Question Re: Advantage Devzone down in Technology Q&A

Advantage Devzone down

former_member951033 — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 19:17:41 GMT

Hello,

Since a few days, I can't access the advantage devzone reference.

I've tried :

https://devzone.advantagedatabase.com

http://devzone.advantagedatabase.com/dz/content.aspx?Key=1

I'm looking specifically for the online help files https://devzone.advantagedatabase.com/dz/webhelp/Advantage11.1/index.html

--> it pushes back to the SAP community hub.

(Found a copy here in the meantime:

http://web.archive.org/web/20210508044345/https://devzone.advantagedatabase.com/dz/webhelp/Advantage11.1/index.html)

Can you check if it's me or everyone ?

Re: Advantage Devzone down

jamesfrancis — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 14:16:32 GMT

Same for us, it just redirects to community.sap.com.

Are there any intentions to bring the devzone back? We still use it for referencing the help files and forum history to diagnose issues.

Re: Advantage Devzone down

Privete_member__1182953 — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 15:39:49 GMT

Same problem here! We need both the documentation as well as the licensing submission portal.

Re: Advantage Devzone down

tcutlip — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 17:45:32 GMT

All my former links to ADS Dev zone are doing the same as is the license portal as discussed in another thread.

Re: Advantage Devzone down

sperreault1 — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 20:28:17 GMT

Same problem here !

We tried to contact SAP by Chat and an employee said :

"I would recommend reaching out to our OEM Partner team for further guidance at Oempartner@sap.com to be provided with any new portal or links for your OEM partnership and its associated solutions.

I apologize for the inconvenience."

I have sent an email January 17th and there is no answer yet....

Re: Advantage Devzone down

Privete_member__1182953 — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 07:12:54 GMT

sperreault Thanks for this update. It is so frustrating. Please share an update here in case you hear back. I'll do the same. Thanks!

Re: Advantage Devzone down

tcutlip — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 15:32:16 GMT

I believe your companies will need to work with OEM Partnership to establish a new contract with SAP. We are working on due diligence now. I am hopeful we will gain access to support resources, licenses, etc... once that has been completed.

OEMPARTNER@SAP.COM <oempartner@sap.com>

Re: Advantage Devzone down

former_member951033 — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 14:17:51 GMT

tcutlip :

I've annoyingly proceeded as instructed - I don't understand how references and documentation that was published and is now considered to be public now requires a new contract.

Best regards,

Re: Advantage Devzone down

michael_loop — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 19:58:19 GMT

A compiled HTML (.chm) version of the documentation is installed in the Help folder parallel to the Server software. For example, by default, the version 12 documentation can be accessed from "C:\Program Files\Advantage 12.0\Help\advantage.chm".

SAP Advantage Database Server 12.0 reached end of mainstream maintenance on December 31, 2022 (refer to SAP Note 3132015 or SAP Product Availability Matrix). As part of this process, the SAP Advantage Devzone was decommissioned. However, the product remains available for OEM partners of SAP (including its former Sybase entities) with a valid and active partner agreement for ADS. These OEM partners have access to the latest ADS downloads through the SAP Support Portal (Software Downloads). In addition, if you require additional license keys for SAP Advantage Database Server, please contact our SAP OEM Partner Support team at oempartner@sap.com and they will help you with your request (as it is not currently possible to self-generate license keys).

Re: Advantage Devzone down

mjgould — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 14:43:23 GMT

SAP..... BRING BACK DEVZONE.

Either put it back up on your servers or make it available to someone who can re-publish this valuable resource.

Many searches for Advantage-related questions lead to DEVZONE answers and direction. Its absence is a great loss to those who continue to use and have investments in the Advantage products.

Re: Advantage Devzone down

dnsdaniel — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 21:41:36 GMT

I am having the same issue and now the HTTPS version also redirects to community.sap.com. While I have most of the files downloaded already, there is still a wealth of knowledge there that is missing, yes. Really wish they would restore it.

Seems like SAP bought out Sybase just to bury Advantage Database Server and promote their flagship Hanna, instead, I don't know. It's frustrating, either way, because so much technology is still running great on Advantage, especially for Delphi developers. I really hope they put it back or make it accessible from somewhere.

Re: Advantage Devzone down

mjgould — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 00:36:13 GMT

SAP cares nothing for Advantage. Yes they purchased in order to put it down. Pretty slimy, I think. When someone else has a product of greater value than a product of your own, buy out the competition and shut it down. SAP has nothing to compare to ADS - their best option would have been to back ADS and continue to improve and advance it.

Sad, real sad.

Re: Advantage Devzone down

jhoehne — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 14:46:44 GMT

SAP didn't purchase ADS, they purchased Sybase. As for the reason, see here

I think as ADS was a very small part of Sybase, SAP didn't even notice. ADS is primarily used with xBase, this is far off what SAP does. Sybase purchased Extended Systems in 2006, but not for ADS. They wanted their development tools for mobile devices. A guess what, SAP wanted Sybase for their development tools for mobile devices. And in both cases alongside came ADS...

Re: Advantage Devzone down

dnsdaniel — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 23:23:17 GMT

Right, they bought Sybase, they didn't buy it out solely to bury ADS. I think that was a bigger side benefit than given credit for, though. As many Delphi developers will attest, ADS is very widely used in these apps but often under the radar because it was very simple and just worked great, usually in the background. I am always surprised how many applications I find running on it, despite so few having heard of it. Our companies have bought a lot of ADS licenses over the years and SAP has increasingly handed them out with more and more resistance. And as of now, not at all. They will not sell me an ADS license. So, they have definitely chosen to bury ADS at this point, along with its knowledge base and product downloads. We will probably rewrite our application for an open source database, as there are many great ones and we use them for the web. C'est la vie, ADS! We will miss you.