Upgrading RoboHelp Database

[wizardmatt]

My RoboHelp project has reached monsterous size, well over 37,000 topics. The MS Access database originally installed just is not cutting it anymore. I need to change from the current MS Access on to a SQL Server setup but cannot found out how, minus deleting the current engine and setting up a new one, which I am affraid would damage / destory or hurt my current system. I only have a small timeframe for the upgrade.

Any suggestions if its possible to just have the engine change or point to a new database?

Thank you in advance.

[Peter Grainge]

Am I understanding you right here. You don't want RH to use the CPD database which is an integral part of RH, instead you want it to talk to an SQL server database? That's called re-engineering the product and would breach the licence, if you could indeed hack the program to do that.

Let's look at other options.

First you could try deleting the database and letting RH create a new one. Click here. Obviously heed the warnings and back up first. That will have the effect of compacting the database.

However, I would say one project of 37,000 topics is way to large and you should be considering merged help. This topic describes how to create merged webhelp. Click here. There's also something about splitting an existing project but it's no five minute easy task.

[RoboWizard]

Hi all

Peter, I'm just making an educated guess here, but I think wizardmatt is referring to the RoboEngine. I'm basing this assumption on the fact that:

1. It's possible to host RoboEngine (I believe) on a SQL server. But it requires some sort of a connectivity pack or kit.
2. wizardmatt mentions "the current engine".

Again, I stand to be corrected here, as wizardmatt also mentions the MS Access. I don't think RoboEngine uses MS Access. But I could be wrong about that.

Sincerely.... Rick

[wizardmatt]

The engine itself sets up a standard MS Access database as default but also has the option to setup a connection to sql or oracle 7+ database. When I set up the engine it provided me the option to choose, at the time the scoop of the project was much smaller. I cannot now figure out how to change / convert to the sql database setup, without deleting the engine. I can delete and reinstall the engine but am a bit worried it could cause issue with my current project. The persons responsible for archiving / deleting have been reallocated for now and I do not have the authority to remove the information without their approval. I will look into the merged project piece but it will be difficult to convert over to, mainly because my company loves to move things around the TOC and even rebuild it at times which causes maintance issues with the merged projects as it will be harder to find the original child parent project should I need to remove the document completely.

I have all the time I want / need for making the upgrade / changes, but my front end user site is what cannot be down for long, back end changes are not time limited.

[Guest]

RoboEngine does in fact use Access as the default database. There is no built in way to convert the access database over to SQL or Oracle. I have never done this conversion myself, but you might try these url's:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=237980
http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/27433
http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/notes/technote_access_migration.html

Good Luck!

[wizardmatt]

Thank you guys for all the help, am having to rebuild the server anyways to meet business needs, so will get frisky and see about converiting it backend.
Thanks for the help though.