Pervasive SQL (Btrieve) V8 dilemmas
Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 2:41 pm
The btrieve ddf files at my client site were created a number of years ago using Smithware^s DDF Builder. We^ve always used R&R with its native support for Btrieve. An attempt to use Pervasive SQL V7 ODBC failed due to performance issues. We^re now on Pervasive SQL V8 which has a decent SQL ODBC Interface. I have two dilemmas. The first is with regard to changing ddf field names. In order to be compliant with SQL standards, the old ddf files were run through a conversion program supplied by Pervasive to get them to V8. The now have a Control Center which performs consistency checks on the tables. Field names such as Date and Time fail the consistency checks unless they are changed to names like Trans^Date and Trans^Time. I modified all of the tables to be compliant. The problem occurs when you open an existing report which used the old field names. A message pops up telling you that fields were deleted or that you have to edit your filter. There is no allowance for correcting the field names or "re-mapping" as Crystal allows.____The second dilemma is with regard to the R&R Runtime environment. Until we upgraded to Version 11, we had around seven copies of R&R and/or Arpeggio. After reading about the runtime environment, we decided that we only needed two copies of Version 11 and could set up the runtime on other user workstations. The catch is with the ODBC setup. Is the native Btrieve support distributable with the Runtime via a "Network Install" as I saw in another post? If not, I have two choices. Since the native Btrieve ODBC driver can use the older ddf files with no problem, I could buy the additional Btrieve ODBC licenses and install them on the Runtime workstations. The second option is a lot more work, but probably better in the long run. Since the Pervasive SQL ODBC driver comes as part of the Pervasive SQL V8 Client install it could be installed on the Runtime workstations, however, I run into dilemma #1 above when using the compliant ddf files (this also allows us to use the Pervasive Control Center to perform adhoc interraction with the tables). The work is in checking all of the old reports for missing fields. If the fields are deleted on report opening, it makes the job all that more difficult. Any suggestions?