Please Help : Custom Progress based system about to die...

J

Jamie Woods

New Member
Hi guys.
Obviously I'm a noob here and I have zero experience with Progress.
Here's the issue...
About a million years ago, the company I work for brought this Customer Service System.
It's based on the Progress Database System, and... as the title suggests, it's about to die.
The original programmer has vanished off the face of the earth...

The errors have been compiling over the years until the camels back was broken on Monday...

So it's time to "progress" to another system... but here is my dilemma...

I have a bunch of B1 and D1, 2, 3 etc.. files, which I am assuming are the data?... but I have no system to open them with to migrate the data...

I have the original Progress installation packages, but there are no serials or control codes, so I am truly, truly lost.

I would love some help on this and any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks. :)
 
Unless you have already purchased the replacement system and the question is just how to dump the data, I would suggest bringing in a consultant for a couple of days to do an assessment. It could be that a little knowledgeable help is all you need to get things going again. Moving to a new system is sure to have its painful aspects, not to mention the expense of conversion and the likely loss of data, if only because the two schemas are structured differently, so you should compare the benefits of conversion to the cost of the combination of the new system and the conversion ... and the real cost, not just assuming that your time is free.

If it is too late for that, then you should look in the directory where Progress is installed and run showcfg in the bin subdirectory. Tell us what Progress products it says are installed.

Progress version and platform are also important pieces of information when trying to get help. Version is in the version file, just text, in the directory where Progress is installed.
 
Hi Guys.
Thanks for the replies! :)

We are assuming that the system is so old that it's pointless to continue on with it... However, I am VERY open to the possibility that the system COULD in fact be repaired.
Here are the factors that I believe are inhibiting this option....

1) The Entire system is running on an OLD server... old old.
It's running windows 2000 server... which as you know, is no longer supported by Microsoft.
We've been told that due to the way the system is made up... trying to move the software to another server running a newer version of Windows is simply not an option.

2) The Custom System that was designed around Progress, as previously mentioned) is no longer supported by the developer, simply because the developer has disappeared.
This means that we don't have developer access to the system at all...

I like the idea of bringing in a consultant, but previous searches for professionals in Brisbane, Australia have been utterly fruitless (Because it's such an old system)
And I am worried that because of the 2 issues, any help we do get could be just putting a bandaid on a system that is dying anyway.

I have already looked into the option of having someone write us a program that will exctract the data from the Progress Data files and converting it into CSV... and regardless of which option we go with, this is something that I would still like to do...
If there is anyone here who is able to do this, I am very keen to hear from you.

Thanks everyone. :)
Jamie.
 
If you tell me the version of Progress I might be able to help you with this. there should be some information regarding the progress version in the <databasename>.lg file, which is the log file.

Regards,

Casper.
 
How large are the database files?
If the system is running Windows 2000 then the database is probably a version 9.something.

If the database is intact then one should be able to extract the data to a csv file.
 
Knowing the version of Progress, the information returned from running showcfg and possibly the size of the db are pretty important. An extra bonus would be the database log to provide an idea of what errors you are seeing.
 
I'd be willing to take a trip to Brisbane ;)

If that isn't practical that internet thing reaches pretty much all the way there doesn't it? ;)
 
OK, first step is the showcfg and version to tell us what tools you have to work with. Among other things, it may mean that you can just dump the data from the dictionary and work from that without any new programs. You should also look at the programs for the application and see whether you have .p files or just .r. .r is compiled, .p is source. If you have source, the possibilities are much different than if you don't.

Moving to a new platform can be very easy. The first question will be whether or not you have been paying maintenance all along to PSC. If you have, then the platform change and version change are free. If not, then you will have to rebuy licenses. But, there is a downloadable eval which you could use to test on a new system.

The difference between being in Brisbane or not for the consultant is just a question of travel expenses for any time on site. Yes, it would be nice for someone to just hop over on their kangaroo (couldn't resist!) without incurring any additional obligation, but I wouldn't let that get in the way.

What kind of platform is this on? Would it be possible for someone to telnet into the system from outside? That might allow you to get some quick help without the on-site visit. One can do a surprising amount that way.

The first thing is to determine what you have because that will determine what is possible. If you have no source and no development licenses, you are probably limited to trying to get the data out. If you have source and a development license, then there are lots of possibilities. If the latter, the first thing I would ask yourself is how well does this system work for its purpose. If it really hasn't fit the business very well in 10 years and ought to get a major overhaul even if it could be saved, then it is well worth considering replacement. If it actually fits the business well and just has a few glitches and could use a few enhancements, then it may well be worth saving.
 
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