Personal Oracle7 Database

Hi,

I hope someone out there can help me with this because I am stuck......

I have a v7.1.3 database running on an HP9000 E25, which is accessed by a Forms 4.5 application. This works fine except ....

My client requires that a duplicate of the main database is held on laptops which are used in the field. These laptops contain runtime versions of Forms and Reports and a Personal Oracle7 Database. This is where the problems start.

I need to start up the local PO7 database upon startup, so I created an icon in the Windows 3.1 startup group which contained all the command line parameters to start up the database. This works fine, except that there is no indication given that the database has finished loading, (remember that in interactive mode the traffic light turns to green), given that I have an icon available to start the application there is always the possibility that the user will click the application icon to start it prior to the database finishing loading - this is fine except that it causes a GPF to be raised if the database has not finished loading. Not the same GPF, just what ever .dll happens to be loading at the time the application icon is clicked.

The client does not wish to purchase VB/Oracle Power Objects etc to do the controlling and no third party desktop with a windows batch language (Norton Desktop for example).

So how do I do it - if at all ?

The next problem relates to importing and exporting data from the PO7 database to the central v7.1.3 database.

I need to do the import/export in batch mode on the laptop, so that the user sees nothing. However when you create an icon to do the task with all the parameters the import/export insists on displaying a modal dialogue box that requires the user to click 'OK'.

Short of having a messy windows script (like Recorder) to mimic the mouse/keystrokes I can see no way of circum-navigating this problem.

Please enlighten me if you know the answer - my already thin hair is suffering.....

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