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

developed program shortcuts

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

    developed program shortcuts

    I made my database. I used the install maker from A5. Then installed it. I then used Astrum to make my own custom installer. But I cannot get the desktop or start menu shortcuts to open my new database. Is there a special command I need to add? If so, what is it??
    Thanks,
    Kevin
    Kevin G. Timberlake
    Marvel Illusions

    #2
    RE: developed program shortcuts

    Your desktop shortcut may be (probably is) hard-coded to your current computer.

    Astrum has options to build a shortcut, assign an icon, etc. which is a better way to go.

    - Steve
    -Steve
    sigpic

    Comment


      #3
      RE: developed program shortcuts

      It made the shortcut, but won't open the database.
      Kevin G. Timberlake
      Marvel Illusions

      Comment


        #4
        RE: developed program shortcuts

        Works fine for me and others. You may need to examine the command string that you have Astrum creating.

        - Steve
        -Steve
        sigpic

        Comment


          #5
          RE: developed program shortcuts

          The command string is the problem. Any suggestions on how to do it? My database will be installed "installdir"\Truckers Office (in the program files). I tried to copy the one A5 makes, but it does not work in Astrum. This is driving me nuts.
          Thanks
          Kevin
          Kevin G. Timberlake
          Marvel Illusions

          Comment


            #6
            RE: developed program shortcuts

            For specific help we need more info. What are you installing in "InstallDir>? Is this where you are putting the runtime or is this where you want to put the application files? (Note that capitalization is VERY important in Astrum - it's ""InstallDir>" not ""installdir>")

            Since you said you are installing to "InstallDir>\Truckers Office, I will assume you are installing the runtime in "InstallDir>. In that case, your shortcut might be set up something like this:
            Shortcut Target: "InstallDir>\Alpha5.exe
            Shortcut Name: "ShortcutDir>\"AppName>.lnk or "Desktop>\"AppName>.lnk
            Command Line: "InstallDir>\Truckers Office\"AdbName>.adb -nosplash -title="Truckers Office" -icon=""InstallDir>\Truckers Office\[IcoNameHere].ico"
            Working Dir: "InstallDir>\Truckers Office

            Note that the working dir should be the directory where your application is located - not where the Alpha5.exe file is located.

            HINT: Go to Edit/Tools in Astrum and create a Build Time Constant for "AdbName> and set this equal to the name of your .adb file. In other words, if your .adb file is called "Truckers Office.adb", set "AdbName> equal to "Truckers Office". (Don't include the quotes.) Then just use "AdbName> in your various messages (even in the read-me) command strings, etc. This makes the install file easier to convert to other apps or, if you decide to change the .adb name, the install file only needs to be changed in one place. (The voice of annoying experiences speaking.)

            Also, although it's not required and many people don't do it, I highly recommend not using spaces in any names - files, forms, reports, indexes, etc. Read why in my Naming Recommendations "white paper". I won't fault you for using different conventions but please try to understand the logic - it's basically the same logic that was used to come up with the Access conventions with modified results based on specific A5 issues. The key is Unique, Unique, Unique - and I'd be willing to bet that you have text and/or labels, etc. in your app that contain the text "Truckers Office" which means that the name of your app is not unique. But, Truckers_Office (note the underscore) would be unique or at least more unique.

            Sometimes the underscore even makes things easier to read because there is no question that Truckers_Office or My_Favorite_Main_Menu refers to one thing and is not just part of a sentence. This isn't a very realistic example but hopefully it gets the point across:
            - The menu I use most often is my favorite menu.
            vs.
            - The menu I use most often is my_favorite_menu.
            or, maybe the first should really be interpreted as:
            - The menu I use most often is my "favorite menu".
            I dare you to prove to me exactly what was meant in the first example but there is no question about the second. As I said, this isn't a very good example but I have run into similar situations in real life - I just don't write them down after I fix them.

            Cal Locklin
            www.aimsdc.net

            Comment


              #7
              RE: developed program shortcuts

              Oops, sorry. I just noticed that I forgot to change the Command Line example and it is using the "AdbName> variable that I created. Oh well, let's just say I left it there as an example of how to use it.

              Comment


                #8
                RE: developed program shortcuts

                BOOM!!!! It works. Thx Cal
                Kevin
                Kevin G. Timberlake
                Marvel Illusions

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: developed program shortcuts

                  Well, here I am again. My shortcuts won't work. This is what I have. My file is "Trucker's Office Turbo.adb"
                  ------------------------
                  Shortcut target: "InstallDir"\Runtime\alpha5.exe
                  Shortcut name: "Desktop"\"AppName".lnk
                  Command line: "InstallDir"\"Trucker's Office Turbo.startup"
                  Working dir: "InstallDir"
                  Icon file: "InstallDir"\INET_Midnight_Earth_Clouds_iTools.ico
                  ------------------------
                  Now the Icon is good, Program is in c:\Program Files\Trucker's Office Turbo, Runtime is in c:\Program Files\Trucker's Office Turbo\Runtime.
                  The runtime opens up and runs, but when it tries to open the program/database it won't. I have no clue what to do now.
                  I also tried Trucker's Office Turbo.adb, but i remember using the.startup before. I will write it down next time...
                  Thanks
                  Kevin
                  Kevin G. Timberlake
                  Marvel Illusions

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: developed program shortcuts

                    I haven't used the .startup file so I'm not exactly sure what you need to do there but hopefully this will help....

                    Think for of exactly what you want the final command line to look like. In general I believe it is:
                    "Start A5> "Tell it what app to run> "Tell it what options to use>

                    In you case, I think this means:
                    "Exe Path\Alpha5.exe> "adb path\appname.adb> "startup file>

                    (I think the startup file/options can come either before or after the .adb definition but I'm not positive.)

                    However, Astrum sees it as two groups:
                    "program to run> "all arguments/commands that follow the actual program call>

                    In other words, I think your problem is in the definition of what Astrum calls the "Command Line". If I'm correct about how to use the .startup file, the Astrum "Command Line" should include the full pathname to the .adb file and the .startup file.

                    Here's a sample "Command Line" from one of my installations but without the .startup file:
                    "InstallDir>\Diet_Results\Diet_Results.adb -nosplash -title="Diet Results"

                    Hmmm, just checked the Help file and can't find a reference to a .startup file but I did find reference to a -Include="Startup.txt" which is essentially the same. If this is what you want to use, the Astrum "Command Line" in my earlier posting would be changed to:
                    Command Line: \Truckers Office\.adb -include="Trucker's Office Turbo.startup"

                    Cal Locklin
                    www.aimsdc.net

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: developed program shortcuts

                      Sorry, I forgot about the use of the """ in that command line and it got "hidden" in the HTML. It should be:

                      Command Line: "InstallDir>\Truckers Office\"AdbName>.adb -include="Trucker's Office Turbo.startup"

                      Comment


                        #12
                        RE: developed program shortcuts

                        I keep getting a "Failed to save document" and a5 opens with the recent databases on top bar, mine still won't open. I have attached the .ai2 file if you could look at it. Thanks Cal.

                        Kevin
                        Kevin G. Timberlake
                        Marvel Illusions

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X