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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:
  • 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.
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  • 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.
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Better Message Board search

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    Better Message Board search

    It would be really nice to be able to search the message board posts by using a "phrase" rather than keywords. I was looking for a way to "change data sources" but had to sift through every thread that had the word "change", "data" and/or "sources" in it. Not very productive.

    #2
    Re: Better Message Board search

    Originally posted by ppittman View Post
    It would be really nice to be able to search the message board posts by using a "phrase" rather than keywords. I was looking for a way to "change data sources" but had to sift through every thread that had the word "change", "data" and/or "sources" in it. Not very productive.
    You can. Put quotes around your search, just like you would in google.

    "change data sources" brought up two threads, including this one.
    Aaron Brown
    Alpha Software Development Team

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Better Message Board search

      But I don't have to do this in google.... I can type my search criteria into the "...Exact Phrase" box.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Better Message Board search

        Originally posted by ppittman View Post
        But I don't have to do this in google.... I can type my search criteria into the "...Exact Phrase" box.
        We use a third party application, vBulletin, for the message board forum here. It is the most prevalent message board software used on the Internet today. If you are unhappy with vBulletin's search capabilities, please contact Jelsoft at www.vbulletin.com and perhaps they will make a change to the software for their next release.
        Aaron Brown
        Alpha Software Development Team

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Better Message Board search

          Originally posted by ppittman View Post
          But I don't have to do this in google.... I can type my search criteria into the "...Exact Phrase" box.
          You can use google's ability to search a single site and look at the Alpha messageboard.

          It's easiest by installing the google toolbar, going to the Alpha messageboard and then search only the current site.

          The search will only be as uptodate as the last time the google spider read the site, but that may happen every 24 hours or so.
          Al Buchholz
          Bookwood Systems, LTD
          Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

          Occam's Razor - KISS
          Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
          Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
          When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
          "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
          Albert Einstein

          http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Better Message Board search

            You know, up until your last thread, I was really... really trying to make a go of Alpha 5. Just so you know, I am not a "Newbie" to the database world - I've been developing databases and writing database applications for more than 25 years and have built a very successful business doing so. And in that 25 years I have used just about every business-oriented data management tool - and I can say with little exception that all but a very few are superior to Alpha in almost every way. But I digress...

            All I was doing with my request was utilizing a feature of YOUR web site - your "Wish List". I simply "wished" that there was an easier search function on YOUR web site. If you read my original thread thoroughly, you will notice that I didn't make any demands nor did I express any displeasure with it's cababilities. I was simply "wishing".

            However, your last response has left me with a bitter taste about Alpha Software. It would have been far better if you had not responded at all then to reply with a "....it's not our stuff and if you don't like it go call someone else..." attitude. Is this the type of response I can hope to receive from other departments withing your firm?

            For several years I refused to develop anything with Alpha4 or Alpha5 because I could do anything faster and better with other products. The only reason I'm using Alpha5 now is because one of my better clients recommended me to an associate who demanded that I use Alpha5 for their project. I can tell you now that unless things change dramatically, this will be the last project I will do using Alpha software.

            And for the record, Jelsoft has just "6 years of online experience" - they must have one heck of a product to be "the most prevelant message board software on the Internet today". But then again, for $160 I guess you get what you pay for....

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Better Message Board search

              Patrick,

              I apologize if my message came across as having an attitude. That was not the intent. Unfortunately, due to the nature of text communication, responses do not have vocal inflection or body language. I was simply trying to explain that the software that is being used was not developed by Alpha Software. I do not disagree that it would be nice to have a drop down box or something in the advanced search for "exact phrase," but it is out of our control to add this feature.

              I think you will find that historically we are extremely responsive to the requests of our users.

              vBulletin is the most popular and robust forum software right now and has been for several years, despite their late entry into the market. We used to use a software called Phorum, that is still around, but does not have anywhere near the flexibility or features that is offered by vBulletin.

              Aaron
              Aaron Brown
              Alpha Software Development Team

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Better Message Board search

                Patrick,

                With your experience in other development products, I would love to have you expand on your statement "I can tell you now that unless things change dramatically...". What changes would you propose? Alpha is incredibly responsive to changes requested on this forum, especially if they are causing problems with developing an application. A5 just had an overhaul, so it may be a few months before any non-critical changes are made.

                Knowing Aaron, I can guarantee you he did not mean to brush off your question.
                Steve Wood
                See my profile on IADN

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Better Message Board search

                  Patrick,

                  I would like to re-iterate what Steve has said, Aaron has always been very helpful with any problem I have had. Even taking time to phone me here in the UK to resolve matters.

                  I too have had over 25 years experience of various types of software and am very interested in the majority of data management software you have found to be superior to Alpha, could you elaborate please. I am not bound to Alpha in any way shape or form and like to experiment.

                  Comment

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