On 31 Aug 2001, at 11:53, Geoff Worboys wrote:

> > Me? Not adventurous at all, at least as far as code
> > is concerned, when dealing with fixed-price projects.
> > I find it easier to just write something to do this,
> > then if I get a newer Delphi, maybe I'll use the
> > importer as it's guts, but even then it *really*
> > depends.....
>
> Not sure I understand. Suring having the TIB_Import code already
> written it should be a simpler to work out which bits dont work in
> Delphi3 and implement a work around, than it would be to start from
> scratch.
>

I figure it would take longer to figure out the TIB_Import code, then
writing a routine based on using a DSQL component and an Insert with
Parameters, which might take a day or so. I hate trying to figure
out other peoples code, especially when I am not sure what that code
is trying to do.

The tough part is exporting the data from the format it's already in,
which is record-managed, rather then an SQL like system. If it were
something like DBase then it would be easy to do the export, but this
thing is based on a bunch of C structures, so it needs to be hand
coded, and the data needs to be re-arranged, there were 98 tables,
some of those are being merged together, some are being split into
multiple tables, and generally it's getting interesting....

I am thinking the easiest way, is to parse the structure source code
and write out a .c program (the old program is all in c) that does
the bulk of the export conversion, then add some code around it, and
modify as needed. I have a program (source) that parses the
structures for other things, so it shouldn't be too hard. It's
easiest for me, to use a format like tab-delimited, because the
client may want to look at the data between export and import, and
can use something like MS-Excel to do that.

Paul













>
> > Hmmm, I'll take a look, didn't see anything before...
>
> A lot depends on what you need. I have various transfer code in my
> own collection, but none of it will help you in D3 (some is in C, some
> in D5).
>
> I do admit that TIB_Import/TIB_Export leave some things to be desired.
> I have started to write something that saves import/export rules to a
> file, so that the same transfer can be run over and over again. I use
> this sort of thing a lot when preparing to upgrade or crossgrade
> databases. So far most of it is has only gotten to the stage of being
> useful for me, without ever getting solid enough to share. All I need
> is a few spare months :-)
>
>
> Geoff Worboys
> Telesis Computing
>
>
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Paul Schmidt,
Tricat Technologies
Email: paul@...
Website: www.tricattechnologies.com