I've created a predefined export (.dbe) for a table.  Now I need to change the order of the fields exported. I opened the table and the .DBE, I changed the order of the fileds clicking on "Options", I saved the dbe but when it runs the order of the fields is unchanged. How can I solve this problems? Thanks a lot.

I didn't receive any answer for this. Have you any news about?

Have you any recent news about this topic ? We have a lot of .DBE and we know that using "exports via dql" would solve the problem but we all know that this function is particularly slow.

Export via DQL would definitely solve this problem and I might be intentionally obtuse when I say I don't understand what you mean when you say that this function is particularly slow... ;-)

You mean of course the horrible export to file stuff that is added to the old style DQL in DFW. That is very variable at best and exstreemly slow at the best of times.

However ExecDQL is as fast as .dbe and you have full freedom like you did in DFD.

This will of course need the latest 8.5.

However, it is also possible to bend .dbe to your will.

The problem with .dbe is that it is not the opposite of .dbi as it used to be in DFD. 

.dbi is a definition of the export file i.e. the text file and is a 1 to 1 read-in of the data in the export with no other checking than unique constraint.
.dbi can be read in from anywhere in DataEase and will give the same result.

.dbe on the other hand is a completely different ball game. 
It export from the active Multi-view and this is the clue. 

People believe that DataEase work on fixed tables, but it doesn't it work on a on the fly view created as a combination of a "select" and a "filter".

Which columns to select and what filter (restriction to employ). So if you are in a table and search for CAT in Animal you will only export CATS.

The .dbe will in the same way as the .dbi only specify the columns you want to export, but it has no impact on order as this is decided by the underlying multiview, so the clue is to manipulate this underlying.

You can in fact use a .dbe created on one "table/form" on a completely different "table/form" as long as it contains the same columns.

The solution lay in the fact that the multiview is not created by the table but by the FORM/REPORT/DQL etc. So the easiest way to bend the dbe to your will is simply to make a small form where you include the fields you want to export with the dbe in the order (top to bottom) which you want them exported.

You can simply open this document and activate the export automatically and then simply automatically close the document.

The fileds order in the .DBE doesn't work anyway, even I I'm going to create a new form with the fields that I have to exported. In any case the fields order using .DBE sometimes in not respected.

Using your example can happen that the field “Plaza” appear as first column instead of third column.

Anyway I'd love to know what this anomaly depends on

we still at the moment in 8.2 but anyway we are forced to use .DBE instead a DQL procedure or EXECDQL (fully available in 8.5) because we have automatized the export in dataease in order to open automatically the exported file directly in MS Excel simply clicking a button or a “voice menu” The field order is important for the people that uses the results (or filtered results) in order to create offline a lot of standard reports or diagram.

For my point of view it remains a little bug.

I tried also to use an updated version (8.5) but the problem remains unchanged. 

.DBE is not the opposite of .DBI.

Imports are straight forward but the export are dynamic. You can use a .dbe created for one table on a different table as long as the columns exist in the new table.

The .DBE export the current multiview and not the table. So if that multiview is created by a DQL or a Form doesn't matter. 

If the multiview is limited by a query etc, it will respect that and it will equally respect sorting etc.

The DBE does not create or own the multiview, it simply USE it so there is nothing you can do in the DBE to force the order of anything.

All that has to be done when the multiview is created which is why it  is so much better to use ExecDQL.

The fact that you automatically start excel after the export do not preclude ExecDQL but make it an even better candidate.

You can even start Excel from the DQL directly.