I wonder if anyone has experienced any DBISAM Refresh problems when
running apps under Vista?  I am a bit shamed to admit but I am one of
those that still have old 3.30 version doing the DB stuff.

My app has for years used TDBISAMTAbles and Queries to show data on
screen and then write it to database. I also routinely use FlushBuffers
after Post to flush the data to disk. To dig out several Reports I
mostly use Queries.

Now at least one of my client using Vista on a brand new 2.5GHz machine
with 1 GB of RAM has several times reported that the newly written
Orders data does not show up on these reports.

The queries are very simple, like:

 AQuery.Close;
 AQuery.ParamByName(aDate).AsDateTime := StrToDate(ediFrom.Text);
 ...
 AQuery.Open;

Beside FlushBuffers, I do not know if there are still some extra methods
how I could force DBISAM to either ensure that the Vista's buffers are
written to hard disk.

And doing Query.Open, that probably is the strongest method to get the
Query to fetch the freshest possible data from inside Vista. For
instance, doing Query.Refresh after the Open operation, AFAIK it should
have no extra refreshing effect.

I am not able to re-produce this behavior on any of my (two) Vista
machines. Also exactly the same code has run for years on XP machines.

So do not even know for sure if there is some problem. Yet that client
keeps calling me and it's a bit annoying.

When we go the Report creation operation through by phone, he is doing
everything right. And some of the newest Orders saved really seem not to
appear there. Yet I am not 100% sure about this while I am not able to
see his screen through the phone

Even closing the app and re-trying does not brig them visible. Only
after some minutes or so they finally do appear to the reports.

The Tables are accessed in the "old" way here, no C/S mode, and this
client is even single user, no network.

If I asked the client to try clicking "Compatibility mode XP SP2" switch
that Vista offers as Properties to my app. The client reported this had
no effect with this refreshing problem.

So, I am more asking if anyone else has experienced anything like this
happening with Vista?

I also wonder if here are any other who dislike Vista? I don't straight
hate it, but I surely do not like it either.
Unfortunately it starts to be very difficult even for business clients
to find XP machines from computer stores. You'll just have to try to
live with this Vista fact.

Markku Nevalainen

Markku


Can't help you with this problem but Vista is far nicer (not prettier though) to use if you turn off UAC and all of Aero apart from smooth screen fonts.

Roy Lambert

Markku,

<< Now at least one of my client using Vista on a brand new 2.5GHz machine
with 1 GB of RAM has several times reported that the newly written Orders
data does not show up on these reports.  >>

Where are the tables being stored ?  If they are being stored in the Program
Files directory or any other "protected" directory, then Vista will not
write to the actual tables:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1640353&SiteID=1

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Markku Nevalainen wrote:

<snip>
>
> When we go the Report creation operation through by phone, he is doing
> everything right. And some of the newest Orders saved really seem not
> to appear there. Yet I am not 100% sure about this while I am not
> able to see his screen through the phone

Hi Markku

I'm not able to help you with the problem itself (have avoided Vista
like the plague so far and am also an ancient v3.30er.  However I can
highly recommend Remote Assistant from www.contextsoft.com which helps
"you see the screen through the phone" - well the internet actually.

We have built it into our application by installing a
RemoteAssistant.exe and preconfigured .cfg and having a Help menu event
like this:-

procedure TmainForm.mnuRequestRemoteAssistanceClick(Sender: TObject);
var
 sPath, s: string;
 iniRemote: TIniFile;
begin
 sPath := sStartInDir + 'Utilities\';
 iniRemote := TIniFile.Create(sPath + 'RemoteHost.cfg');
 try
   s := iniRemote.ReadString('RemoteHost', 'User', '');
   if s = '' then
   begin
     s := Common.UserName
       + ' at ' + apmDM.CompanyTableName.AsString
       + ' ph: ' + apmDM.CompanyTableDayTimePhone.AsString;
     iniRemote.WriteString('RemoteHost', 'User', s);
   end;
 finally
   iniRemote.Free;
 end;
 s := sPath + 'RemoteHost.exe';
 ShellExecute(Self.Handle, 'open', PChar(s), nil, nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL);

// =====RemoteAssistant.cfg======
// [RemoteHost]
// Address=xxxyyyzzz.dynalias.net
// Port=1973
// ==============================

end;

It is invaluable for poking around in someone's system when something
odd is happening, you can't understand the user's description of a
problem or can't reproduce it yourself.

Perhaps that might help in the future.

Cheers and good luck with the current problem.

Jeff

--
Jeff Cook
Aspect Systems Ltd
www.aspect.co.nz
+
Joan and Jeff Cook
The Cooks Oasis
www.cookislandsoasis.com

Roy Lambert wrote:
>
> Can't help you with this problem but Vista is far nicer (not prettier
> though) to use if you turn off UAC and all of Aero apart from smooth
> screen fonts.

Thanks, I also heard that UAC trick some months ago. Turning it off made
those endles confirmation queries to stop and saved at least some parts
of my nerve system.

I still can't stand that terrible Vista slowness on a 2.5 GHz 1 GB
machine.
They seriously say I would need 2 GB to get the operating system to
run

Markku Nevalainen

Tim Young [Elevate Software] wrote:
>
>
> Where are the tables being stored ?  If they are being stored in the Program
> Files directory or any other "protected" directory, then Vista will not
> write to the actual tables:

No, I am an old school man. I routinely always make my apps to install
directly to the root, like C:\MyApp

I wonder if Vista's need to run some DBISAM apps in  'XP Compatibility
mode' is totally solved already?
I have found some simple Queries won't work under Vista if that mode is
not turned on. I may take a closer look what exactly makes the
difference, if this is in some way open or important queston?

Yet my original problem probably was not related to this matter.
It _may_ have been some Vista ghosts at that client only. I was just
curious to hear if anyone else had found anything similar with Vista.

> http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1640353&SiteID=1

This was an interesting link. I have found similar looking peculiarities
with File Stamps and Vista, and even directly in a directory under Root
dir.

Markku Nevalainen

Jeff Cook wrote:
>
> highly recommend Remote Assistant from www.contextsoft.com which helps
> "you see the screen through the phone" - well the internet actually.

Thanks for the link. Yet right at this moment their site seems to be
totally frozen.

> It is invaluable for poking around in someone's system when something
> odd is happening, you can't understand the user's description of a
> problem or can't reproduce it yourself.

I wonder if that brings yet some extra usability when you have that
compiled inside your own executable? I mean compared for instance to
UltraVNC or something. http://www.uvnc.com/

We have used UVC in some cases. But we have not been able to get the
self installation package at the client's site to be completely
reliable.

Markku Nevalainen

Markku Nevalainen wrote:

> Jeff Cook wrote:
> >
> > highly recommend Remote Assistant from www.contextsoft.com which
> > helps "you see the screen through the phone" - well the internet
> > actually.
>
> Thanks for the link. Yet right at this moment their site seems to be
> totally frozen.
>
> > It is invaluable for poking around in someone's system when
> > something odd is happening, you can't understand the user's
> > description of a problem or can't reproduce it yourself.
>
> I wonder if that brings yet some extra usability when you have that
> compiled inside your own executable? I mean compared for instance to
> UltraVNC or something. http://www.uvnc.com/
>
> We have used UVC in some cases. But we have not been able to get the
> self installation package at the client's site to be completely
> reliable.
>
> Markku Nevalainen

Oh!

www.contextsoft.com seems to be up and running now - at least viewed
from this end of the world

We have also tried various other "VNC" products, but this the one we
decided to go with as it was so simple.  We haven't really built into
our executable though, I expressed myself poorly - just started it up
form the main forms help menu.

We install it just once (the install being just the copy of the .exe
and the .cfg) onto the server machine where we also store the only
instance of our application .exe.  The application self installs the
Remote Assistant from the server on start up or on the install of a
later version of RA.

Cheers

Jeff

==================================================
This is how we self install on the client machines, sAppPath is the
path to the application on the server, sStartInDir is the "Start In" in
the program shortcut.

 // Copy latest version of RemoteHost.exe and .cfg from server
 ForceDirectories(sStartInDir + 'Utilities');
 s := ExpandFileName(sStartInDir + 'Utilities\RemoteHost.exe');
 s1 := sAppPath + 'Utilities\RemoteHost.exe';
 if (not FileExists(s) and (sStartInDir <> sAppPath))
   or (FileExists(s) and (FileAge(s) < FileAge(s1))) then // no local
copy or local copy is old
 begin
   CopyFile(PChar(s1), PChar(s), False);
   iniRemote := TIniFile.Create(sStartInDir +
'Utilities\RemoteHost.cfg');
   try
     // save local user details from .cfg
     sRemoteHostUser := iniRemote.ReadString('RemoteHost', 'User', '');
   finally
     iniRemote.Free;
   end;
   s1 := sAppPath + 'Utilities\RemoteHost.cfg';
   s := ExpandFileName(sStartInDir + 'Utilities\RemoteHost.cfg');
   if FileExists(s1) then
   try
     CopyFile(PChar(s1), PChar(s), False);  // copy latest .cfg
     iniRemote := TIniFile.Create(sStartInDir +
'Utilities\RemoteHost.cfg');
     try
       iniRemote.WriteString('RemoteHost', 'User', sRemoteHostUser);
       if iniRemote.ReadString('RemoteHost', 'Address', '') = '' then
         iniRemote.WriteString('RemoteHost', 'Address',
'999.999.999.999');  //Put support's IP number or URL here
     finally
       iniRemote.Free;
     end;
   except end;
 end;
--
Jeff Cook
Aspect Systems Ltd
www.aspect.co.nz
+
Joan and Jeff Cook
The Cooks Oasis
www.cookislandsoasis.com

Markku Nevalainen wrote:

> We have used UVC in some cases. But we have not been able to get the
> self installation package at the client's site to be completely
> reliable.
>
> Markku Nevalainen

Have you tried UVNC single click? It allows you to "compile" a custom
helpdesk application. You just send a small exe to your client (or
provide a link to it). It won't install anything, and it will leave no
traces on the client machine after ending the session.

http://www.uvnc.com/pchelpware/sc/index.html

HTH

--
Robert.

Whatever you are, be a good one
===
http://robertcram.blogspot.com

Markku


Another "trick" is that (at least on my Vista PC) even though I disabled M$ firewall the service was still starting. I went through the entire startup list and disabled a number of things. Vista now runs 2 - 3 times faster.

Roy Lambert