V8.6 Feature: How to Create SQL Databases with Standard Names

V8.6 Feature: How to Create SQL Databases with Standard Names

Release Date: 2/25/2026
Version: Elliott 8.6

Overview

Elliott 8.6 includes features -- PowerSearch, Report Desk and Avalara, for example -- that require PSQL relational data access.  In the past, PSQL /Zen databases were created manually, using the PSQL Control Center.  To make it easy to create PSQL databases, the utility EL860DB.Exe has been revised to handle all the DDF formats (V8.6, V8.5, V8.2) across all DDF types (Standard Elliott, SOAP Web Services, 3rd Party Tools, Elliott Cloud).  You can find EL860DB.Exe in the <ElliottRoot>\Bin86 folder where <ElliottRoot> is the root directory where you have Elliott 8.6 installed (e.g., M:\Elliott8). 

Note: You must be logged in to Windows on the PSQL server where the databases reside as a Windows Admin or equivalent in order to create databases with this utility. 

You can run this utility by using one of the three methods below.

Running EL860DB

Method 1 - Run with Elliott86.Exe Installation Utility
EL860DB.Exe will be started automatically at the end of Elliott 8.6 installation utility.

Method 2 - Run from <ElliottRoot>\Bin86 Folder
Browse to <ElliottRoot>\Bin86 folder and find EL860DB.Exe to run. To prevent a potential UAC issue, right click on EL860DB and choose Run as administrator. See sample screen below:


Method 3 - Run from Elliott 8.6 Configuration Utility Databases Tab
Start Elliott 8.6 by logging in as "SUPERVISOR." Then click on the top left corner toolbar task Config (Elliott Global Configuration) and go to the Databases tab, where you can find the button Create Standard Databases...  This is a shortcut to launch EL860DB.Exe.  See sample screen below:


Prerequisite

This utility is compatible with PSQL 12, 13 or 15.  However, it won't work with PSQL 14. You must run this utility from the PSQL/Zen database server where Elliott data resides and login as Windows Admin or equivalent.  EL860DB.Exe utility will not work on client workstations.

DDF Format Versions

When Elliott V8.6 is installed or updated, we can create or update three different DDF formats, all of which are supported in Elliott:

Version
Characteristics
Bin Directory
Supports
v8.6
. Alpha document number support
. Case-sensitive primary keys
<ElliottRoot>\Bin86
. Traditional Elliott
. PowerSearch, Report Desk, Avalara
. Elliott SOAP Web Services
. Elliott Cloud (in development)
. 3rd Party Products
v8.5
. Alpha document number support
. Case-insensitive primary keys
<ElliottRoot>\Bin85
. Traditional Elliott
. PowerSearch, Report Desk, Avalara
. Elliott SOAP Web Services
. Elliott Cloud (in development)
. 3rd Party Products
v8.2
. Numeric document numbers only
. Case-insensitive keys
<ElliottRoot>\Bin
. Traditional Elliott
. PowerSearch, Report Desk
. Elliott SOAP Web Services


Elliott Database Naming Conventions

The following conventions help identify the DDF format and company number for Elliott databases:
  • For standard Elliott DDFs:
    • For Elliott V8.2 format, database names start with "ELIDATA."
    • For Elliott V8.5 format, database names start with "ELI85DATA."
    • For Elliott V8.6 format, database names start with "ELI86DATA."
  • For SOAP web service DDFs:
    • For Elliott V8.2 format, database names start with "EWSDATA."
    • For Elliott V8.5 format, database names start with "EWS85DATA."
    • For Elliott V8.6 format, database names start with "EWS86DATA."
  •  For 3rd party tools DDFs:
    • For Elliott V8.2 format, database names start with "E3PDATA."
    • For Elliott V8.5 format, database names start with "E3P85DATA."
    • For Elliott V8.6 format, database names start with "E3P86DATA."
  • For Elliott Cloud DDFs:
    • Not supported with Elliott V8.2 format
    • For Elliott V8.5 format, database names start with "EEC85DATA."
    • For Elliott V8.6 format, database names start with "EEC86DATA."
Since Elliott Business Software supports multiple companies, for data in folders like DATA_02, DATA_03, etc., the naming convention will be replacing "DATA" above with "DATA02," "DATA03", etc.  For example, for Company 10 where data is stored in <ElliottRoot>\DATA_10 folder, the corresponding standard Elliott 8.6 database name will be ELI86DATA10.

EL860DB creates database names that follow these conventions.

User Interface

After EL860DB.Exe is launched, you will see the following window:

  1. The tabs at the top (in blue box, above) are used to select the database format (v8.6, v8.5, v8.2).  The content under each tab is similar, but only the appropriate options are presented.  For example, Elliott Cloud does not support the Elliott 8.2 format, so the Elliott Cloud selector button does not appear under the v8.2 DDF Format tab.
  2. The selector buttons near the top (in red box, above) are used to select the database type (Standard Elliott, SOAP Web Services, 3rd Party Tools, Elliott Cloud) for the selected database format tab.
  1. Elliott Root Folder - A read-only text field that indicates the location of the Elliott Root Folder.
  2. Elliott DDF Folder - A read-only text field that indicates the location of the DDF folder. For example, for 8.6, this is <ElliottRoot>\bin86\DDF40\STDDDF.
  3. Elliott Root DDF Folder - A read-only text field that indicates the location of the DDF folder for the Elliott Root database. This is only applicable for an 8.6 database.
  4. Elliott Data Folder(s) - You can select which data folders to create database(s) for in this control group. This section has two list views. The left list view, Data folders with no database, shows all data folders that currently do not have a corresponding, standard-named database.  You can check one or more item(s) to create databases for the data folders.  The right list view, Data folders with existing database(s),  shows all data folders that already have a corresponding, standard-named database.
  5. Check All button - Check all items in the Data folders with no database list view.
  6. Uncheck All button - Uncheck all items in the Data folders with no database list view.
  7. Create Database(s) - Create databases for all checked items in the Data folders with no database list view.

Database Format Options

Even though you run Elliott 8.6 programs, you may continue to use Elliott databases in Elliott 8.2 format (as long as you don't store alphabetic values in your Elliott document number fields), or Elliott 8.5 format (if you do not want to convert to Elliott 8.6 format).  This flexibility allows for the following situations:
  1.  You would like to evaluate Elliott 8.6 first while most of your users are running on Elliott 8.2 or Elliott 8.5.
  2.  You need time to convert third-party applications like Crystal Reports or your web applications that are using Elliott 8.2 or Elliott 8.5 format.
Once you are ready, you can use the <ElliottRoot>\Bin86\DDF2BTR.Exe utility to convert your V8.2 or V8.5 databases to V8.6 format.  After converting to V8.5 or V8.6, you can't use Elliott 8.2 and other third-party applications that utilize the Elliott 8.2 format anymore. Please refer to Elliott 8.6 Release Notes and other KB articles on how to use DDF2BTR.Exe for this purpose.

If you intend to use PowerSearch, Report Desk or Avalara, then you must create ELI86ROOT database regardless of whether your document numbers are numeric or alphabetic.

Manually Creating Databases Using Pervasive Control Center

For information on how to create databases manually via Pervasive Control Center, please visit this knowledge base article.

Configuring Databases for Elliott

Elliott needs to know which database name is used for which company.  There are two ways to do this configuring:

Using EL860CF.Exe

To launch the Elliott v8.6 Configuration utility, navigate to the <ElliottRoot>\Bin86 folder and run EL860CF.Exe.  Alternatively, you can login to Elliott as "SUPERVISOR" and press the Elliott Global Configuration utility icon in the top left corner, which is a shortcut to EL860CF.Exe. 

Once you bring up EL860CF.Exe, you can select the Databases tab to associate each Elliott company with the correct database name.  


It the above example, Company 1 is still using numeric document numbers, so the Database is ELIDATA even though Elliott 8.6 is being used.  Company 3 was converted to use alpha document numbers, so the database name is ELI86DATA03.

See Elliott V8.6 Configuration Utility (EL860CF.EXE) for details on how this utility works.

Using NOTEPAD.Exe

If you do not wish to use EL860CF.Exe, you can update <ElliottRoot>\Bin86\EL860.CFG manually:
  1. Navigate to the <ElliottRoot>\Bin86 folder.
  2. Launch NOTEPAD.Exe to update the [Database] portion of EL860.CFG. See sample screen below:
 

Keep in mind that sometimes UAC may prevent you from saving your changes, so verify your changes afterwards.  If the update fails, right click on Notepad.exe and choose Run as administrator in the popup menu to edit EL860.CFG file.

Known Issue with DDF Files in DATA Folder

By design, your Elliott DDF files should reside in the <ElliottRoot>\Bin86\DDF40\STDDDF folder.  Then when you choose to create the corresponding Elliott database, you will specify the dictionary and data directories like this:
  • Dictionary Location: <ElliottRoot>\Bin86\DDF40\STDDDF
  • Data Directories: <ElliottRoot>\DATA_03


We have seen that if you also have a copy of DDF files residing in the data folder (like <ElliottRoot>\DATA_03), then those DDF files will override the DDF files in <ElliottRoot>\Bin86\DDF40\STDDDF. This can cause a big problem for Elliott when accessing data through the relational engine. Therefore, you should not place DDF files in your DATA folder.

Please see also the following KB article for related information:

JEG

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