Ask a Developer: How do you convert an app to Alpha Five from another platform?

The Alpha team recently received an e-mail from a customer with a development question. I thought it would be a great one to share with our blog readers, just in case there's anyone else out there wondering how to tackle the same project.

I have been a user of Alpha Five Version 8, and would like to convert an app from Filemaker to Alpha [Five Version] 9.

I did not see the line item "image uploads" in your grid. This was an issue with prior documentation.

I did not know if users can upload images using the Web application of Alpha [Five Version] 9. I know so far FileMaker cannot do this unless you purchase a plugin from another developer. I don't know if this plugin now works on the FileMaker 10 server, or if my host can install it without huge fees.

Please let me know about this, as I am considering rebuilding everything using Alpha.

The team sent this question my way, and here's my answer.

File uploads in a Web application can be done a number of ways, all of which Alpha can support, although all methods require a bit of coding in Alpha Xbasic.

The easiest way is to use a standard HTML input control. HTML supports a control type of file that always opens with a text box with a "browse" button beside it. Because this is a standard control, the button can not be changed or styled.

The button opens the standard file selection window on the client computer to select a file. Then the page can be submitted and the file contents captured. The entire process in covered in this Help File.

This method does not currently have Genie support to add the control to a grid or dialog, primarily because each instance is usually unique to the type of file, target location, and any file data updates that may result for the upload.

More advanced processes might require a third party upload program. There are a number of these available, although the most popular is probably Image Uploader by Aurigma. They provide an API with extensive support information. While such controls require more coding and a license, they do work with Alpha Five.

I hope this helps! Do you have a question for an Alpha developer? Send your Alpha inquiries to Jerry@AlphaSoftware.com, and you might even see it featured here on the blog.