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Clarion to Access 1

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TCJ

Technical User
Feb 24, 2002
1
AU
I have a program that uses a topspeed database (.TPS), and I would like to be able convert/export it to Microsoft Access.
Can anyone in here tell me what to do?
 
Well, To import / Export TPS/Access Files, we need a format supported by both applications, vgr. DBASE...

From Access to TPS:
1. Open the Table ya want to export in MSAccess and Export it into a Dbase IV file!. (File->Export->YourFile.dbf)
2. Go To Diccionary Editor and open a newone.
3. With the New Diccionay open go to File->Import->YourFile.dbf
3. Copy The file, Change the Driver to TPS and Rename it!
4. Select the DBF file, and Click on Browse button.
5. Go to File->ConvertFile
6.
Source Filename = C:\Convert\YourFile.DBF
Souce Directory = C:\Convert\YourDiccionay.dct
Source Structure = CustumerDBF
Target Filename = C:\Convert\YourFile.TPS
Souce Directory = C:\Convert\YourDiccionay.dct
Target Structure = CustumerTPS
Generate Source = C:\Convert\CONVERT.CLW

7. Go to File->Open->Convert.prj
8. Open Convert.CLW in External Source File
9. Asing the DBF Fields to TPS Fields on:
AssignRecord ROUTINE
If ya maked no changes to the file estructure, Just Click on Run button!
10. File Export done!.

For Import/Export from TPS -> Access Do the inverse!.

Regards -----
carabez@hotmail.com
 
you need to create an ODBC NDS that points to .TPS files. Once created, all you have to do is open access, create an access database, select "file", "Get external data","import" and change the file type to "ODBC()".
You will then get a list of files and your .tps tables should be somewhere there. Just import them.
Creation of the .TPS ODBC drivers is where I fall down, so you will need some help (and the .tps ODBC drivers)
 
Oops!- Missed a step.
Once you select "ODBC()" as the file type, a pop-up screen will be displayed, showing all the ODBC .dsn files. "Topspeed.dsn" should be listed.
Select it and then you'll get your list of .tps tables to import.
Be prepared to have a coffee break - my topspeed files takes six minutes to import, and I'm using a macro listing to import them!!
 
You'll find a ODBC working application that shows how to interconet MS Access97 with Clarion in IceTips's ftp server:

ftp://ftp.icetips.com/pub/old_stuff/access97odbc2.zip



bye. -----
carabez@hotmail.com
 
Ei, I'm in the same problem that TCJ, and I think some don't understand all the problem. I do NOT have Clarion. I don't know nothing about Clarion, and I don't want to do nothing with Clarion. I only have an application that uses .tps files, and I have done all the way looking what this extension means. It's so discouraging that everybody points to and this server is unavailable (to me, at least).

Now, I am only looking for a ODBC driver that reads data from tps files, without installing nothing more.

I have found one at SoftVelocity ( but it costs too much and I haven't found demos or warez about it. If it needs clarion installed, then I'm so wrong...

Well, I'll keep trying. Thank you for the help!

Mario.
 
Please help me too.

I have a working MS Access\VBA program, and I want to access the data from a clarion file. My normal method is to output a delimited file that I import into the necessary tables in MS Access. I have not found a way to do this that creates a clean file without any extra bad characters.

My next thought is that I would like to use an ODBC type of connection. The only problem is that the files are not a .TPS extension. It is a .DAT.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

Spencer
 
Speno:

A solution was posted earlier regarding this issue. You can Export to .Dbf which is a better format or You can do a DDE.

DDE is slow, very very slow and you need to have MS Access loaded and you need to know the Key codes used by MS Access inorder to do it. If by chance you know Clarion and there's this Free template that you can down load from LOCUS but i think it only supports ver. 5.0 and up.....not so sure about other versions. I have the ver. 5.0 copy and there's an option which allows you to export your data as text(plain text from so which remove's extra char.)

I hope this can help you.....


Cheers!

vins
 
Hi all,

I am contemplating writing an import routine within MSAccess that reads the information in the .DAT files as binary input. I believe I can work out the file lengths, record and field sizes as well as the field names from the .DAT files.

If I go ahead with this can anyone see any obvious problems that I might have. How likely is it that the file layouts change between versions of Clarion?

TIA

Matt Terroni, UK
 
Well, ok... I need to convert a .dat file into a .dbf as you told before, but so I need to have Clarion installed, and I haven´t found any trial version or whatever... do you know where can I find it, or a program capable of doing this conversion?

Thanks a lot
 
PMFJI,
If the DAT files are of the CPD Dos version then find a developer with the ccvt.exe program, it is a data converter for ACSII<->ClarionDAT<->dBaseII

HTH
 
I have the .tps ODBC driver, I link this files to an ACCESS file but when I try to update any data I can not save any change...
 
There is a Read-Only driver, perhaps that is what you have installed.

HTH
 
Hi gearhead!

I've tried the ccvt.exe program, and it seems to be exactly what I was looking for, but when I try to load the .dat file I get the message: &quot;invalid input file&quot;. The file musn't be corrupted as I can browse it without problems with the clarion application that generated it.

Any idea?

Thanks a lot

 
The Clarion DAT file format changed around CPD 2.107(8). The utility that you have may be for the &quot;other&quot; version. If you have a CPD application run the program from the command line with /! as a parameter it should return the build number. Once you have that we can search for the correct ccvt.exe file.

HTH
 
Hi again gearhead:

I've run the application with /! but it didn´t gave me any version or something... The only information I have is that the exe file was created at the beginning of 1992. Anyway ccvt.exe is suposed to be capable of reading older versions (ccvt.exe help says that the program will detect version 1 data files and in such case it will prompt a message to notify the user).

I'm going crazy with this!

Thanks again for your help
 
Oops! use the ! alone after ccvt.exe (no slash) it should return the build number. If the file is indeed corrupt there is not much chance of any stock tool reading it. I suppose one could hexedit the header to make sure all the bits were in the appropiate locations. That would require the file layout which I've not been able to locate recently.

...


 

Ah, ok!

The version is 2.1 and the release 218A.

The problem is that I don't know the version of Clarion with which was made the application that generated the data I want to migrate to Access, and I can´t discover it... The fact is that the Exe file (the Clarion application) was last modified in June 1992 and the ccvt.exe I have, was last modified in March 1992, so it's possible that the data format could be newer than the one that my ccvt.exe supports.

On the other side, I'm sure the data can't be corrupted, because I can read it perfectly with the clarion app (ANDRES.EXE is called) that generated all this data.

well, I keep on searching, thanks again gearhead!
 
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