Help, I can't open Actinic

[pinkequine]

Hi, i received the following error,

There was a problem with the database

Operation: Moving through the [ProductProperties] table where [nType] <> 3 sorted by [nSequence]

Data truncated.

Action: Contact your Actinic reseller or Actinic Support as appropriate

I cannot open Actinic, any ideas?????

[leehack]

I'd Contact your Actinic reseller or Actinic Support as appropriate if i was you.
Maybe worth searching the forum to see if happened before, i can't recall seeing it though.

[dallen]

if you have microsoft office - make a copy of the database first(!) then open the database in MS Access - then go Tools -> Databse Utilities -> Compact and Repair Database.

Hope that works for you...

[Jan]

You will need to contact Actinic or your reseller and see if they can fix this for you - the message is saying that you have a product property that is too long, the only way to fix it up will be to find it and make it shorter in the database.

Regards,

[pinkequine]

Hi, compacted the file and it made no difference

I compacted Actinic Catalog file and it compacted it ok, but it still doesn't work.

[dallen]

As Jan says then, "the only way to fix it up will be to find it and make it shorter in the database".

If you're happy to make database amendments (NOT RECOMMENDED!!!) you can open that table, find the product that has the spurious data in it and try to change it (shorten it). You should only do this if you are VERY familiar with the Actinic Database - any changes you make can make things worse...

Probably better to "Contact your Actinic reseller or Actinic Support as appropriate"...

[pinkequine]

Hi Jan

Actinic really were not very helpful, wanted to put me through to sales to buy the cover!

As regards the actual error which field should I look in to fix ( I have already copied the whole actinic file elsewhere in case of problems)

would the error be in ntype or nsequence or somewhere else in the file?

[pinkequine]

The dump file is not much help either it looks encrypted, either that or its jut gobbledygook

[TraceyHand]

Were you making a duplicate product when it crashed?

[Mike Hughes]

You can get online support from Actinic without subscribing to cover. Just register the request here: http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/register.htm

Mike

IIRC Actinic support are supposed to tell you this. I wonder why they didn't?

[RuralWeb]

Actinic really were not very helpful, wanted to put me through to sales to buy the cover

Well you cannot expect them to do it for nothing - thats the idea of cover. If you dont have a support contract with your designer/reseller then when things go wrong and you need help you will have to pay.

[leehack]

Denise

Whatever you do, can i give you a firm suggestion to steer well clear of the database, no seriously i mean it, steer clear for heavens sake.

[pinkequine]

I do appreciate that you pay for cover if you need help with using Actinic, e.g. setting up, design, useage. These are all things that if you read the manual or take advantage of this really great forum, you can find out for yourself.

However if there is a problem with the actual program, and something corrupts then don't you think it would be reasonable to have at least limited advice for critical situations.

I use many other software packages and none of them corrupts, to be honest the amount of times Actinic crashes on me is unbelievable, I find I am always having to compact and re-compact databases if I make any changes.

This software was not cheap and I feel if it has problems like this, then it should be the responsibility of the people who designed it to make sure it works properly.

Of course, if they did find that it turned out to be my problem that had taken up their time, and not the software itself, then I should expect to pay for their time.

But if the software itself is corrupt, I don't actually think this is very fair.

[dave_finlayson]

I have to say I have never understood why, when an issue like this causes so much bother, Actinic don't just make it impossible to enter too much information in that particular field! Or am I missing the point?

[leehack]

Oh come on Denise that is one of the most one-sided arguments i've ever heard. 1000's of people use actinic and i cannot ever remember seeing the same problem before. It's not rocket science to work out you yourself have buggered something up, you've been fumbling around with things for quite some time. I'm not against that at all, it's how we all learn, but if you trash it and can't fix it, you gotta be prepared to get your hands down to your ankles and part with some cash.

A support contract is a great option for you at this time, V9 will be launched in next 12 months probably, so you will get a free upgrade also.