• Speed
• Browse
• SQL Connectivity
• Web Security
• Product Tour

This page contains links to the entire Alpha Five video library. Videos use Adobe Flash, which you will be prompted to download if it is not installed. (Requires a high-speed Internet Connection 768kbps or better).

If you prefer to watch these videos offline, Alpha has now made them available as a 2-disc set at no charge. You will only pay our standard shipping and handling charges for the CDs.

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Videos are rated as follows:

Beginner - Suitable for beginners.
Intermediate - Suitable for people who have moderate experience with Alpha Five.
Advanced - Suitable for developers, programmers and Alpha Five experts.
New for Version 8 - Indicates video deals mostly with features in the newest version.

Use these links to jump to a particular category:

• New for Version 9
• Tutorials
• Desktop Application Features
• Web Application Features
• SQL and Backend Database Features
• Speed and Performance

For a list of videos that deal exlcusively with new features in Alpha Five Version 9, visit our Videos of Selected New Features page. This is a collection of over 50 short videos (less than 5 minutes each) recorded by Alpha Software CTO, Selwyn Rabins.

Tutorials

Getting Started with Alpha Five	This beginner's tutorial shows you exactly what you need to know to create databases, tables and forms. It also covers some advanced form design topics to make your applications look great. By Dave McCormick, (2007).	25:00 minutes	Play
The Alpha Five Report Writer	This tutorial shows you exactly what you need to know to create reports. It shows you calculations, totals, graphics, how to divide records into groups, and more. Suitable for beginners and intermediate users - you will create a sophistcated report from scratch. By Dave McCormick, (2007).	45:00 minutes	Play
Web Based Contact Manager: Part 1	See how to build a web based contact manager using Alpha Five. Part 1 of 2. By Jerry Brightbill, Alpha Five Programmer (2007).	15:52 minutes	Play
Web Based Contact Manager: Part 2	See how to build a web based contact manager using Alpha Five. Part 2 of 2. By Jerry Brightbill, Alpha Five Programmer (2007).	24:26 minutes	Play
Adding PDF Reports to Web Applications	Using the Web Based Contact Manager as an example (see above), this video shows you how to add reporting to your web applications. Reports are generated as PDFs and are streamed to the client's browser. By Jerry Brightbill, Alpha Five Programmer (2007).	16:40 minutes	Play
Building a Web Application using SQL Data	Do you have data in Access, MySQL, SQL-Server or Oracle? This video shows you step-by-step how to connect to an SQL data source. From there a web page page is built for viewing, entering, updating and deleting data. You learn everything you need to get up and running in under 10 minutes. By Dave McCormick, Alpha Five Expert (2007).	7:40 minutes	Play
Desktop Application Features
New Desktop Features in Alpha Five Version 8	Covers the newest desktop application features in Alpha Five Version 8. Originally presented as a live webinar in March 2007. By Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2007).	21:58 minutes	Play
Browse Features	Shows you how to make great looking tabular views of your data, using the latest tools in Version 8. By Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2006).	10:47 minutes	Play
Calling Companion Forms for Embedded Browses with Action Scripting	Embedded browses let you show child records from one to many relations on the form of a set. In this video you'll see a new feature that (using Action Scripting) lets you easily call a companion form to drill down and see details about a selected child record. By Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2006).	2:40 minutes	Play
Web Application Features
New Web Features in Alpha Five Version 8	Covers the newest web application features in Alpha Five Version 8. Originally presented as a live webinar in March 2007. By Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2007).	33:00 minutes	Play
Web Security System	Alpha Five has a new security system for protecting your web applications. This rights-based system allows you to assign usernames and passwords, assign users to groups, and define which group of people are allowed access to which data and pages. By Jerry Brightbill, Alpha Software Programmer (2007).	8:21 minutes	Play
Arguments (filters) in Grids	When a user opens a page containing a grid, the data in the grid can be prefiltered using arguments. These arguments can be specified ahead of time or prompter for on the fly. Previously this required programming, but can now be done with point and click. By Selwyn Rabins, CTO Alpha Software (2006).	4:22 minutes	Play
The Multipurpose Web Application	The Multipurpose Web Application is an prebuilt ecommerce product available for sale in the Alpha Online Shop. The application was created entirely in Alpha Five. In this video, its creator takes you on a tour of the application to show you how it works. By Jerry Brightbill, Alpha Software Programmer (2006).	19:00 minutes	Play
Client-side Processing	Alpha Five allows you to create web applications in which calculations, validations and changes to the display of data can be processed by the client (web browser). This feature speeds your applications since fewer server round trips are required. By Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2006).	3:12 minutes	Play
Flexible Web Dialog Component Layouts	Web dialog boxes are no longer constrained to one-field per line layouts. In the video, you will see how they can be customized to create great looking web interfaces. By Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2006).	8:19 minutes	Play
Real World Web Application: Shaw Millworks	Take a look at a real Alpha Five application currently in daily use. Shaw Millworks uses Alpha Five to track CAD drawings for cabinetry and molding for high-end homes. By Bob Moore, Micromedia Studios (2007).	13:29 minutes	Play
SQL and Backend Database Features
Alpha Five Version 9 Speed Camparison with Access and Filemaker	When dealing with large tables, the performance of Alpha Five is significantly better than that of Microsoft Access or FileMaker. This video demonstrates benchmark tests performed by Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2008).	3:00 minutes	Play
New SQL Features in Alpha Five Version 8	Covers the newest SQL features in Alpha Five Version 8. Originally presented as a live webinar in March 2007. By Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2007).	14:00 minutes	Play
SQL Command Window	Alpha Five's SQL Command Windows gives you quick access to data in any ADO/ODBC compliant database. Its point and click query builder means you do not need to know SQL to create and execute SQL queries. By Selwyn Rabins, CTO Alpha Software (2007).	7:39 minutes	Play
Database Explorer	The Database Explorer gives you a tree view of the tables and fields in both your local databases and remote (SQL) databases. By Selwyn Rabins, CTO Alpha Software (2007).	6:57 minutes	Play
Passive Linked Tables	Passive linked tables give you a snapshot of data from an SQL data source. This is especially useful for creating reports. By Selwyn Rabins, CTO Alpha Software (2007).	10:25 minutes	Play
Databases from Access and Excel Data	Alpha Five's new Welcome screen provides a quick way to create a new database - either from existing data in Excel or Access or from a predesigned template.By Selwyn Rabins, CTO Alpha Software (2007).	4:48 minutes	Play
AlphaDAO Import Genie	The AlphaDAO Import Genie provides powerful and fast means to import data from a backend data source (like MySQL, SQL Server, etc.) - faster than the Alpha ADO Import that was introduced in Version 7. As a point and click tool, it is suitable for beginners. By Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2007).	14:52 minutes	Play
Reporting with SQL: Part 1	Alpha Five lets you create reports from backend SQL data sources both by using passive linked tables (see video above) as well as through a direct connection to the data source. This video shows you how. It also covers the use of two or more different data sources in the same report, and the use of arguments that allow you to filter report data. This series also shows the Xbasic commands for running reports and creating SQL data connections. Part 1 of 2. By Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2007).	23:25 minutes	Play
Reporting with SQL: Part 2	Alpha Five lets you create reports from backend SQL data sources both by using passive linked tables (see video above) as well as through a direct connection to the data source. This video shows you how. It also covers the use of two or more different data sources in the same report, and the use of arguments that allow you to filter report data. This series also shows the Xbasic commands for running reports and creating SQL data connections. Part 2 of 2. By Selwyn Rabins, Alpha Software CTO (2007).	15:17 minutes	Play
Speed and Power
Version 8 Gets Faster	Alpha Five Version 8 opens and performs much faster than previous versions. See for yourself in this one minute video. By Selwyn Rabins, CTO Alpha Software (2007).	1:00 minute	Play
Working with Millions of Records	Alpha Five can handle tables with millions of records using its built in DBF database engine. In addition, it can be connected to even more powerful backend database, like SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle and others. In this video you will see how Alpha perfoms against a table containing over 1,000,000 records. By Dave McCormick, Alpha Expert (2007).	5:00 minutes	Play
Alpha Four to Alpha Five Transition
Alpha Five for Alpha Four Users	Alpha Four was (and is) an immensely popular database for DOS. However, DOS is no longer supported or offered on new PCs making Alpha Four obsolete. This video guides you in the transition from Alpha Software's Alpha Four (its DOS product) to Alpha Five (its Windows product). By Francis Peake, Proctor and Peake (2007).	67:00 minutes	Play