[sari]

I provide support for a company that uses a system that is written on a Btrieve platform. It's a client/server system, so the database resides solely on the server. The application has been around for a very long time, and while it's updated fairly often, it still has a strong DOS feel to it, and when installing, it actually asks if this is a peer-to-peer network (Novell or Lantastic), or WFW (yes, Windows for Workgroups). This gives you an idea of how long this app has been around. Here's the issue - we're getting an increasing number of btrieve errors that are causing us to run the recovery program provided in the system. Every time we do this, we run the risk of losing data. Sometimes there is so much corruption we lose a lot of records - we're missing line items on a number of quotes from several years ago (and yes, we still need this data), and while we have paper backups, it's time consuming to retrieve them. Yes, I perform backups, but this is a quotes/order entry system, so it's constantly being updated. Even with shadow copies, I have the potential of losing several hours worth of data if I use the shadow copy.

This is my question - I want to push the company's owners to upgrade to a newer system that has much more of a Windows interface, as well as many capabilities that the current system hasn't yet implemented. Is Btrieve becoming obsolete? Is it possible that we're encountering so many errors now because their development is not keeping up with newer technology and platforms? I don't know much about database architecture, so it would help me make the case if I had more concrete arguments that I could give for upgrading. I've done some Google searches on this question, but haven't been able to gather enough information from that, so I thought I would ask here.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

[Advertisements]

Could you answer a few questions first?

1. What OS is their server running?
2. What version of Btrieve are they running?

Edited by stettybet0, 21 October 2007 - 08:01 AM.

[stettybet0]

Could you answer a few questions first?

1. What OS is their server running?
2. What version of Btrieve are they running?

Edited by stettybet0, 21 October 2007 - 08:01 AM.

[sari]

The server is Windows Small Business Server 2003. I'm not sure what version of btrieve the application is based on - that information isn't available on the website or through the program.

It does seem odd to me that when we were running on a Windows NT Server platform several years ago, with only a 4gb hard drive (yes, you're reading that correctly), we never seemed to get errors. Now we have the Windows Server platform, we seem to get errors with increasing frequency. We've been on this platform for 2 years, and it wasn't initially an issue, but I've noticed that the program has some incompatibilities with Office 2007 also, which haven't been effectively addressed as yet, but it's part of what's leading me to think that they're just not keeping up with newer platforms.

[stettybet0]

Here are my thoughts on this:

Btrieve was renamed to Pervasive.SQL in 1996 (and then to Pervasive PSQL in 2005). Since you are referring to it as Btrieve, this seems to indicate that the version that you are using is from before 1998. In fact, I would think you are using the 1995 release of Btrieve (version 6.15), designed for Windows NT and Windows 95 (This is the most recent release of Btrieve that is not branded as Pervasive.SQL). Therefore, it's no surprise that you are experiencing incompatibilities with an OS released 8 years later.

I would recommend upgrading to the latest version of Pervasive PSQL, Pervasive PSQL Summit™ v10. Not only does it have backwards compatibility with files from your version of Btrieve, but "Vendors using Btrieve can achieve significant performance gains by changing file versions from 6.x to 10.x after upgrading to PSQL." Source: Wikipedia


Of course, all this is based on my assumption of the version of Btrieve you are running.

Edited by stettybet0, 22 October 2007 - 03:18 PM.

[sari]

Well, I'm referring to it as btrieve because the files are named with .btr extensions and there are still btrieve executables. I have no control over updating to any other versions, because the software is written and maintained by the company that created it. We actually are trialing new software that accomplishes everything that we're doing now, and then some (and then a lot, actually); it is a Windows-based system that provides interoperability with Outlook, Word, and other applications, and my recommendation is going to be to leave the other antiquated system in favor of this one.

[dsenette]

Windows-based system that provides interoperability with Outlook, Word, and other applications,

and that would be? (being nosey i guess)

[sari]

It's specific to the lighting industry: http://www.ingensoftware.net/

[dsenette]

......who knew there was enough of a market to make something that specific hahaha

[sari]

Not only is there enough of a market, but there's enough to support competition. You learn something new every day.