An Example of DDF Files in DATA Folder Causing Report Desk or Power Search Issue
Release Date: 03/14/2025
Version: 8.6 & Up
Q - When I tried to print a UDR report (i.e., AP Distribution History Report)
from company # 98, I got the following error message:
Cannot find definition of table APDSTHST in DDFs. You probably are using the wrong DDFs for your database ELI86DATA98 on LAP-RDS01. You will not be able to run this report until the DDFs are corrected.
On the other hand, when I run the same UDR report for company #03 and company #09, they work correctly. The ELI86DATA98 definition of the DDF folder is same as ELI86DATA03 and ELI86DATA09. Do you know why?
A - After further research, we found out that there are DDF files in the DATA_98 folder that cause this issue. There is a PSQL quirk: when it tries to locate the DDF, if the DDF files exist in the corresponding data folder, it will get them from there. So the solution in this case is to delete the *.DDF files from the <ElliottRoot>\DATA_98 folder. There were some legacy reasons why the DDF was stored in the DATA* folders. But there is no reason why we still need DDF files in DATA* folders.
Note: What also make this confusing is when you use the PSQL (Zen) Control Center to access database ELI86DATA98, you can see the table APDSTHST without any problem. So it seems the PSQL Control Center uses a different method than Elliott's Report Desk. We are not sure of this at this moment.
Please also see the following related KB articles:
EMK