Peachtree

[Tom Metro]

David Backeberg wrote:
> Ideally, from the perspective of me supporting her, she would use a 
> "real" database like PostgreSQL or MySQL as the backend and she could 
> keep on using Peachtree as a frontend. 

I have a client that uses Peachtree and as a result have had occasion to 
look into how it stores its data in order to recover from corruption. 
What I found is that it uses Pervasive Software's Btrieve as the 
database via direct file I/O, not through a database server.

While it's possible that Pervasive Software's libraries might offer a 
point where you can wedge in an ODBC driver to talk to some other 
database, I tend to doubt it. I don't even think Btrieve uses SQL.

So effectively the Peachtree front-end and back-end are inseparable. 
Peachtree may have a higher-end product for which this isn't the case.


> I would then be able to setup cron, mysqldump, bzip2, mkisofs, etc.
> to provide online, reliable backups and recovery.

While the Peachtree application does have the ability to generate a nice 
packed and compressed archive of its database, my research showed there 
was no way to automate the creation of the backup. It can only be done 
manually via the GUI (or using a third party tool to automate the GUI).

However, you should be able to place the Peachtree database onto a samba 
share, where you'll be able to access the raw database files without 
fighting Windows' overprotective file locking.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/