Hello all!

I have a question about transferring data from an existing database, for Fredrik or users who might be able to help.

I performed a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium last week on my computer which had been running XP Pro. My main SoftCAT database, from the previous OS, had about 280 programs in it. Currently I only have 46 programs that I am keeping in a new database - that's all that I have reinstalled so far, and I will not be installing all that I had previously. Some of the programs on XP Pro aren't Windows 7 compatible, and some I just prefer not to install, at least not just yet. I'm going to try to keep this installation a bit leaner that the last!

Anyway I created a new database and ran the auto-catalog tool to start building the database quickly. Many - actually most - of the 46 programs presently installed were installed on XP Pro and thus are already in the previous database. I would like to transfer the data from the old database to the current one, but only for the 46 programs that are in this new database. IOW, I don't want to bring over all of the programs in the old database. I read up on transfers in the Help file and started configuring the transfer. Initially I tried selecting most of the data fields available to transfer except the program field; nothing seemed to have been transferred, at least no data that I could find. So I tried again, this time selecting Programs>Marked, hoping like heck that "Marked" referred to the programs marked in the new database. Of course it did not and all of the programs in the old database were transferred. So I deleted the now ruined new database and created another new database. Now I haven't tried to transfer any data yet. The Help file is pretty darn sparse regarding just how to properly configure such transfers.

Does anyone here know how it works? That is, somewhat better than me? Do I need to open the old database, individually mark each matching program there and then transfer? I would hope that the program could match up the programs; perform a basic comparison between the two datasets and determine which data items exist in both databases - and then transfer the associated data from the old to the new. However I cannot find a way to do that. Is SoftCAT only able to transfer all data? Or do individual data items have to be manually matched? Transfer one data item at a time?

A little help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

Jim

No, this is the marked program in the database you are transferring _from_.


You can transfer either all programs, or the marked programs. However, the data you transfer is not merged with existing data in the new database. Instead new records are created. This is how the Transfer function works in all the CAT programs.

Yeah... just found that out before you posted...



OK. Guess I'm stuck with that for now. Thanks Fredrik.

BTW, I have a couple more questions; not sure if I should post them in this thread. I think I'll post them separately because the subject won't match.

Thank you.

Jim