[olug] DataFlex

[T. J. Brumfield]

It is. They use Dataflex for all their accounting needs.

Their data are stored in .flx binary DataFlex files.

When searching for that file format, I came across Visual DataFlex,
which appears to be a programing framework centered around database
management. It even has a free Linux version. I was hoping that these
were related, and that I could use Visual DataFlex to read the .flx
files and export to a .CSV file or something common.

-- T. J.

On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 12:15 PM, adunlop<techworld.mail at gmail.com> wrote:
> We use Deltaflex as a payroll/accounting system.  Is that potentially
> the software being discussed?  If it is, it may be an ancient program
> but it really is one of the best available for a lot of accounting
> purposes.
>
> Aaron
>
> On Jun 23, 2009, at 8:45 AM, Obi-Wan wrote:
>
>>>> I have a client who has a rather old app someone wrote for them that
>>>> handles all their payroll. The client said it is a 20-year old app,
>>>> but I think it has had a few updates along the way, though it still
>>>> appears to be DOS based.
>>>>
>>>> I'm not familiar with DataFlex at all, but looking at their web
>>>> site,
>>>> you can get a personal license for DataFlex for Linux for free. Is
>>>> anyone here familiar with it? Looking at the site, it just looks
>>>> like
>>>> a development framework. If I downloaded the development tools,
>>>> would
>>>> I be able to access the data and export it to a more common format
>>>> (even tab deliminated) to try and import to another app?
>>
>> So DataFlex is the app they've currently got, or what you want to
>> switch
>> to?  www.dataflex.org is a VoIP solution provider.  That doesn't sound
>> like the same DataFlex you're talking about.
>>
>> As for leaving ancient apps:  If they want to convert all their data
>> to the new format, that may not be as simple as you'd hope.  It wasn't
>> uncommon for developers back then to invent convoluted, proprietary
>> data formats and then keep the specs private.  Exporting it then
>> becomes
>> a matter of reverse engineering it given a giant string a bytes and
>> what little you know of what type of information is stored there.  If
>> that's the case here, then exporting their data could be prohibitively
>> difficult.
>>
>> Or, they my have stored everything in tab delimited text.  It's hard
>> to
>> say for sure without looking.
>>
>> --
>> Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth
>> obiwan at jedi.com
>>   The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the
>>     Giver of all good things, so if I stand, let me stand on the
>>       promise that You will pull me through.  -- Rich Mullins
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