I'm using the trial version of GeniusConnect to see if I can get data from our Medisoft Office Hours database (which uses the Advantage database engine) into Outlook. One problem is that Office Hours uses a separate date field for the date of the appointment and a time field for the appt time. Outlook, however, uses one datetime field.

How can I convert the date and time fields in the Advantage database into the datetime field in Outlook?

Mark J

Hello,

you can create a view and join the date and time fields and display it as one column.
See also topic views:
http://support.geniusconnect.com/topics/14- 

If I understand the concept of a view, it would require creating a view in the Advantage database. I don't know if Advantage allows that or not, but I would prefer not to alter the Advantage database in any way since it is actually a part of another application. I just want to retrieve data from it. Is there a way to combine the date and time fields into the Outlook "Start" field, which is a datetime type?

creating a view will not change anything in your database, View is only a "select.." query, and does not change data or behavior of your database.

You can also create the View in a different database (if don't want to change the application db) and only refer to the database and table you need.

Example:
Database MyDB

create view as select ..... from applicationdatabase.owner.table.....

Please note :
The syntax depends on your database system. (I think Advantage database engine will use T-SQL syntax (same as SQL Server))

I would have to use another db. If I did anything to mess up the Advantage db then we'd have problems with our service contract that the app that uses it!

http://support.geniusconnect.com/Posts/t59-  you mention a workaround using SQL. Does that apply to this situation?

The custom SQL Commands are only for insert/update/delete not for select