I am receiving the message "Reporting4Act! has successfully connected to the ACT OLE/DB data provider, but has failed to connect using the Act! SDK." What causes this and how do I resolve it?

Act! provides two mechanisms for Reporting4Act! to retrieve information from your database. The first is the ACT OLE/DB provider, which allows for queries to be run directly against the Act! database. However, this provider does not provide access to all items in the Act! database, so Reporting4Act! uses a second mechanism, the ACT SDK, to access these items. This error message indicates that Reporting4Act! was able to establish a connection to the OLE/DB provider, but not to the SDK.

Note that this SDK connection is used by Reporting4Act! only in minor ways, and it's possible to simply switch it off. To do this, edit the file data.ini in the Data folder inside your main Reporting4Act! program folder, and add a ConnectSDK=No line to the [Options] section:

ConnectSDK=No

The following functions require the SDK connection, and will be disabled if the SDK connection is not available:

• The Create Group in Act! function
• Custom Multi-Select field reporting
• The AddDocumentToActContact, AddDocumentToActCompany, and AddDocumentToActGroup functions
• Several items of information on the About Reporting4Act! screen

The following data items in the Act! 2005-2009 data provider require access to the Act! SDK, and will not be available if the SDK connection has failed:

• Activity tables (Contact Activity, Company Activity, Group Activity)
• The Activity Type field in History tables (Contact History, Company History, Group History)
• Group and Company membership information
• Customized labels and data types for stock Act! fields

The error message you receive will indicate the specific error that is preventing the connection to the ACT SDK. Until this error is resolved, Reporting4Act! will only be able to report on items accessible through the OLE/DB provider. Reporting4Act! will not be able to report on items which are accessible only through the SDK. Some of the possible error messages are:

Error: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.

This error can appear under the following circumstances: Act! version 2005 or 2006 is installed, and both version 1.1 and version 2.0 of the Microsoft .NET framework are installed. The error is caused by an incompatibility of these versions of Act! and version 2.0 of the .NET framework.

The Reporting4Act! installation includes a file for resolving this error. The file is sfquery.exe.config in the Utilities subfolder of the Reporting4Act! program folder. To resolve the error, copy this file into the main Reporting4Act! program directory, and restart Reporting4Act!.

Error: You do not have permission to log on to this database

This error message can appear if the Act! user you're using in Reporting4Act! is marked as Inactive in Act!. To resolve this, set this user to Active in Act!, or use a different Act! user in Reporting4Act!.

Error: Your database needs to be updated.

This error appears if you try to open a database from an earlier version of Act! than the one you have installed. To resolve this, simply open this database in Act!. You will be prompted to update the database. Once this is done, this error will no longer appear in Reporting4Act!.

Error: Error in the application.

Error: Unknown error.

These are generic error messages, which Act! uses when it is unable to determine the cause of the error. There are several possible causes of this error:

• This error can appear when the database is locked, such as when an Act! user has the Define Fields screen open in Act!. Unlocking the database will resolve the error in this case.
• This error can appear in version 9.01 of Act!, under the circumstances which normally cause the Cannot CoCreateInstance error message. Following the instructions in that help topic will resolve this error.
• This error can appear when the database needs to be updated, which usually produces the "your database needs to be updated" error message listed above. Following the above instructions for this error message will resolve the error in this case.
• This error can appear when there is a problem with the Act! installation itself, such as a corrupted or missing file. In this case, Act! needs to be reinstalled.