File Structure Recovery - HELP please

[northman]

I need to know the file layout of an old version but unfortunately the source backups are not available. I get Error 47 trying to access the old database with the new version. It is not possible to convert it because the client is still using the old version and does not wish to migrate to the new version. I have a copy of the old database that I must use, but again no source dictionary layout. Is it possible, or is there an utility to recover the structure?
(Please anser YES - ha)
Thanks
Serge

 

[MarkGoldberg]

Hi Emad,

Which file format?

For Clarion - see the old CPD utils, like CFIL,CSRT,CSCN
For Topspeed - see TopScan (then use File->File Layout)


HTH,
Mark

 

[northman]

Hi Mark
Thanks for your reply.

I am using Version 4 for Windows, and I can not find the utilities you mentioned.

Serge

 

[MarkGoldberg]

Hi Serge,

CPD = Clarion Professional Developer
it's the early early DOS version of clarion, the utilities for the clarion (.DAT) file format were only shipped with CPD.

The last version of CPD was 2.1
with numbers like 2.110, my favorite was 2.18A

Note: If I'm not mistaken, between 2.19 and 2.210 Clarion (this was before Topspeed & SV) changed the Key Structure to a balanced B+Tree. However the keys are in seperate files Yada.K01, Yada.K02 etc... you can delete these files and most programs that use the .DAT will automatically rebuild the keys. Later versions of Clarion use the newer key structure.

Also note that MEMO's were held in a seperate file. Yada.MEM, so if you're archiving the data make sure you keep the .DAT AND the .MEM

To get the version number from one of the utilities, use a command line argument of !
for example:
C:\> CSRT !
The CLARION Sorter - Version 2.1 Release 2110


Note: the utilities were written before long filenames (LFN), they may fail when you try to run them in folders with LFN and are pretty much guaranteed to fail on basenames that don't match the 8.3 rules

Also I've seen CSRT them partially fail on NT, leaving the temporary file names present. So Yada.DAT is left as Yada.T01 (T Zero One)-- simply archive the original .DAT and rename the .T01 to .DAT (if a T01 already exists, then you'll get a .T02)

They were not shipped with later version of Clarion
CFD Clarion for Dos) (version 3)

CDDW Clarion Database Developer
-- early Clarion for Windows
-- versions 1.0 and 1.5

CW Clarion for Windows
-- versions 2.0, 4.0, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3

I'd have to double check with SoftVelocity, but I'd like to believe that it would be ok to post the CPD Clarion file format utilities.

HTH,
Mark Goldberg