Opera 3 SQL SE bespoke development

Evening, all,

Has anyone on here done any significant Opera 3 SQL SE bespoke development, in particular porting Opera 3 clasic bespoke to Opera 3 SE bespoke?

Just wondering if there is a relatively easy process for recreating classic bespoke in SE, or is it really a re-write from scratch?

We have a quite a large number of classic bespoke projects, and I can't say that I'm looking forward to porting the majoroty of them over to SE.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Kind regards

Steve

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alan-bourke

Steve, I've only really looked at what would be involved in this with a couple of our multi-site projects to try and get a feel for it. I would say that it depends quite a lot on the project.

We have various projects that mainly use the Importer to update Opera from CSV or similar and outside that just have a simple parameters table and a runtime form - these would be quite straightforward to bring to SE. I would even use the VFP Class Browser to just copy the existing form(s) into the new SE bespoke.
We have projects that just extract data from Opera - to CSV, XML etc for third party systems, and also for custom reporting - again these have little or no update of Opera data and since they use library functions like SQOPEN() etc would be relatively quick to redo for SE.
Then we have quite a few very large projects like SEPA Direct Debit extract to XML - due to data volumes on some sites I would only entertain doing the extraction part of that as a .NET server-side process as it takes multiple hours to run for these sites as it stands. So - big rewrite there.

I wouldn't say 'from scratch' in most cases, and a lot of the time it would be mainly redoing the data dictionary and the parts that actually retrieve and commit data.

0904020838324254.pdf

Steve Loader

Thank you, Alan,

That is most helpful, and pretty much confirms the scope of the work required

One rather schoolboy question - how would I use the VFP Class Browser to copy a form from one project to another? Not something that I've ever done before.

Many thanks

Steve

peter

Hi Steve

I have done quite a lot of SE development, both converting O3 VFP and new projects.

I would sum it up by saying that although converting VFP to SE is not a complete re-write it is not that quick.

Creating the initial project isn’t that quick but you can copy PRGs and VCXs from VFP to the new SE project Classes folder and use the rebuild project wizard to get the main project setup. Then update the VCXs to use the SE controls instead of VFP, I do this via a REPLACE statement in VFP for speed. You then need to convert all the DBFs in the project DATA folder (forms.dbf, commands.dbf etc) to the new SE project, this can be quite slow. Finally, creating the data structures in the SE DIT is slow and I haven't found a quicker way of doing it.

Once you have got to this point you need to check every form, process, command etc. and update it to use the Data Manager. Initially this seems straightforward but in reality, to get reasonable performance you end up having to change the way that data is managed. For example a VFP SEEK() is very fast but DM_SEEK() is incredibly slow and I avoid using it wherever possible. This means several code changes to make it work efficiently.

Finally, if you have any requirements to update large volumes of data, you will probably find you need to completely re-write the update process.

I hope that helps.

Pete

colin-avey

Hopefully the attached may be helpful to some. I ended up writing some functions o migrate the data dictionary to SE dev.. It was never meant to see the light of day, outside my office, so normal caveats apply. Be kind (i haven't tidied it up), don't blame me and share any fixes:)

HTH

Colin

[View:/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/35/makese_dev_table---20231123131106.zip:320:240]

peter

Thanks Colin, I'll try that with the next conversion.

BMF_Entwurf_20120321.pdf

Steve Loader

Thank you, Pete,

That is very informative, although confirms my first thoughts that the classic to SE bespoke is anything but straight forward

Given how hard Pegasus are pushing Opera 3 SQL SE, you would have thought that they might have developed some tools to make at least some of the process a little easier.

Kind regards

Steve

Steve Loader

Thank you, Colin,

Looks like I've got to rewrite my first attempt at SE bespoke, so I'll give it a whizz.

Much appreciated

Steve

alan-bourke

It's a piece of cake compared to going from Opera 16 bespokes to Opera II way back when

Steve Loader

That "old" chap, I don't doubt

Fortunately, I was head-down developing Capital Gold at the time of Opea 16

Steve

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