Loading ADS in 2.0

[omni]

One question on where to run the ads server. This client has 100+ users, all connecting to their remote terminal server. All our dll files and menu are on this server. All the data files are on the data server.
They are thinking that the ads should be loaded on the remote server where the dll files are. I was thinking it should be on the data server where the files are or it would not help.

What is correct?

Thanks

Fred

[rdonnay]

Ads should be running on the data server.

[Cliff Wiernik]

It must be running a a server where the data is. The data drives must be on the server where ADS is located. Otherwise you cannot connect to the ADS server. And if you have multiple database servers, you need to create a connection to each database server and manage the connections when you open the files.

Cliff

[PedroAlex]

How do I know the cost of the ads server 10
users e.g.

Thanks.

[Cliff Wiernik]

I'm not in the office so I do not know my pricing list. But original purchase license 5 users is 795-895 and 10 users bit bit less than double that. I don't have my price list available at home.

Cliff

[PedroAlex]

Cliff.
Many thanks.


I have an application in DBF / NTX.
Some customers are asking for more speed in special on network enviroments.
I have been studying the possibility of moving to ADS.
What should I careful in this migration?
Should I change the DBE for DBF / CDX or FOX/CDX ?
What commands and functions should have special attention ?
Who has experience with ADS can give some tips please?

Many thanks in advance.

[Tom]

What should I careful in this migration?

Make sure you only use the ADSDBE if the ADS is really in sight. If working with threads, use the ADS-session as the default session in every thread, so you only need one connection.

Should I change the DBE for DBF / CDX or FOX/CDX ?

Do this anyway if possible. FOXCDX is much more stable, faster and easier to maintain. And you get rid of all OEM-conversions in your app. Even if your app is in ANSI mode now, your data is OEM with DBFNTX, so it get's translated by the DBE with every access. If your app IS OEM, it's translated again for the GUI. With FOX, everything can be in ANSI, and no conversion is needed anymore. Your app will be faster.

What commands and functions should have special attention ?

Not much if you only want to "use" the ADS. Take care of the connection and it's configuration. This is a small block of code. If you want to be smarter and faster, take a look at the ADS filters, at the data dictionary and stuff like this. You may even use SQL directly in this situation - Roger has excellent samples for this. But with the first step, you only need a few lines of code.

Who has experience with ADS can give some tips please?

Depending on the network situation, the speed improvements will be not that big when using ADS without special functions and/or the DD and other stuff. But stability and data consistence will increase dramatically. ADS is a very good choice if you don't want to move to SQL. You may even hide all data, since the ADS can run with other rights on the server. If you do that, you must change more code, since functions like "File()" or "FErase()" won't work on tables anymore.

Addition: The ADS will not accept wrong datatypes when searching for data using indexes, but the other DBEs do. So, if you have an index on "number" (which is a number) and you do a seek with "Roger" on that index, the other DBEs will not raise runtime errors, but the ADSDBE does. We found several programming errors with that.

With the ADS - even without the DD -, you have the chance to track user and database activity even on other workstations. This is not possible with the standard DBEs. There is a set of functions which allow to show open tables, locks, active users and so on. This is a great benefit in big networks.

[Cliff Wiernik]

How do I know the cost of the ads server 10
users e.g.

Thanks.

The current list prices for ADS that I have are:

5 user - $650 USD - $130/user
10 user - $1240 USD - $124/user
15 user - $1850 USD - $123.33/user
20 user - $2450 USD - $122.50/user
25 user - $2725 USD - $109/user
50 user - $3699 USD - $73.98/user

As you can see, the price drops are significant and drop at the 25/50/100/250 user levels. After 250 it is unlimited. The only upgrade costs are from one version to the next and are much lower. for example, the upgrade costs (you cannot skip versions) are 5-$165; 10-$305; 25-$660; 50-$920.

We are an ADS reseller but ADS is available through a variety of resellers.

We have been using ADS since version 5 with clipper. We changed from DBF/NTX to DBF/CDX at that time in order to get the automated scoping capabilities and to provide mainly reliability. In the windows environment, if the application freezes, you do not get corrupted dbf files or cdx files. You may get bad data due to an incomplete transaction but the dbf file is not corrupted. Plus with CDX, you only have one index file in most cases.

Use in Xbase through 2.0 and up to ADS v11 (have not yet tried version 12) work well.

Cliff

Cliff

[PedroAlex]

Tom and Cliff.
many thanks for answer.
On the nest days I will study this issue.

Just one more question?
To migrate DBF/NTX to FOX/CDX is enough rebuild the index files with the new Dbe (fox/cdx) or I need to convert the dbfs too?

best regards.

[Tom]

Recreate the tables (headers and fields are different)! Take care of the ANSI/OEM settings, since FOX is able to reflect this, while DBFNTX is always OEM. If your app is in OEM, the tables will be created in OEM if you use DbCreate() and some append mechanisms. In most of the situations, OEM tables (DBFNTX) should move to ANSI. Set you app to ANSI, create the new tables. Take care of the ADS settings for this.