(If you speed read this article, slow down at the bottom of the review.  Alphasoftware has a special offer for readers of DeveloperReviewed.com )

I guess I should begin by stating that for the past few years my database development tool of choice has been Softvelocity's Clarion and I still favor that program over Microsoft's Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro, Borland's Delphi and other well known windows based application development programs.  That does not mean I feel "locked in" to Clarion for ever.  I continue to try to be open minded about other tools.  With that in mind, I found there are a lot of things included in Alpha Five that I really like better than what is included in Clarion or available from the many fine third party vendors.  Some examples come later in the review.

Although it should be easy to develop a front end with Alpha Five for most common database formats, I found that the program worked best with it's own variation of the .dbf file format.  The structure of the files is very similar/compatible with Microsoft's Visual FoxPro, and provides for a variety of field types.  I started by creating tables and then created Forms for displaying the data. (Click the thumbnail images to see the screen shots in full size.)

Creating a table is a matter of giving each field a name, choosing a field type, width (and decimal place if a numeric field) and indicating whether or not the field is indexed.  Simple enough, but you will also want to set field rules for the table.  So after creating the table, right click on the table name in the Alpha Five Control Panel and choose Edit Field Rules.  This is a simple but powerful part of the database design.

In my example database, I will have People table and a related Contacts table.  Using the field rules I can specify the person name for a contact record should be "looked up" from the People table using the "fullname" field. Field rules also let me define a field as required, auto numbering, and much more. In addition to creating tables, I can also easily create "sets" to define tables that are related.  This is an easy process of first selecting the Primary Table and then selecting a Child table with the related field. I can also set Referential Integrity rules.  It is very easy to create these sets and once you have done that you can choose from individual tables or sets when creating forms and reports.  I used a set to create a form that shows a couple of fields about a person and a grid (or browse) with that person's contacts.

After you have created your tables and set, the next part is to create data entry forms, and this is also quick and easy.

You can choose to create forms with either columns or tables if you have more fields than can be accommodated without them.  

A nice selection of style sheets are also provided to let you choose an attractive look and feel for your form designs and keep them all consistent looking.

I kind of like the Marble style set and decided to use it for the demo application. 

Although you can just include navigation tool bars with your forms, in the example above I created buttons to let the user navigate through the table, add and delete records, and to close the form.  Creating buttons is a simple matter of dragging a button from the tool box on to the form and then setting an action for the On Push event.  The Alpha 5 Code Editor makes it easy to select a pre-defined action for the event as in the next screen.

The next screen show shows the form I created to record details of contacts with people and the Person name is using a drop down list taken from the People table. This was handled automatically because I set it up at the contacts table level When designing the form I set the contact date field to use a calendar by right clicking on the field on the form, choosing Properties and then choosing calendar from the field type drop down list.

(it would have been nice if the choice of using a pop up calendar was set at the table or field rules level) but that is a bit nit picky, I guess).  Memo fields, such as my Contact Details field, can be set in the table structure as either plain old Memo fields, or as Rich Text Memo fields.  This is great, because unlike other tools, it makes it easy - automatic - to include Rich Text Formatting in both forms and reports.  When a memo field is selected on your data entry form, clicking the pencil icon will open a RTF field editor to make it even easier for your end user to apply Rich Text Formatting.  Another great feature included with no effort from the developer, is spell checking.  

Although Alpha Five does provide for a wide variety of data types, it does not include a "time" type of field, as does SoftVelocity's Clarion.  This could be overcome by using a numeric field and some appropriate formatting.  However, as the screen shot below shows, Alpha Five does give you quite a rich variety of field types to choose in your database design.

While Alpha 5 makes it easy to design forms and reports - a good thing for the developer - it also makes querying the database easy to - good for the end user.  It is the powerful Query Genie that can be included Automatically with your application that really appeals to me.  I was never fond of Microsoft Access Query By Form features.  Although Clarion includes end user query capability as well, I almost always chose to use a third party add-in with my Clarion developed application and found NiceTouch's Query Wizard to be very good and easy for end users to use. However, I think the Query Genie is terrific.  Especially because it gives the end user the ability to search using "live data" from the table being queried.

This will let you select a table to use for your labels and allow you to use a Genie to create your label format.

The first step is to select a label type and you can choose from the common Avery formats.

Then, just select the fields you want to use in the label.

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If you want, even include a delivery bar code on your labels.

After you have designed the label, you can even specify which records to print.

It doesn't get much easier.

I also liked the built in Letter genie to let you create a mail merge type of report in just a few clicks. 

However, most applications will include more standard reports and the Report Writer included in Alpha Five is easy yet powerful.  You can either create a report "from scratch" or use a "Quick Report" to get started.  In the next screen shot, I used a Quick Report based on my set of People and Contacts. The only field I included from the people table was the "fullname" field and I grouped the report on that field.  Then, I just selected the fields I wanted from the child - contacts table.   In design mode, right clicking an item on the report will let you quickly and easily change any property of the item you want to modify.

One of the things I like most about the report writer is I can easily choose to let the end user select what records to include in the report.  This is optional to the end user, but there are many cases when you want to allow the user flexibility in selecting records to include or exclude.  The next screen shot gives an idea of just how easy it is to allow end users to both sort and filter their reports at run-time.

Now, I mentioned early on that I have some "dislikes" about Alpha 5 but it is important to note that what matters to me may not be an issue for you.  That said:

The current version will allow you to import data from ODBC data source like a Microsoft Access .mdb file, however, if you want to use that .mdb file as the backend and just use the SQL Attach option you may be disappointed.  Alpha Five will consider date/time fields as character fields and will not allow you to apply any date (or time) formatting to those fields.  If you SQL Attach a table in this manner you won't be able to apply "field rules" - this is what I consider one of the real strengths of Alpha Five.  If you are happy to use the .dbf file format that is Native to Alpha Five then you will likely really like this program.  However, if you want to use ODBC or ADO back ends you may want to wait on version 6 which I understand will have much better support for "Non Alpha Five" tables.  Version 6 release is probably 3 to 6 months away 

I also found ActiveX support to be limited, but again the next release may address this as well.  More about Alpha and ActiveX can be found here.

Finally, if I included an Image in a report, I found that the .html output option did not work correctly.  Either my image did not display in the generated .html file at all, or my internet browsing software locked up while creating the file.

Back to the plus side of this program, during the course of my review I had occasion to seek technical support.  I used Alphasoftware's online support forum and was pleased with the quick response to my questions.  I also corresponded with some users of Alphasoftware and have a sense that they are very fond of the software and the company.  It does seem to be that Alphasoftware's Alpha 5 is very popular among "power users" who may develop applications for their own use, and a small but devoted group of developers who have discovered this gem of a program and are very happy with how productive they can be using it.  I believe that there is a very large and growing market of developers who for one reason or another, are looking for an alternative application development tool.  I think I will be glad if this review helps some of them to find a program they may have overlooked.

The bottom line:  Alphasoftware's Alpha 5 is an easy to use tool for rapidly developing powerful, yet intuitive, database applications.  Reasonably priced, especially when you consider the functionality that is included with Alpha 5 but might cost hundreds of dollars in "add on" programs for other software.  The next version promises a lot, but judging from correspondence with some long time users, this company has a history of keeping their promises.

NOTES:

I have provided a simple demonstration application I created that you can download and get a look at an Alpha Five application created by a very "novice" user of the program.  Imagine what could be done with more time and experience!!  Better yet, download a fully functional 30 day evaluation copy and try it for yourself.  You can download a free trial at: http://www.alphasoftware.com/promo/trial/default.asp

After trying the program, if you decide to purchase a license, mention you saw this review and you may even get a discount on your purchase.

A full version of the program is currently priced at $349 and an unlimited 3 user runtime add-on (like I used for the demo download) is $399 or $599 when ordered as a bundle.  Additionally, special pricing is available if you mention this review and email  brett@alphasoftware.com A single user license at $229, and the above bundled package for $429.  This is a substantial savings but will only be available to the first 100 developers to contact Brett.  He will also include their NetMailer product.