Upgrade Macola 7.5 103f on Pervasive 2000i to 7.6 400x 1

[PappyMiller]

thread639-1426590
I need to upgrade from 7.5103f to at least 7.6.400x and stay with Pervasive. Running SBS 2003 on server and XP-Professional on all workstations. Also, Crystal 7.0.1.200. I read where jdmiller had made this move back in late 2007. Can anyone advise the migration path and problems encountered. We are using a Peak OE2PO enhancement that allows generation of POs from sales entry using the same order numbers for both SO and PO since all of our sales are drop shipped and we hold no actual inventory. Also any necessary upgrades to Pervasive and/or Crystal.
Many thanks...

 

[randva1]

just curious.
why do you NEED to upgrade?

 

[PappyMiller]

7.5.103f is buggy and there is no support or fixes. The only reason we did not stay current was the OE2PO generation item which is now a part of the standard Progression package. Are you implying that a move to 7.6x or 7.7x is not worth the effort as far as functionality? I am not one to try to fix something that ain't that broke!
Thanks,

 

[dgillz]

Pervasive 2000 is not supported - even by Pervasive. If you have SBS then you should consider going to the SQL Server version of Macola. If you need to stay with Pervasive you should upgrade to v10.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, Synergy, and Crystal Reports. Check out our Macola tools:

http://www.gainfocus.biz/exceladdin.html

 

[PappyMiller]

What is the advantage of MAcola SQL vs Pervasive?

 

[dgillz]

Well SQL is a lot more secure. Pervasive/Btrieve is a file based database. Anyone with Macola access can literally walk into your office with a flash drive, copy your arcusfil.btr file onto it, and boom! They have your customer list. Worse still, a disgruntled employee can delete the data files.

SQL does not work that way, there are only 2 files, a log file and a database file, for each company in Macola. These files are kept busy by the SQL server itself, so you cannot easily copy or delete the data, and access to it is kept seperately in SQL Server Management Console.

SQL server is about 500x as fast as Pervasive in terms of Crystal Reporting. I have literally seen reports that took 3 hours in Pervasive that run in 10 secends in SQL.

The user interface is nearly identical, so almost zero training will be required. Also Pervasive is going away in the Exact world. I have only 3 Pervasive customers left and I am moving them all to SQL at the present time.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, Synergy, and Crystal Reports. Check out our Macola tools:

http://www.gainfocus.biz/exceladdin.html

 

[PappyMiller]

Your insight and advice is greatly appreciated. I am concerned about downtime from this upgrade since we have so far to travel version-wise. Any advice on steps, precautions, testing, etc. would also be appreciated. We are a small biz. My Macola data file is only 3.64 GB with the largest file OEHDRAUD.BTR being 541,342 kb.
Thanks,

 

[randva1]

Mr. Miller:

We still run 7.5.102e. Of course our company philosophy is: if it works, don't fix it.

Versions 7.5.xxx are no longer supported, but what bugs are motivating you to change? Is there a reason you believe you need maintainance?

I did go through an upgrade evaluation in 2008 and learned two or three things I will share here. Please note, these are just my opinions & observations:

1. The upgrade process involves more than just upgrading Macola. There is the database issue. (I'm a microsoft hater!) Then you will probably have to upgrade some hardware. And maybe even crystal.

1.a. If you upgrade past Crystal 8.5, then the file formats change. Any reports created with the new version will be un-readable by an older viewer. Also, I have had some trouble with Crystal 11 understanding older reports (Ver. 6, 7 or 8 - I am not clear on which)

2. Macola will work with you on back maintainance fees. Be sure to ask. $.

3. Other than incorporating Peak Data System tools, I could not see very much difference in the new version vs. the old software.

We elected not to upgrade for business reasons. But if forced to upgrade, I think there is only a 50/50 chance I would stay with Macola.

 

[PappyMiller]

Randva, thank you for your input. We have a few issues with how the AP module works when cancelling vouchers etc. but basically we can work around any bugginess in 7.105. I am concerned about opsystem compatibility with Windows 7 et al as we move forward. I understand that the type of licensing for Crystal changes after 8.5 which is a negative. Although an increase in report generation speed would be a real plus as mentioned in an earlier post regarding SQL. I am quite concerned about the amount of (down) time it may take to work through all of the upgrades. I am still interested in getting more opinions. Thanks...

 

[randva1]

Win7 is a non-issue.

I run a virtual XP machine in Windows 7 and Macola runs just fine in that.

 

[PappyMiller]

Reasons for change are dwindling!

 

[dgillz]

There are literally tons of new screens and functionality in the current version of Macola versus your 10+ year old version. To argue staying where you are makes no sense to me.

When eventually you are forced to change you will pay a real premium for the expertise and time to upgrade you. I am updating a couple of people from the DOS version this month and it is a pain.

The downtime you are worried about will only get worse, never better. Currently you could be updated over a weekend with no down time.

I am unfamiliar with what you are talking about in regards to crystal, can you elaborate?

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, Synergy, and Crystal Reports. Check out our Macola tools:

http://www.gainfocus.biz/exceladdin.html

 

[PappyMiller]

The crystal issue was referred to in this thread from 2007 thread639-1378405 and discussed seat based licenses versus report generation licenses. The last post in the thread was pretty thorough in his explanation.
Thanks

 

[dgillz]

OK now I got it. This in my opinion is a total non-issue unless you have modified your ICRs. The ICRs for the latest version of Progression will be in crystal XI and they will run regardless if you have crystal XI or not as the report engine is embedded in Macola.

If you want to DESIGN or MODIFY any of these reports, you will need Crystal XI, a single user copy which is $500 from Exact or cheaper online.

If any users need to run these new or modified crystals outside of Macola, you can get a crystal report viewer to do this, they are very cheap and there is even a freeware version out there somewhere.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, Synergy, and Crystal Reports. Check out our Macola tools:

http://www.gainfocus.biz/exceladdin.html

 

[randva1]

My point about crystal was this:

I already use a viewer for many of our custom Crystal reports <= version 8.5. I bought Crystal XI and found:

1. XI will not run some of my older reports.
2. My existing report viewer will not run Crystal XI reports.
3. Viewers are fairly low cost. Maybe $30 per user. The free viewer from Crystal (called Crystal Viewer) is useless to us because it will not allow a user to change a parameter value on refresh.

 

[dgillz]

More on crystal:
1) I have never seen a 8.5 report that would not run in any higher version. What did not work?

2)The free viewer from Crystal is useless, however that is not the viewer I recommend you use. The free one (if you have to have free) is here:

http://www.groffautomation.com.

Personally I'll pay $25 or $30 and use Ido Millet's DataLinkViewer -

http://www.milletsoftware.com

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, Synergy, and Crystal Reports. Check out our Macola tools:

http://www.gainfocus.biz/exceladdin.html