Reading BTR Files

[Icelizard]

I am looking to extract data from a few btr files which were previously read from a program called easymail i believe this for an old piece of postoffice software converted for the needs of my client. It has just recently stopped working, I don't appear to have the DDF files so i downloaded BTsearch to create them but it is asking for The Btrieve Drivers not really sure where to get or what to do with them.

Any suggestions on this problem or a different way to read the information in the file?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[dgillz]

BT search will allow you to create .ddfs, but you must know the file structures in order to do this. Do you know them?

Even the btrieve drivers cannot read the files without the ddfs. Btrieve 6.15 was a free database engine, I would guess you could search some freeware or abandonware sites to find it.

If it just stopped working, can you not find the .ddfs on one of the machines it was working on?

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

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"What version of URGENT!!! are you using?

 

[mirtheil]

Actually, Btrieve 6.15 was NOT freeware. It was a paid software but had unlimited redistribution rights when included in a software package.

If you need a Btrieve engine, you might try downloading the trial version of PSQL (current version of Btrieve) from Pervasive's web site (

http://www.pervasive.com).

Mirtheil
Certified Pervasive Developer
Certified Pervasive Technician

http://www.mirtheil.com

 

[Icelizard]

I would i could they just aren't there, the folder contains loads of .com, .exe and .bat files:
EMBT.com
EMBT.exe
matrix.com
ub.exe
SETSCRN.exe
BTRIEVE.exe
CCMOVE.exe
BCLEAN.exe

CCONTROL.sys
MAILFAST.ccc
SYSTEM.1ST

Does any of this mean anything to you?

I know the rough structure of the file but not too much only by examining the .btr files in notepad

 

[mirtheil]

Because the program is very old, you probably don't have DDFs. Btrieve itself does not need the DDFs. You only need DDFs if you are going to use ODBC (or other relational access).
BTSearch is a Windows program and the app you've got is DOS based so BTSearch won't be able to access the Btrieve engine. You'll want to download a trial version of the PSQL engine from Pervasive's web site (

http://www.pervasive.com)

to get BTSearch working.


Mirtheil
Certified Pervasive Developer
Certified Pervasive Technician

http://www.mirtheil.com

 

[Icelizard]

Are there people out there that i could send a .btr file to and get them to extract the data into another format e.g csv?

 

[Icelizard]

Also i managed to get btsearch to open, and when trying to create the DDF like in the tutorial i select the btr file then get the following message "btrieve error 3012 with operation 0"

This mean anything to you guys?

 

[mirtheil]

The 3012 means that the engine cannot be found:
http://www.pervasive.com/library/docs/psql/870/code_msg/code_msg-2-569.html

I'm sure there are people that could take a file and extract the data. They would need the record structure to do it right though.

Mirtheil
Certified Pervasive Developer
Certified Pervasive Technician

http://www.mirtheil.com

 

[grnelson]

The full message for that error is below.

What version of Pervasive did you install. Make sure you install the workgroup edition. Once you get the Pervasive engine up and running you should be able to open the file in Btsearch. There is a video of creating a DDF at

http://www.nssdd.com/support.html

which may be able to help you in analyzing the data structure. Once you have built the DDF files it will export out to CSV format which you can move into about anything else.

Gil

3012: Local engine is not accessible to the MicroKernel router
Access to the local engine is not possible because it is not loaded or could not be launched. You can receive this status code if you try to access a local file on a client and you do not have a Workgroup engine installed or if you try to access a local file on a server and the Server engine is not running.

If you have only a server engine installed and your Pervasive Event Log (PVSW.LOG) contains Status Code 3012 warning entries, perform the following steps:

To Turn Off Local Engine support (for clients and workstations only):

Click Start4Programs4Pervasive.SQL V84Control Center.
Expand Pervasive.SQL V8 Engines and expand the desired database.
Expand Configuration, then expand Client, and click on Access.
In the right hand frame, double-click on Use Local MicroKernel Engine, change the Current value to Off, and click OK.
In the right-hand frame, double-click on Use Remote MicroKernel Engine, change the Current value to On, and click OK.
In the right-hand frame, double-click Target Engine, change Current to Server only, and click OK.
In the left-hand frame, expand Client-16 bit and click on Access.
In the right-hand frame, double-click Use Local MicroKernel Engine, change Current value to Off, and click OK.
Make sure the Use Remote MicroKernel Engine value is set to on and that the remote engine is set to accept remote requests.
Exit the configuration utility and restart the engines for the new settings to take effect.

 

[Icelizard]

thanks for detailed response i will that and see what i come up with

 

[Icelizard]

Also....

I downloaded a version 10 i wouldn't let me install "PSQL v10 Server for Windows (32-bit) only the client

I am running Vista

 

[mirtheil]

You should download the WOrkgroup ENgine rather than the server if you are going to be working with the data locally. THe client can only access data on a remote machine that's running a PSQL engine. The download you need is "Pervasive PSQL Summit v10 Workgroup Edition for Microsoft Windows".


Mirtheil
Certified Pervasive Developer
Certified Pervasive Technician

http://www.mirtheil.com