By Gordon Meigs, PCTA
Q&A 5.0 automatically upgrades 4.0 databases.Prefatory Note
I’ve posted the following alert on the Symantec Forum and User's Group message boards.
—Bill Halpern, PCTA, March 18, 1998
Symantec Corp. sales and technical support are giving out false information about Q&A for DOS to callers. They are answering queries about the product with the response that it will not run in Windows 95/NT and that it is not compatible with a 32-bit operating system. They are also warning people that their data is at risk when Q&A is run in the Windows environment.
These statements are blatant untruths!
Q&A runs exceptionally well under both Windows 95 and NT. We have more than three years experience at this with Q&A installations at more than 50 sites! In all this time, not one Q&A record has been lost!
I know that the above statements attributed to Symantec are true because I’ve received panic calls from five people in the last week who have heard them from Symantec representatives who told them to contact me or one of three other Q&A gurus for more information.
To Symantec: What’s going on? What are you trying to do to one of the best database products on the market?
To everyone else: Get on Symantec’s case. Let them know what you think about Q&A, and remind them that there is still a huge base of Q&A users out there that need their good will and support!
The way to upgrade a Q&A 4.0 database to Q&A 5.0 is simply by opening it in 5.0. However, some Q&A users have reported problems with databases upgraded this way. To ensure a smooth upgrade to 5.0 and minimize potential problems with your databases, here are some steps you can perform:
1. Be sure all critical Specs and reports in the Q&A 4.0 database are the latest generation. You can use any of the following methods to do this:
Method 1—Run DTFCHECK or DTFDOCTR* on the database, using the command line DTFCHECK filename.dtf. (See "Report Retrieve Spec Glitch Finally Solved," in the October 1996 issue of The Quick Answer.) If no warning message appears, your Specs and reports are okay. If you receive a warning message, DTFCHECK advises which reports are in danger or already "bad." DTFDOCTR's Analyze Specs option does the same.
(*DTFCHECK and DTFDOCTR are available from John Dow jtd@pgh.net.There's a link to John's Web site on the Links page.)
a) If no warning messages appear, all Specs are okay, and you can proceed with the upgrade.
b) If you receive a warning, you'll also receive messages telling you which Specs and/or reports are in danger or already "bad." For reports that are in danger, bring them up to the latest generation by selecting Design/Redesign a report for each report in the database and pressing F10 until you’ve re-saved each one. For "bad" reports, look for garbage characters in the report’s Specs—particularly in the last field of the Retrieve Spec. Check all the fields in all the report Specs, and delete anything "funny" you find before re-saving the report.
Method 2—Select Design/redesign a report for each report in the database, and press F10 until you’ve re-saved each one. (Check the last field in each report’s Retrieve Spec as in Method 1.) For other Specs, such as Field Templates, Initial Values, Speedy Fields, Program, Navigation, and so forth, open those Specs and re-save by pressing F10. This will bring them all up to the latest generation.
Method 3—If you have DTFSPECS or DTFDOCTR, you can use it to generate macro files that automatically fix reports in the database. This is particularly helpful if you have many reports in the database. Each macro created by DTFSPECS performs 10 report redesigns. Start Q&A, select Report / Design / Redesign, enter the name of the databases, then press Esc to return to the Report menu, and load the macro file. (Press Shift-F2, select Get macros, find the REPORTSA.MAC, REPORTSB.MAC files.) After loading a macro file, one macro (Alt-0 in DTFSPECS 2.0, Alt-A in version 1.14) will do 10 reports in just a few seconds.
Method 3 also lets you copy report designs to another database with the same form design. You might want to do this to add a newly designed report from your master database to a client’s copy of the database, or to copy a report design from an active database (INVOICE.DTF, for example) to an archive version of the database.
2. Use the File / Copy / Copy design only command to copy the database design to a new name, creating a new, single generation database. Follow this by copying all the records from the old database to the new one, then renaming the new database to the old filename.
3. Backup the database.
4. If the database contains a date field, Select Redesign a database, press F10 twice to get to the Global Format Options screen, and change the date display format to date format 1. Then, go to the Initial Values Spec, note any initial values, delete them, and re-save the Spec
5. Go to the Speed-up Spec, make a note any Speedy fields (S, SU, and SE), delete any Speedy codes, and re-save the Spec.
6. Use the File / Utility / Recover command to recover the 4.0 database. Then, open the database in Q&A 5.0 to upgrade it.
7. Re-specify any Initial Values, and optionally change the database’s date display format (at the Global Format Options screen) to date format 1, 3, 5, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, or 20. (See "Date Bug Can be Double Trouble" in the March 1996 issue of The Quick Answer.)
8. Go to the Speed-up Spec and redefine your Speedy fields.
9. Recover the upgraded database, and run a Mass Update on it using a blank Update Spec.
10. If you’re using Q&A 5.0 on a peer-to-peer network, set the database’s Sharing Mode (select File / Design a file / Redesign a file/ Secure a file / Declare sharing mode) to Allow.
11. The upgraded database will have Q&A’s default color scheme. You can change the color palette by selecting File / Design a file / Customize a file / Change palette.
12. A bug in Q&A 5.0 can crash the PC if a default Font Assignments screen exists and F6 is pressed at the Retrieve Spec for a mail merge document. (See "5.0 Mail Merge Bug Uncovered" on page 7 of the April 1996 issue.) To work around the bug, delete the default Font Assignments screen, and create a Set Fonts macro to auto-fill the Font Assignments screen (assigning the desired default fonts) for new documents.
By following these steps, you increase the chances that you’re upgraded databases will be trouble-free.
Gordon Meigs is vice president and general manager of Professional Computer Technology Associates (PCTA) of Newtown, Pennsylvania. He teaches courses and does corporate training on Q&A, and has been designing and installing advanced Q&A business applications for more than 17 years. 215-598-8440, gmeigs@pcta-usa.com. See PCTA's ad on the Consultant's page.
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Last modified: December 11, 2006