Posted: March 03 2004 at 22:43 | IP Logged

Dave, I have version 1.02.2.2 installed in a directory. I installed new PH version 1.03.3 that I downloaded from the web site, into another directory. I ran new version of ph and it said database was 1.02.2.2 needed to be upgraded. So I ran the utility I got from the website and it reports the following. bad runtime function reference at line 20 in function f_decodepass of object phupg.... do I have a problem having both versions installed?

Posted: March 04 2004 at 00:13 | IP Logged

Nick,

They should be able to work independently but you'll definately need to uninstall the 1.03.1 runtime and instead install the 1.03.2 runtime.

If you installed the new version of PH into a different directory, then the pwrhome.ini file in that directory should point to the 1.03.2 database that was installed with PH version 1.03.3.  You can open the pwrhome.ini file and verify what database its pointing at.  If you want to upgrade your 1.02.2.2 database, you should copy it from the 1.02.2.2 directory and overwrite the database in the 1.03.3 directory.  You should then be able to run the upgrade utility.  Be sure that PowerHome is shut down (all versions) and that the Adaptive Server Anywhere program is not running.

BTW, I reread your message and it said you ran the phupg program you downloaded from the website.  If its the phupg_1022.zip then that version is ONLY for databases 1.02.2 and prior.  The phupg.exe that will upgrade a 1.02.2.2 database is automatically installed in the 1.03.3 PowerHome directory when you installed version 1.03.3.

To recap:

1.  Uninstall PowerHome Runtime Environment 1.03.1

2.  Install PowerHome Runtime Environment 1.03.2

3. Verify that the pwhrome.ini file in 1.03.3 directory points to the database file in the 1.03.3 directory.

4.  If you want to upgrade your 1.02.2.2 database, copy it from the 1.02.2.2 directory to the 1.03.3 directory and overwrite the file that is there.

5.  Run the phupg.exe file that was installed in the 1.03.3 directory.  If this file was overwritten by the phupg_1022 upgrade utility, then you'll need to uninstall version 1.03.3, delete all remaining files in the 1.03.3 directory and reinstall 1.03.3.

Let me know if you have any problems.

Dave.

Posted: March 08 2004 at 19:15 | IP Logged

I thought that I'd better catch up so I just installed 1.03.3 and being very careful (I thought) I ran into the same problem as Nick. After reviewing Dave's response to Nick I moved my 1.02.2 database over manually and ran the phupg1022 that I downloaded because I have 102.2. Running this gave me the "Bad runtime function" error. Hmmmm! I then ran the phupg that was automatically included with Installer (Run Time Env or Executable). That worked. What a relief when  I started up PH and there were my macros etc.

1.03.3 looks pretty sharp. Anxious to spend some time with. <SCRIPT language=javascript>postamble();

Posted: March 08 2004 at 20:23 | IP Logged

Pat,

Yeah, all these version numbers are confusing.  The phupg_1022 will upgrade any previous database version TO 1.02.2 which is the minimum version required to use the phupg that is included with 1.03.3.

I used to try to make the phupg program able to handle every database version and upgrade it to the latest, but it just started getting out of hand.  So with the latest utility I decided that it would just upgrade from the last version and I'll keep on hand all of the upgrade utils in case someone needs to upgrade from an older version.  The phupg_1022 is the last version that handles all database versions.

On another note, the new phupg utility included with PowerHome 1.03.3 not only upgrades but is an excellent Rebuild utility for your 1.03.2 database.  Over time, your database file may get quite large.  What happens is that the database file starts out small (approx 1 meg) and as items are added to the database, the file will grow dynamically (usually due to the eventlog).  Even if you delete items from the database, the actual filesize will not be reduced.  What the phupg utility will do is use a the base clean database and copy all of your data into it, giving you a new freshly rebuilt database.

Now don't think that you need to go out and rebuild your database every week.  The database file growing is a natural and normal thing for databases and the Adaptive Server Anywhere engine keeps the database well maintained automatically.  But if you ever needed to email a problem database for me to take a look at, I would empty the eventlog and rebuild before sending so that the file would be reasonably sized.  The one thing that I would recommend is to use the ph_trimeventlog to keep your eventlog down to a manageable size.

Another note while were talking databases...the ph_backupdb function is handy for normal database care.  Your pwrhome.db file is a very important file containing all of your macros, triggers, events, registration, etc. and would not be a fun file to rebuild if something ever happened.  So, quite rightly, people will want to periodically make a backup.  The problem is, if PowerHome is running, you can't just make a copy of the database file because it won't work properly since PowerHome has it open and the copy will be corrupted.  So, before you copy it, you would have to shutdown PowerHome, copy the file, and then restart PowerHome.  Kind of a pain for a program trying to make your life easier.  This is where the ph_backupdb function is handy.  This function allows you to make a backup copy of your database file WITHOUT shutting down PowerHome.  You could even schedule PowerHome to do this for you automatically on a periodic basis and have the system create the backup filename based upon the current time and date.

Sorry for such a long post and didn't mean to ramble .

Dave.

Posted: March 08 2004 at 22:55 | IP Logged

Dave,

thanks for the information. It really helps to understand what's going on with the db.

ph_backupdb is a great help. Now I can abandon the schedulor, scripts etc. and stay with the PH environment for backup tasks.

PatC <SCRIPT language=javascript>postamble();