I Need More Explanation of Various Elliott DDF File Folders and Database Naming Convention

I Need More Explanation of Various Elliott DDF File Folders and Database Naming Convention

Release Date: 8/13/2026
Version: 8.5 & Up

Q - I see the following KB article on Elliott database naming convention:

https://support.netcellent.com/portal/en/kb/articles/elliott-database-naming-convention

 I need more explanation on why have these various DDF files folder and database names and when to use which.  For example, for my Crystal Reports, which database should I point to. Thanks.


A - Our intention is to separate the DDF files into the following categories:
  1. For Elliott (this is for Report Desk, Power Search, and Avalara)
  2. For SOAP Web Services
  3. For Third Party
  4. For Elliott Commerce (This is the latest REST web services we are developing.) It is not released yet.
  5. Customization

So let's say you are using Elliott 8.5 database format. We will have the following folders to store DDF files in <ElliottRoot>\Bin85\DDF40 subfolder and create the corresponding databases:

  1. STDDDF – ELI85DATA*
  2. WSDDF – EWS85DATA*
  3. 3PDDF – E3P85DATA*
  4. ECDDF – EEC85DATA*
  5. XXXDDF – XXX85DATA* (where XXX is a 3 digits designation of your company) 

So for your third party applications like Crystal Report, they should use E3P85DATA, which we have not created yet.


If you are using the Elliott 8.6 database format, you will have a similar structure in <ElliottRoot>\Bin86\DDF40, with the database name 85 changed to 86.

 

The purpose is to give us the capability to update DDF files individually without affecting other applications. For example, if we install the latest version of Elliott, which includes the latest Avalara integration and requires the latest Elliott DDF files, we must update the DDF files in the STDDDF folder when the new Elliott version is installed.

 

However, we do not want to update the DDF files used by web services, third-party applications, etc. Therefore, the DDF files in those corresponding folders should not be updated automatically. Those DDF file updates should be coordinated with the corresponding application updates at the same time.

In the past, we had one set of DDF files in a single folder, and all applications referenced the same copy of the DDF files. This made the DDF update process very inflexible and difficult because all applications had to be shut down before the DDF files could be updated successfully.

The new convention makes DDF file updates much easier and more flexible. You don't have to update all of your applications at the same time.


EMK