Alpha Five

5.0 stars

"It is spectacular. No faster way to build AJAX DB Apps"

April 11, 2010  |   By guru_IT88

Version: Alpha Five 10.0

Pros

The productivity that Alpha Five v10 delivers compared to PHP, Perl, Ruby and Dot Net is staggering. I was skeptical at first but the grids, reports, Web Services, security & JavaScript support make for a mega fast way to build web 2.0 database apps.

Cons

The documentation is very complete but I wish that there was full printed reference guide vs it being online. On the other hand - the video tutorials are excellent.

Summary

As a developer and an IT manager, I am very excited about this tool because of its ease of use, power and flexibility in terms of letting me and my team RAPIDLY build competitive modern database solutions on the web that perform with the speed and richness that users expect.

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2.0 stars

"Great promises that fall short"

March 31, 2010  |   By imissfunemployment

Version: Alpha Five 10.0

Pros

Could be an amazing product if bugs continue to be fixed, option menus are better organized and reference materials are further developed.

Cons

*Unorganized and excessively nested option menus. *Many bugs -- often hard to determine if an issue is caused by a programmer or Alpha bug. *Gives the developer very little control over changes at the code level.

Summary

As an experienced web developer "encouraged" by my employer to learn and embrace Alpha Five as our primary web development environment, I can say with certainty that it is by far the biggest headache I have ever encountered in my career. At first, I was very excited. Alpha's promise of "rapid development" is built on some strong premises, but the reality falls far short of the vision. Alpha Five's abundant bugs necessitate a lot of "work-arounds" and the application's total lack of any kind of cohesive, centralized and conveniently searchable reference material(s) makes it a quagmire for the experienced developer who knows what s/he needs to do but needs a context for doing so. The developer further becomes inhibited and tied down by endless mazes of checkbox and pull-down menu settings, which can and often do turn normally routine tasks into potentially hours-long hunts for needles in haystacks. While there are forums available and fellow Alpha developers are eager to help, a developer does not always have the luxury of waiting hours or days for an answer. Lastly, for someone trying to decipher an existing application built by someone else, there are often numerous possibilities for where a certain feature could have been accomplished, further adding to the frustration.

I admire what Alpha is trying to do for web development, but unfortunately, it fails to deliver on its promise, making my job that much more difficult and frustrating.

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5.0 stars

"Never thought I can do all this"

February 19, 2010  |   By mmaisterrena

Version: Alpha Five 10.0

Pros

This application is great for non-programmers and for professional programmers too (you can expand the your applications by adding your own code if needed)

Cons

The documentation needs some work

Summary

I Never thought I had the skill to build a full Web-application and now I have done it thanks to Alpha Five and im not talking about a normal website in which you just have some images and stuff im talking about applications where users can submit data, search a database, generate reports an do a bunch of nit things

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5.0 stars

"The Revolution is here."

December 21, 2009  |   By peteconway

Version: Alpha Five 10.0

Pros

Awesome power, ease of use and brilliant Genie?s to build apps.

Cons

The chance that not enough people will believe how good it is, and won?t bother to try it.

Summary

If this product announcement was being made by Microsoft the whole world would be clambering over each other to get started building Web-apps. The is no product by any other organization that can deliver what V10 does from Alpha Software.

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5.0 stars

"Access Developers - Salvation has arrived"

December 21, 2009  |   By martmac

Version: Alpha Five 10.0

Pros

If you need a killer rapid database development tool to get your data to the web, the search is over. Whether you are starting from scratch or have an existing back end data file, you are in business in hours.

Cons

I've tried hard to find some, but alas I am struggling!

Summary

Having developed MS Access solutions for longer than I care to remember, I had a "road to Damascus" moment when I downloaded Alpha 5 V10. For so long I had been looking for a route from Access to the Web and Microsoft had failed to deliver other than via SharePoint, which up to the latest 2010 MS Access release was a mere afterthought.

With Alpha 5 V10, it was just one of those times when you try something and everything changes. Within a couple of hours I had hooked up an Access back-end data file and was manipulating data like never before and what was even more astounding was the fact I was doing it in a browser! I jest not when I say this is a real game changer that should have Microsoft hanging their heads in shame.

It reminds me very much of the music underground scene. You know when you have come across a band that are brilliant, but are as yet undiscovered? I know Alpha 5 has been around for many years, but this is a crossover chart album moment.

There must be thousands of MS Access Developers out there who need to look at this product. Access 2010 is forcing their development community to buy into SharePoint if they want to move applications to the Web. It's a high cost route designed to further the Microsoft bottom line. If you buy into Alpha 5 you can keep control of the cost of ownership and remove the need to employ a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

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5.0 stars

"Codeless Ajax is here"

December 21, 2009  |   By parkell

Version: Alpha Five 10.0

Pros

Quick design and deployment of Desktop and Web Application
Codeless Ajax - amazing
Great looking web apps with little or no effort.

Cons

Have not run into any obstacles yet

Summary

I have been an Alpha user for 8 years. This is the biggest leap Alpha has taken in bringing a real development tool to the table. It has come out of the realm of the hobbyist database products like Filemaker and has surpassed many of it's competitors. (or what were their competitors in the past) Alpha really gets it with this products.

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4.0 stars

"Database + Web = Alpha Five Version 10"

December 20, 2009  |   By steinmanal

Version: Alpha Five 10.0

Pros

Alpha Five is the quickest way to make a new or existing backend database available to front end users on the web. Codeless Ajax!

Cons

To do some complex functions, there is a learning curve.

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