LinkEase Fault Reporting

No software ever produced is ever fully bug free, and LinkEase is no exception! However, LinkEase has undergone months of exhaustive testing and exposure to hundreds of Users. LinkEase works well under most normal circumstances. Unfortunately, obscure faults can rarely be fixed permanently unless they are reproducible and testable. If problems are experienced, the following information will enable Hill Croft Information Technologies to reproduce the problem and produce a timely fix:

The Windows version that is running.

The release of LinkEase that is failing. Perhaps 52 or 53, or a patched version.

The version of LinkEase that is failing - 16-bit or 32-bit?

The version of DataEase used to create the database that LinkEase is trying to access.

The disk location of the database.

The network software that is running.

The front-end application that has exposed the problem.

A copy of the ODBC trace file.

The results of using Microsoft Access to interface with the same database via LinkEase (Access 2 for the 16-bit version and Access 97 for the 32-bit version).

A speedier response can usually be obtained if a cut-down version of the database can be forwarded that demonstrates the problem and has few tables, and few records in the tables, together with clear instructions about how the problem can be reproduced.

There are three particular types of problem that are commonly reported, and Hill Croft Information Technologies has provided diagnostic tools to deal with each one:

The first problem area is initially getting LinkEase to interface correctly to a front-end application. This is usually caused by a misunderstanding about how to install LinkEase and define a Data Source Name. In these circumstances, ODBCinfo.exe can be run to analyze the ODBC setup configuration and create a diagnostic file, ODBCinfo.txt, which should be forwarded to Hill Croft Information Technologies. ODBCinfo has one mandatory parameter, a DSN. e.g. ODBCinfo "LinkEase Test Database".

Sometimes, LinkEase fails without an error message being passed on by an ODBC-compliant application. A LinkEase option can be set which forces any error message to be immediately displayed by running regedit to add the line, "Display Errors=True", to the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE] [SOFTWARE] [ODBC] [ODBCINST.INI] [LinkEase ODBC Driver for DataEase] section of the Windows Registry.

Another problem area concerns the validity of the ODBC SQL submitted to LinkEase, which is often different from the SQL displayed by a front-end application. The ODBC trace option can be set to trace all ODBC API calls to LinkEase, including the SQLPrepare and SQLExecDirect functions which receive ODBC SQL statements. However, the ODBC trace files can get very large, and considerably slow down processing. Alternatively, a LinkEase option can be set that will create a debug file, SQL.dbg, in the root directory that only traces the SQL calls. The SQL trace file can be activated by running regedit to add the line, "SQL Debug=True", to the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE] [SOFTWARE] [ODBC] [ODBCINST.INI] [LinkEase ODBC Driver for DataEase] section of the Windows Registry.

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