DHES

Dear Dale,

I am currently running DH-POS Version 7.04x1 and tried to update to the current version. Unfortunatly everytime I try to start DH-POS with the new version, the conversion tool starts. I tried deleting the stocktable with the feature but even without the stocktable the conversion tool starts. What can I do?

Best regards,

Jakobus

quote from the conversion program after deleting the stocktable:

Looking for file STILGEW.IDX
Cannot find file STILGEW.IDX, cancel stock table conversion.
Looking for file STILGEW.REC
File STILGEW.REC is new version, cancel sales record file conversion.
Looking for file STILGEW.HST
File STILGEW.HST is new version, cancel history file conversion.
Looking for file STILGEW.CST
File STILGEW.CST is new version, cancel customer info conversion.
File STILGEW.REC is new version, cancel sales record conversion.
File STILGEW.REC is new version, cancel sales record conversion.
Erasing parked sales

The CONVERT.EXE program starts whenever the program detetects either a problem or an old version with either the .TBL, .CST, or .REC files. Or it may happen if some weird error occurs when looking for a problem with those files. Try making a backup of those files then deleting them. Also make sure that the network PATH is correct even of you are not using this program over a network (no network means the PATH should be blank.)

Dale

Hi Dale,

Tried it and it is the .rec file. Is there anything I can do to make it work and still have the old records running in the void list?

Thanks and best regards,

Version 7.04x is the test version for the customer accounts (like that is ever going to get done) feature. It was only a test version and never intended to be used as a regular version. For customer accounts massive changes neede to be made to the .REC file so there is no way to go backwards to the current version.

Sorry,
Dale

Dear Dale,

Thanks for the information. I am a little unhappy, but hey things happen. Thanks for the great program and the support.

Best regards,

Dear Dale,

Another question on this issue: Can I somehow export the .rec file to a different format? somethin like excel or anything else I can work with later? or is there some kind of database viewer or any other program (except DHPOS) that can read the .rec file? Any way I can open a .rec file and copy information into it? Like manually completing my previous version backup with the data since then...

Thanks and best regards,

Jake69,

Short answer, "No."

Somewhat longer answer, "Not even concievable."

Very long answer. The .REC file is a fixed length file that has compressed data so that it can be accessed randomly. This means that you can get transaction #2658 without having to read any other part of the file.

Each transaction occupies one record in the file. While some records are text (opening and closing receipts and no sales) others are compressed data. Some of the data segments (fields) are 2 bytes wide, others are 4, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, or 24 bytes wide depending on what data type is stored. Since data types were added to the file as features were added to the program many of them were crammed in at whatever place in file they would fit. Therefore totally different data are placed next to each other in the file.

Numeric data is compressed so (for example) a value of some sort saved as a long interger would always be saved as a 8 byte string. A number like 256385598522 would be saved in the file as "R%S^m!$a"

So any program that would read the .REC file would have to have the exact format of the file programmed into it. Only DHPOS has that.

However the journal has the same data (well mostly) in it as the .REC file and that is in text format. You can load the journal into any word processing program. However depending on how you save your journals you will probably have to load many journal files into one file to equal the data in the .REC file.

Dale

Dear Dale,

Thank you very much for the comprehensive explanation. I will have to live with the situation then.

Best regards,