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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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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.

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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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Network

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    Network

    Is there any way to speed up Alpha on my network ?? This is a network that is "very" fast except for the alpha app.Seem's a shame to have 10 years of Data and no modern way to acess it!!!! Seems price went up and quality went down I'm venting now!!!

    Larry

    #2
    RE: Network

    Larry,

    A Database used over a network can easily swamp the network, unlike most other applications, unless properly designed. For small databases, this may not be as noticable, but for larger databases it can be.

    Some of the questions to ask yourself are;
    1. Did you shadow (network optimize) yout tables/sets (to a local drive)?
    2. Is your private directory for Alpha 5 on your local drive?
    3. Is it 1 workstation or all that have the same problem. If just 1, look at the NIC card, Network cable or the workstation's (hardware and software).
    4. Are you doing things that do many fetches of the same data over the network?

    There is no reason over 100 users can't use A5 over a network for a properly designed A5 application. But a poorly designed one,, even 1 user may be too much.

    Search the message forum (including a5V4 and A5V5 for "speed" and you will have much to consider.

    Regards,

    Ira
    Regards,

    Ira J. Perlow
    Computer Systems Design


    CSDA A5 Products
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    Comment


      #3
      RE: Network

      One of the biggest things to consider when networking is your antivirus software. Unless you disable real-time virus scanning on the network drives (in Norton), you will quickly BRING YOU RESPONSE TIME TO A GRINDING HALT. We set both the network mapped drives as well as the Alpha folders on te local machines to be excluded from the real-time scanning. Otherwise, every time you modify a record, the Antivirus kicks in. On your server, you need to do the same thing.

      Shadowing helps immensely when you are initially loading an application. However, the shadow will do nothing more than frustrate you if you are just deploying the the system, and chances are coming, the time it takes to load the shadow will negate any speed enhancements.

      Tom

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Network

        Thank you
        This is a "very" small as data bases go about 3000 records and is the only thing the local network is used for. But the one thing that makes alot of sense here is the anti virus thing. thank you will give it a shot and turn off anti v if it works than Alpha will need to be F6'ed

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Network

          you might want to share some detailon exactly what is slow- for example is opening forms the slow thing or is it querying the 3000 recod table.outside of the very good general advice already given, suggestions could be made that address the specifics here.

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Network

            It starts out from the get go! When "user" trys a search, one never knows what going to happen!!!! I have been a Alpha "user" since verion 1 about zillion years, and it seem I can't or do I have the time to get it rite, so the beast does some simple thing with out having to dedicate the whole computer to it.

            Larry

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Network

              This is a simple network "computers hooked together "No" server. Is it better not to have a shadow base???

              Thanks Again
              Larry

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Network

                If one computer is acting as a server and serving files to the others then the clients need to shadow the database for acceptable speed. This is true even for small tables as otherwise you are passing forms etc over the wire with all the graphical stuff.
                Try the shadow and see if it fixes the problem. Shadows really are no big deal once you see how they work.

                Russ

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: Network

                  Had some Network people check our sytem today seems everything is working at normal speed "except"for alpha 6,from the time you click the icon to load is "37" seconds to open, if you even dare use the search , you get to use the ctrl alt delete keys. If I copy the whole data base to the client PC everything works just fine, So I guess my answer is to buy one lic and do back up and restore for my client.

                  Or is there a way to convert my 10 years of data to a data base that works on my t base system that my users don't have to be computer gienus to use ?? After 10 years of this, think I'm ready to give up, I'm willing to give up some features for a system that works, without having to dedicate the whole sytem to it.
                  Thank you
                  Larry

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: Network

                    do you have a runtime license and are you shadowing the database?

                    the shadow puts the entire application on the workstation but with pointers to the data on the server.

                    on a "shared" or windows network, which is what you are using, it is definitely recommended that you have one computer whose only purpose is to serve as the "server"

                    if you are not shadowing on a network it will be predictably slow.
                    Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                    972 524 8714
                    [email protected]

                    ____________________
                    "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: Network

                      Yes I Do shadow
                      This is a "very" low valoume network in fact the only thing it is used for is Alpha ! Like I've eluded to the startup of basic Shadowed program is 37 sec and when in the program "a simple form" with 46 fields is up and the search Button is pressed lockup occurs, This though does not happen if not shadowed and data is restored to client PC.
                      So It would seem problem is with the network and the search??

                      Thank you

                      Comment


                        #12
                        RE: Network

                        I know it seems like a riddle right now, but you are not getting typical results. If you like, zip the folder containing the database and email it to me and I'll try it on my network to see if it is a network/adb issue.

                        in the meantime - open the runtime on one of the workstations (the runtime should be on the workstation) - open the program on the server with the runtime - goto the controlpanel and make a new shadow copy - then after it creates and reloads the shadow copy - go back to the controlpanel and make a shortcut. exit. try opening and using via the shortcut.
                        Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                        972 524 8714
                        [email protected]

                        ____________________
                        "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

                        Comment


                          #13
                          RE: Network

                          Larry,
                          My experience is that when you do not have a dedicated server running Server Software (i.e. Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 Server) any database software can quickly bogg down your network because there is noone directing traffic. This type of nework works fine for internet sharing and file sharing, but not generally too well for database applications.

                          I have one client using this scenario where most of his machines need only run reports from the previous days data. I setup a "restore" icon that will restore the entire database onto the client's computer from the previous days backup. Of course if your client needs to make changes in the database this won't work for you and my recommendation would be to
                          1) Make sure your app is written well for network use. If you post a sample of it, there are a numbr of guys here who can help you.
                          2) Consider purchasing a server grade machine to store your database and other files being shared - you can probably get one for under $500
                          3) Consider purchasing a 100mbps Router to help direct network traffic - less than $100 if you only have 7 or 8 computers.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            RE: Network

                            Thank you

                            I do use a 10/100 "G" router,the price of a server is "no" object it's the fact I'd be buying it "Just" for alpha that is hard to swallow!! this system seems to work fine (except for alpha)as of tueday I have used the backup restore you mentioned. Seems a shame I spent money for 3 Lic.

                            Need directions on how to post Data base
                            Thank you

                            Comment


                              #15
                              RE: Network

                              Larry,

                              I have just re-read the whole thread. I can't figure out quite where you have your shadow database. Is it still on your "server", or is it on each workstation? I have a 200+ PC network, and even our enormous databases don't take 37 seconds to load. Some of my tables have in excess of 500,000 records. Since we are in test/production mode, we do not shadow, as it would only need to be refreshed about 3 times a day.

                              If you are using Norton, you must turn file system real-time protection off for selected folders. the folders should be your runtime folder, and any folders where the Alpha database resides. DO NOT run filesystem real-rtime protection to network drives. Each machine should do its own protection.

                              If you could post a zip copy of your database, I am sure someone here will be able to tell you if the database is at fault.

                              Tom

                              Comment

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