how I do it: (much of this is not possible with A5's built-in installer)

        1. Create an Astrum installation with all the application files - .dd*, .se*, and .a* - in Astrum's Files to Install area under an Application Files group. These files are pulled directly from the development application and are set to "Always Overwrite" using the Advanced button. (Of course, special tables/sets used only for development are removed from the list.)

        2. Add a Data Files group to Astrum's Files to Install area and put all the data files - .dbf, .cdx, and .fpt - in there. This is somewhat optional but I often add them - at least any new tables that may be required by an update. IMPORTANT: Set ALL data files to "Do not overwrite." This eliminates any worry of overwriting existing data but still allows them to get any new tables required by an update.

        I don't see that there is anything to be gained by copying them somewhere else first UNLESS you are providing a first-time installation that requires the empty data files to start out AND you want to keep some other data for your own use. (See the last paragraph for an alternate method.)

        3. Indexes: I have a built-in Index Rebuild routine that totally rebuilds the indexes. This is not an index update; it is a complete rebuild. Since most customers are getting custom apps, I've found it adequate to simply remind them to rebuilt the indexes after installing the update. Besides, they would have to update the .cdx files you send them anyway.

        Another advantage to the rebuild routine is that it can be used an time. It isn't just limited to one time when the app is updated. (Many people provide an update routine but few provide a rebuild routine that will also repair lost (or customer 'modified' - I'm being polite) index definitions.)

        If you choose to send them the new .cdx files as the new index definition, just add them to an Index Files group and mark them as "Always Overwrite." (or put them in the Application Files group which is also set to "Always Overwrite")

        Th Index Rebuild routine I use completely rebuilds all the indexes that I've defined as being required to run the application. It does not rebuild any user-created indexes but that has never been an issue so far. (FYI: I use a special script that builds the rebuild script in a couple of seconds based on existing index definitions. Others use a special table that holds the index definitions. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages.)

        --------------------

        With this method, I can build a new installation for any update by simply (a) compacting the modified tables and sets then (b) (optional) going into Astrum and adding version notes in the Read-me section and (c) re-running Astrum to create the new install file.

        I usually add the version number to the end of the installation file just so they don't get mixed up and use the wrong one but this is set up right in Astrum. This is done in Astrum by defining the install file name as something like Install_MyApp_"AppVersion".exe using the bracketed "AppVersion" exactly like that because that is a built-in Astrum variable name. Then just change the version number shown on the first screen before creating each update.

        There is no need to copy the application somewhere else again because I'm not going to overwrite their data anyway.

        As to the backup, adding fields, and re-evaluating field rules -- I agree completely.

        -------------------------------------

        Another thing I've done with one app that is for general distribution is to create copies of all tables that have "trial version" data and give them fancy names like "Invoice_detail_trial". This allows me to mess around with the data as much as necessary for development or demos then run a script that zaps the data and runs a few saved append routines to restore the original trial data. For now at least, the saved operations go along with the app but (a) the user won't have access to the Operations tab and (b) they won't work without the trial data anyway.

        TYVM :) kenn

        Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Lots of Help

          Hi Steve

          Nice of you to reply

          I look at my photos every now and again so you are still there and in my thoughts !

          In fact it was a nice touch for almost every delegate's photo to e posted on the message board.

          My personal programme is working beautifully.I got around all the problems after the tuition.In fact a colleague is interested in purchasing it.I am also busy writing up a small programme which should be ready soon for "sales" and finally another mini prgramme (first sale) is ready and will be delivered on Thursday.Pray all goes well

          Haroon

          Thanks
          Haroon

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Lots of Help

            Dear Ken

            Thanks for the book tip.As soon as I complete my Acupuncture exams I will consider reading more in depth.In the interim I am seeking "quick golden advices"

            Thanks
            Haroon

            Comment

            Working...
            X