[DUG-OFFTOPIC]: MYOB and Delphi can hitch up? Alas No!

[Paul A Norman]

Dear anyone thinking about MYOB and Delphi hitching up somehow,   A while ago I wrote to this user group that there was a publication called MYOB in the $14.95 NEXT Handbook series that seemed to answer all of my questions about Myob and Delphi connectivity. (If you're into it, you might recall that the purchasible ODBC drivers operate in a read only manner for MYOB data.)   However then came an unexpected and forgotten return phone call form an insider in the ginormous MYOB organisation.   Apparently the NEXT Aussi publishers of the booklet were not supposed to have released that booklet this side of the Tasman without the express permission of a MYOB staff member here in New Zealand.   MYOB is not intending to continue supporting some of the matters covered in the booklet, and some things that developers may have strated getting used to in Australia, for much longer. As we had not been introduced to a lot of things happening in Aussi, MYOB did not intend to even expose the information to us. Apparently some of the problem has to do with the old architecture used in MYOB which possibly even predates the entry of Delphi into the marketplace [you can work the rest out for yourself - leagcy concepts].   The whole problem of the NEXT publication arrose because the Aussi liasion man left MYOB at some point crucial to the kind of information that should have been vetted before the publishers went to print, with a version for New Zealand. Its even possible that there is only one version of the publication - the Aussi one.   The net result is that the only way to get stuff into the MYOB database from Delphi, is to get the user to do a manual import of a Delphi file dump.   I've not tried it yet.   Other methods do not accurately feed back to the Delphi prog whether any procedure has been sucecssful or not; and even checking for the existance of a certain file that is created upon sucess (by MYOB) can be misleading and give incomplete or inaccurate information, I was told.   Real COM object etc .. or whatever ..  is not envisaged for the next few releases of MYOB, again due to the current historic forms used in the actual database structure and MYOB programme access methods. 30 000 Aussi customers are happy with things as they are and MYOB doesn't want to risk suddenly making them unhappy juts to change things to make developers happier. The risk are apparently too great for a sudden move. (I am only attempting to relate what I was told by the very well placed individual.)   Since that phone call nothing has loomed upon the horizon to encourage me that another way will be found for the foreseeible future. So, if my client wants to procede in going over to MYOB, I'll have to go the file dump and  manual import way to keep his address database, and MYOB client cards in sync.   Paul A Norman