It is not by accident that among Information Technology (IT) professionals the highest paid are database administrators.  The importance of a business’s information and the level of sophistication needed to maintain, distribute and protect that information justifies such salaries.  Any software that can simplify or make administrators more productive will always be sought after, both by management and administrators.  Alpha Five v.5 is such a product.

Alpha Five v. 5, is a relational database product that is targeted at small to medium sized businesses, especially those companies that have not standardized on any alternative relational database. That market is currently dominated by Access, Microsoft’s relational database program.   Instead of reliance on Visual Basic as used by Microsoft, Alpha Five v.5 uses its built in languages Xbasic and Xdialog as their programming language and an immense library of tagged procedures integrated with a Script Editor.

With Alpha Five 5, and an understanding of relational database management, you can create a powerful database in minutes. Using “Genies”, the program intuitively walks you through each step of creating the database, whether it’s from scratch or with one of the over 40 pre-built applications and templates that come with the program. The process is similar to Microsoft’s “Wizards”, but generally more intuitive. You can also modify these applications and templates to suit your own needs.

A vast number of logically thought out Genies make Version 5 of Alpha Five relatively easy to use. Version 5's application scripting capability allows you to build sophisticated, customized, and highly automated applications and solutions for your particular business or organization.

Alpha Five v.5 is designed to provide you with power and flexibility in manipulating and reporting data, without requiring that you acquire extensive programming skills. There are built in Field Rules, Visual Report Writer, fully integrated e-mail, backup, integration with MS Office, security and data manipulation tools.

Alpha Five Version 5, with its built in languages Xbasic and Xdialog, was designed to maximize productivity. The major advances in Xbasic are the introduction of Xdialog (a high-level way of quickly building dialog boxes), the new multi-pane, color-coded Script Editor, the introduction of completely customizable menus and toolbars, an integrated debugger, auto-complete logic, and a smart Function Finder.  Version 5 is a legitimately significant tool for programmers and consultants who demand a database application-building tool that will allow them to produce professional applications in a fraction of the time taken with competing products.

Action Scripting, which automates over 200 different actions, automatically writes completely editable, highly structured, and fully commented Xbasic code, with the ability to switch from the menu system of Action Scripting to the Xbasic Code Editor. Additionally, OLE automation and support for Active X controls provide for totally extensible applications.

Key Improvements

The Script Genie represents an extremely significant addition to Alpha Five. It allows you to create highly customized, fully automated applications in an entirely menu and prompt-driven fashion. No knowledge of Xbasic, Alpha Five's programming language, is required to use the Script Genie.

Alpha Five now has powerful, fully integrated e-mail capabilities. The e-mail capabilities can take advantage of either the users' existing e-mail client, or the built-in Alpha Five e-mail client. Users can now send and receive e-mail directly within Alpha Five, as well as e-mail reports and merge data from tables into e-mail messages.

Improved ease-of-use and flexibility with many new Genies.

A Quick Export to MS Excel has been added.

Automated mail merge with MS Word is included.

Version 5 includes a robust security framework including passwords for individual users and groups along with permissions and table encryption.

An integrated backup and restore capability has been added which also allows you to take “snapshots” of your database at various points in time.

You can now zip tables, data sets and entire databases from within Alpha Five, and even e-mail them.

Reports can now be saved in Acrobat PDF, Rich Text (RTF), HTML, or plain text (TXT) formats.

An Audit Trail feature is now included, which keeps track of changes made to a record and when the changes were made.

Spell Check has been added throughout the program.

Searching, Filtering and Querying have undergone major enhancements, resulting in easier and more powerful ways to locate data.

Forms can now have Smart Fields that, when you click on them, open a pop-up calculator, a calendar, your e-mail client, or your web browser.

The Help system has undergone major improvements making Alpha Five easier to use.

Network optimization has been enhanced.

Xdialog Genie, a multi-pane Script Editor with auto-complete logic, color coding, auto-complete expressions, bubble help and many other features.

The capability to view the underlying XBasic code that is generated by Action Scripting, with the ability to switch from Action Scripting to the Code Editor, has been added.

Xdialog: a superset of Xbasic that allows you to create modal and modeless dialog boxes.

Hundreds of new methods, properties and functions have been added.

Add-ins provide the ability to add new features to Alpha Five.

There is now an Integrated Help Editor for creating application help.

The Xbasic debugger is now built directly into Alpha Five and executes considerably faster.

Profiling is now available to analyze how much time each line in a script is taking to execute.

OLE Automation and Active X support has been added to give Alpha Five virtually unlimited levels of extensibility.

Major improvements have been made to the Expression Builder, including auto-complete technology to help with syntax.

Intelligent Function Finder to locate functions easily


Alpha 5 v. 5 Features

Powerful Data Management

Easily Import and Export Data
Genies help you export data
Control the appearance of your data
Edit the look and feel of your applications
Customizable Menus
Precision control over Help Formats, Email Settings, Fonts
Browse, Analyze and Manipulate Data and Images
Advanced Database Security
Integrated Backup and Restore
Developing Applications in Alpha Five is Quicker and Easier than MS Access
Action Script: Power Without Programming
Action Scripting is one of the most exciting new features of Version 5. Action Scripting allows non-programmers to build custom applications as if you were a programmer.
Record Actions
Dialog Box Actions
E-Mail Actions
Fields Action Scripts
Find Action Scripting
Index and Miscellaneous Action Scripting
Control Scripts that you have developed
Manage Variables and Object Properties
Switch Between Action Scripting and XBasic
A5V5 Development Environment
Advanced Script Editor
Intelligent Function Finder
Integrated Debugger, Profiler, and Add-Ins
Global Search and Replace of Scripts and Functions
Expression Builder
Xdialog
Build Prompt-Driven User Interfaces
Smart Fields
Tab Controls
Control Column Headings and Set Up Navigation Controls
Display Tree Controls, Keypad Controls and Image List Controls
Precise Control Over Layout, Images and Text
Integrated E-mail
E-Mail and Export Data in a Variety of Formats
Create a Summary Database Using Genies
Convert Operations to Xbasic
Query Data
Intuitive Indexes Help You Find the Data You Need
Quick Sort and Filter
Run Find and Replace Operations Throughout Your Database
One-Click Integration with Word and Excel
New Form Designer
Design Genies Generate Forms Quickly and Easily
Smart Fields and a Variety of Control Types
Field Customization
Precise Control Over Buttons
Zoom to Records from Embedded Browsers
Create Event-Driven Forms with List Boxes, Combo Boxes and Radio Buttons
Run Scripts Directly from Forms and Browsers
Navigation and Object Exploration Tools
Report Writer
Full OLE Automation and Active X Support
Unique Field Rules and Data Dictionary for Rapid, Error-Free Data Entry
Advanced Network Optimization Enhances Network Performance
Spell Check and Audit Trails
Advanced Help Systems for Applications and for Documenting Your Applications
One-Click Field Statistics
Flexible use of Graphics

System Requirements

200 MHz processor (300 MHz or higher recommended)
Windows 98 or higher
64MB RAM (96MB or higher recommended)
800 x 600 screen resolution