Sesame Database Manager?

[enlightenedby42]

Alright, this is kind of obscure but if anybody's had experience with this its the [H] peeps.

A friend's small personal water treatment company has asked if I can help them upgrade their database system. Currently, they're using Symantec Q&A 5.0 on an AMD K6 300. With NO backups, and the computer is beginning to show its age in a big way obviously.

Clearly, the machine needs to be replaced first and foremost. Problem is, Q&A doesn't like Win 2000 or XP. Some guy made a patch that supposedly fixes this, but its $50 for that alone and it seems like a pretty ghetto solution to run a business on.

The best solution I've found is Sesame Database Manager by Lantica Software. They claim, at least, that it will even translate old Q&A databses into the modern format if they're cleaned up properly, which sounds great. Does anybody have an experience with this software? If so, is it a good purchase?

Any other suggestions are naturally MORE than welcome. This one kind of could apply to multiple forums so my apologies to the mods if this should've been somewhere else. Any suggestions or feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[enlightenedby42]

bump, just in case.

 

[HammerDS]

I just saw this, so I'm not sure if you are still looking for Q&A information. If you are:

The patch you mention allows Q&A for Windows to run on 2000 or XP. If your friend is running Q&A 5.0, then he has Q&A for DOS and this patch does not apply to him.

You can find information on setting up Q&A on W2K or XP, as well as several free patches and lots of other information at the Q&A User Group website.
http://www.qaug.com/

If your friend needs Q&A help or replacement disks, PCTA took over official technical support for Q&A. He can get in touch with them and they can help him out.
http://www.pcta-usa.com/

As to Sesame, I don't want to say much about it here because I am Lantica's Technical Coordinator and I don't want to misuse this Forum. I'll just say that we are happy to answer any specific questions you or your friend might have. If he wants to see for himself, he can sign up for a live demo where they will show him the Q&A translation process and whatever else he wants to know about.
http://www.lantica.com/demo.html

 

[enlightenedby42]

As to Sesame, I don't want to say much about it here because I am Lantica's Technical Coordinator and I don't want to misuse this Forum. I'll just say that we are happy to answer any specific questions you or your friend might have. If he wants to see for himself, he can sign up for a live demo where they will show him the Q&A translation process and whatever else he wants to know about.
http://www.lantica.com/demo.html

Dude, really? Small small world.

No worries about influencing decisions, I already switched them to Sesame months ago. Using outdated, unsupported, hacked software for mission critical stuff is just bad business IMO. Would you mind fielding a few questions though?

The transition was actually really smooth. The conversion tool worked like a charm. I was just freelancing for the company I did this for, but I still help a bit from time to time. All in all I'm really impressed with the product and Lantica delivered. TONS to learn though...

So, basically there's thousands of records of customer information. What we need to do is export a name, address etc to mailing labels based on a search criteria. All I can get it to do is export a big list of information, and I have to copy and paste it all into a proper sized Office template for labels. Can you get the ODBC driver to do that into office directly? Can you do the same with another tool like Crystal Reports or something?

Obviously if this is out of scope a bit no worries but I though I'd ask since you're here! Thanks for the response, sir.

Note I haven't worked on this real real recently because I've been busy and the scenic route is working for them, but if there's a fairly simple way to do this that'd be great.

 

[HammerDS]

Obviously if this is out of scope a bit no worries but I though I'd ask since you're here! Thanks for the response, sir.

I would be a "ma'am" and I'm happy to be of help. I'm glad to hear that Sesame is doing well for you.

You can Export whichever database fields you choose. Step-by-step instructions are available here:
http://www.lantica.com/Support/sesame_onesheet_Export.html

Merging to Word (and such) is a breeze for labels and merge letters. You export your data and set up your merge doc. After that, all you have to do is export your current data to the same filename and open the Word doc. The doc will automagically merge in the current data. If you follow the link below, you will find our One Sheet reference library. On the list are step-by-step instructions for doing labels in several versions of Word and WordPerfect.
http://www.lantica.com/Support/sesame_library.html

You will see that there are step-by-step instructions for a number of other common tasks there also.

Please don't hesitate to contact Lantica Support if you or your friends have any more questions. The guys are happy to help you out.
http://www.lantica.com/Support/support_request_form.html

 

[HammerDS]

Oh, and as far as Search Criteria, tell them that it uses almost the same search syntax as Q&A. The searches they used to do should still work. What may be confusing them is that one part is opposite from Q&A. In Q&A, you tell it you want to Export, then retrieve the records you want. In Sesame, you retrieve the records first, then you can do whatever you want with the batch, such as export them. So, first retrieve the records you want, then run the export to export those records.

 

[enlightenedby42]

I would be a "ma'am" and I'm happy to be of help. I'm glad to hear that Sesame is doing well for you.

My apologies, ma'am. There's something like 3 women on this forum, so I just assumed...lol.

Thanks for the help and the prompt response. I'm impressed that you appeared on the forum and responded to that at all, even if it took a bit. I'll definitely let the people who bought the Sesame package know you guys put forth some effort to reach out. Thanks again.

 

[HammerDS]

Thanks for the help and the prompt response. I'm impressed that you appeared on the forum and responded to that at all, even if it took a bit. I'll definitely let the people who bought the Sesame package know you guys put forth some effort to reach out. Thanks again.

You're more than welcome. Let me know if you need anything else.