DCT search function result set or alternative DCT utilities?

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Hi,

Doing some prep work in my DCT for a possible TPS to SQL conversion,
The search function works well, but not sure if possible to extract that result set to a text file somehow?
or
Are there any alternative DCT utilities that might help?

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one option would be to export the dictionary to a dctx text file and search on that.

Don Ridley did a " Very Simple Clarion Dctx Parser" see:

for a commercial tool, see Clarion Tools Dictionary Assistant

https://clariontools.com/dictionary-assistant/

hth

Geoff R

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Hi Geoff

Thanks for that, yes I have exported to text, and that is somewhat useful,
but on further working with the search list ,
having the list in the DCT and double clicking on it takes me to the correct table and key,
so actually works quite well.

Just a pity not to have that result list in a text file for external manipulation.
But all working well in the end

Johan

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This is what I used 20+ years ago to convert to SQL, I believe many of the functions are still useful?

https://comformark.com.au/news/converting-tps-files-to-sql/

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Hi Jeff and Geoff

Thanks for the replies and will certainly have a look when I get to the actual conversion.
However my main question was not so much on the conversion but in the managing/tools available for the DCT.
My DCT has 445 tables which has evolved over a 30 year life, so it has it’s fair share of gremlins.

The specific items I am currently looking at is in making sure all my tables are SQL ready as per Capesoft conversion docs.

Think my last problem are unique keys that “Excludes Empty Keys” and I have quite a few.

thanks

Johan

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I recall that a few years back the SQL drivers were changed to support that so perhaps it is no longer an issue??

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The templates I linked to include that sort of analysis. They can guide you in various steps, such as which tables will need converting first.

The process I recall is that you create scipts to generate the SQL tables, then you either import them into a new Clarion dct or your existing dct with new names. That might, or might not, suit your intentions.

I believe the template includes docs with some tips?

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Yes they were. Caused me no end of problems :slight_smile: There is now an extra bit of WHERE clause stuck on the end to not select null or 0 rows.

But that would be problematic for the Primary Key, which you should also have in SQL but was not alway enforced in TPS

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Hi Sean

That is great news, not sure how I missed that, suppose I have always had this mental checklist of things to sort out in my DCT.

thanks

Johan

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I would double check that it does what you think it does before celebrating :slight_smile:

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There’s ISAM to SQL that catches many details like reserved words for field names. There’s some videos on Clarion Live, search for Jim Morgan as presenter.

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We have a free template that creates the db schema from a Clarion dct and more…
Standard Product. We also have some proprietary templates that we use in consulting projects that allow you to convert to SQL without changing your dct. It makes all the necessary changes in the generated source.

Having OPT on a primary key is only a problem if you truly have records with 0 in the Identity field. The SQL driver ignores OPT. The easy fix is to populate a unique Identity in the records with a zero value. If you are missing a primary key, just add a new Identity field in key and populate the value on conversion.

The fastest way to populate the SQL database is export to a CSV type file and do a bulk import. This is 1-500X faster than doing a row by row insert…

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