Looking for Harbour/Advantage Advice

[Jay Hill]

I am new to the forum and am wondering about opinions on the next steps needed to enhance a Harbour 3.0.0 application that is using Advantage 10. The application is functionally very good at the business processes it handles. However, it uses DBFNTX thru Advantage. It also only uses text screens. So I am wondering what are the logical next steps to enhance this application. It runs very fast and performs very well for the client. However, we are looking to enhance it thru the Fivewin product and/or improve its file system of DBFNTX.

What would be the way to go? And what exactly can the FWH 32 bit product offer? Also, we have a .net application using SQL Server that is simply receiving CSV imports from the Harbour app at this time...can this be further enhanced with connectivity? What would be the suggested steps to improvement?

Thank you in advance.

[pieter]

Hi Jay,

I am working for a company who wants me to investigate how to migrate from dbf (cdx) in combination with Advantage Database Server to sql. The (Xharbour) application that my company uses is in my opinion very large, so it is really a challenge to find the best solution and then implementing that solution. Thanks to Antonio Linares, I now have a strong believe that SQL with Ado from fivewin is the best solution. Antonio has given a very interesting seminar for me and my colleagues. I am still in the procces of investigating and implementing this SQL solution, I like to share my experience with people who are considering going to sql.

viewtopic.php?t=30070 (About ado and sql)

Have a nice day and good luck.

Kind regards,

Pieter

[Antonio Linares]

Jay,

If your app is using text screens, you could improve its GUI using FWH and use true windows with better look and user interface.

Please review our app FiveDBU.prg to get an idea of the quality of the apps that you can produce using FWH and Harbour. Full source included:
https://bitbucket.org/fivetech/fivewin-contributions/downloads/fivedbu_20140730.zip

Advantage is very fast, so unless you have a need to use another database engine, you could keep using it.

[Rick Lipkin]

Jay

I thank Pieter for including my comments in the thread he mentioned .. I am a Ms Sql Server and MS Access database person. As I mentioned in my comments, Sql Server and MS Access do not need ANY external Ole client ( connection to database ) .. and you DO NOT need to configure ODBC and that is a BIG PLUS if you are marketing or distributing a Corporate application that has many workstations.

Antonio is correct .. review FiveDbu which has multiple connection choices .. Please also review
\samples\
Access.prg
Access1.prg
AdoRick.prg

AdoRick.prg puts all the connectivity concepts together from creating a global connection to opening recordsets using the global connection, and an xBrowse example using a incremental search.

Again, Ms Access and Ms Sql server code are ( almost ) identical other than the connection string and generally free to use and you can manage the databases with FiveDbu.

Rick Lipkin

[Jay Hill]

Thank you Pieter and Rick for the connectivity information. That is very interesting reading your experience Pieter...I plan to keep in touch with how you are both faring with regards to this. Antonio, thank you for the information also.

Antonio, how difficult is it to get the FWH product compiling together with what I currently compile now --> the harbor 3.0.0 and the advantage 10 (ace32 and rddads) and the Borland BCC55? Also, when you incorporate the FWH graphical screens into your app, must you do all the screens at once for your app to work; or can you convert 1 or 2 screens to graphical while the rest of the app still has the text screens? I'm sorry for the very basic questions, but I'm very new to the Fivewin software.

Thank you,

[Antonio Linares]

Jay,

Have you reviewed FiveDBU.prg ?

It will give you an idea of how to use FWH.

An hybrid app with text and GUI is not possible with FWH, sorry.

FWH is very easy to use and it has a small learning curve.

[AHF]

Hi Jay,

I am working for a company who wants me to investigate how to migrate from dbf (cdx) in combination with Advantage Database Server to sql. The (Xharbour) application that my company uses is in my opinion very large, so it is really a challenge to find the best solution and then implementing that solution. Thanks to Antonio Linares, I now have a strong believe that SQL with Ado from fivewin is the best solution. Antonio has given a very interesting seminar for me and my colleagues. I am still in the procces of investigating and implementing this SQL solution, I like to share my experience with people who are considering going to sql.

viewtopic.php?t=30070 (About ado and sql)

Have a nice day and good luck.

Kind regards,

Pieter

Pieter,

Thats exactly what we did.
We just convert an app with ADS to MySQL with the new adordd developed by us.

Not one single line of code change besides INDEX ON where the vars must be evaluated before but just like ADS.

Ill post a new version fully working and tested in the next days .
Although there are still small issues (incr filters in xBrowse) you should be able to work with it right away.

upload tables to database:

use anytableofdatabase //to open a ado connection
use dbftable alias "calias" VIA "DBFCDX"
copy to whateversqlnametable VIA "ADORDD"

Thats it.
Then

USE whateversqlnamatable
BROWSE()

You can also :

hb_GetAdoConnection():Execute( "CREAT VIEW ...")
SELE 0
USE thetableinview
BROWSE()


There isnt any difference to any other rdd besides any extra functionality.
There are a couple of new functions to give us extra control of the recordsets and connections a get extra functionality if you want to use it.

May be it will fit your needs.

[pieter]

Hi AHF,

Thank you for your post:D. It is very good to know that you already got a solution with adordd. I am looking forward to the new developments of the adordd.

Everybody, have a nice day and lot's of fun with learning and developing new things/technologies.

Kind regards,

Pieter