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

"Database is open in another session" error

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

    "Database is open in another session" error

    When I am editing my database, I keep running into error messages telling me that "The database/set is being used by another user or in another session and could not be opened in exclusive mode." But I am the only person on our network accessing this database! (We have a 3-user license.) I also do not have any other browses or forms open! Why is this happening?

    #2
    I have the same problem. When it happens, I have to shut down the program and start it up again. And I am using it on a stand alone computer, not on a network, although I have the networking version.
    Jim Belanger

    Comment


      #3
      This message from Alpha Five is based on information Alpha Five receives from the operating system. Tables and sets can be left "open" as far as Windows is concerned even after you close the database. This can happen if a table is opened by a script that subsequently crashes. I've had this happen during development more times than I'd care to admit. It also happens when developers open forms "as dialogs" and do not close them correctly, following the special handling instructions set forth in the help file. The immediate problem can usually be cleared by closing Alpha Five and rebooting your workstation (if the database is stored there). If your database is on a "server", then rebooting it is sometimes required. This is why, in my own development work, I don't put anything on the server until it's been thoroughly tested. Rebooting a shared server affects more folks than rebooting your own pc.

      The long term solution is to find what's causing tables or sets to be left open and correct it. A useful technique at the end of any development session is to compact the database. If Alpha Five can't compact some of the tables that's a good indicator that they were left open by mistake.

      --tom

      Comment


        #4
        I can't find it right now, but, at one time I had a similar problem and someone told me to look for a file in the directory and delete it. It was a file that indicated a table was open. Wish I could recall the file's name or where I wrote this hint down.
        Jim Belanger

        Comment


          #5
          Hi,
          I have the same issue on occasion, so I go to the interactive window and type in a5_forceclosetables().
          That usually does the trick.

          And thanks Tom for your advise on finding our why a table or set is open in the first place. That should, as a matter of course, be done.

          mike
          Mike Reed
          Phoenix, AZ

          Comment


            #6
            This seems to be a major failing of this program and one that should be addressed ASAP in the next revision. I mean, seriously, am I supposed to keep rebooting the workstation constantly? This makes Alpha Five practically unusable for me.

            Comment


              #7
              a5_forceclosetables() did not work for me.

              Comment


                #8
                Michael,

                I don't think I agree with your premise. Perhaps we can spot the trouble for you if you'll post your database here, with instructions for us to follow to see the issue.

                -- tom

                Comment


                  #9
                  I'm not comfortable posting the database here. I just went through my system processes and shut down programs that might be accessing files in the background (like X1 and System Mechanic system monitor). I'll let you know if that helps.

                  FYI: I'm a long-time Alpha Four user and am (finally) making the transition to Alpha Five. So I'm a total novice at Alpha Five. I will probably be posting lots of questions!

                  Comment


                    #10
                    It's possible to get thing so screwed up that the tables and database can become corrupted. So it pays to keep good backups even during development. (Especially during development!!). It's also possible for hardware failures of various types to cause corruption. If you think it would help for someone to check the database privately just post a request.

                    -- tom

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Terminating X1 and System Mechanic seems to have done the trick. I've been editing a table for 40 minutes now and haven't run into the problem.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Michael,
                        I've had the same problem but haven't been able to see a pattern that would help me figure out where to look, because it doesn't happen consistently. I do compacts frequently enough but that doesn't seem to have any impact. Don't know the solution, just letting you know you're not alone.
                        Good luck.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Not sure if it causes a problem but to be safe I exclude table and index file types from Anti-virus/spyware scanning.
                          Dave

                          Comment


                            #14
                            if this happens only when you are in development mode, I would say there are 2 general reasons you will get this error
                            1. if you open a form as a dialog from another form, and do not then close it from the calling form, it is still open (but hidden) and its table is thus open, too.

                            2. if you make changes to a form that cause an error, as from bad syntax, the table and frequently even the form are still open - and if you then reopen the form in design mode, correct the changes, and then rerun it again, not only can you get an error indicating the table and/or a record is locked, but you can also create a mess with the syntax. Since there were 2 copies of the form open, often the objects on the 2nd form are renamed to objectname0 since one copy is already open (but hidden) with the object name.

                            My practice in V7 is this - if I am developing in a layout and I get an error, I close Alpha and reopen it.

                            But if you are not getting any errors, and it only occurs when using the program, if the cause is from wothing the program, then something is opening a table but not closing it - like a script/function or a form opened as a dialog but not properly closed.
                            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

                            Working...
                            X