ASTRO astrojet II plus, Installation And Operating Manual

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2. The ODBC database vendor should be encouraged to index their database (on
the first column ascending). The index may be packaged as part of the database
file, or as a separate index file – depending on the format of the database.
3. The users can index the database themselves. To do this, you will need a
database management program for the database type you have. For example to
index an Access database (*.mdb files) require Microsoft Access, and to index
dbase III, IV and V (*.dbf) use Microsoft FoxPro.
4. Use sufficiently small ODBC databases that this effect doesn’t affect printing.
If the database has been saved in the ODBC format there are additional safeguards that
have been added to the layout Editor and Control Panel to warn you and offer a means
of changing the database and improving the performance of the system. The following
solutions have been programmed into the AstroJet Image Blaster software:
1. The Layout Wizard generates a warning when an ODBC database has been
selected. There is no way for the Layout Editor to determine if the database is
indexed, so the user is warned of the potential consequences of selecting an
ODBC database.
2. The ODBC to CSV converter was added to the Layout Editor, so users have a
viable alternative to using ODBC databases directly.
3. A timer has been placed in the Control Panel that monitors ODBC reads. When
reading of a record exceeds a threshold, the Control Panel stops the job with a
timeout error.
Converting ODBC Databases to *.CSV (Comma Separated Value Format)
To convert an ODBC database to a Comma Separated Value file, use the following
procedure:
1. Create a new project, or open an existing project in the Layout Editor that uses
the ODBC database you wish to convert. For purposes of this discussion, the
example will be “MY SAMPLE.DBF”.
2. From the “File” menu select “Convert Database”.
3. A wizard is started which tells you the conversion is about to occur, and that it
may take awhile. It also tells you the converted database will be stored in your
databases folder, under the current name with .CSV tacked on the end. In
example the output would be “MY SAMPLE.DBF.CSV”.
4. Press “Next” to start the conversion, or “Cancel” to quit. If you start the
conversion, you will not be able to interrupt it – the process will continue until the
conversion is complete.
5. Exit and restart the Layout Editor. From the Startup Wizard select “Modify an
existing project with a replacement database”. Work through the wizard and
select the converted database, in this case “MY SAMPLE.DBF.CSV”.
6. You can ignore the warning about database structure, because in this case the
structure will be identical.