In this article Barry Mavin, CEO and Chief Software Architect for Recital, details how to work with Triggers in the Recital Database Server.
Overview
A trigger is a special kind of stored procedure that runs when you modify data in a specified table using one or more of the data modification operations: UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE.
Triggers can query other tables and can include complex SQL statements. They are primarily useful for enforcing complex business rules or requirements. For example, you can control whether to allow a new order to be inserted based on a customer's current account status.
Triggers are also useful for enforcing referential and data integrity.
Triggers can be used with any data source that is handled natively by the Recital Database Engine. This includes Recital, FoxPro, FoxBASE, Clipper, dBase, CISAM, and RMS data,
Creating and Editing Triggers
To create a new Trigger, right-click the Procedures node in the Databases tree of the Project Explorer and choose Create. To modify an existing Trigger select the Trigger in the Databases Tree in the Project Explorer by double-clicking on it, or select Modify from the context menu. By convertion we recommend that you name your Stored Procedures beginning with "sp_xxx_", user-defined functions with "f_xxx_", and Triggers with "dt_xxx_", where xxx is the name of the table that they are associated with.
Associating Triggers with a Table
Once you have written your Triggers as detailed above you can associate them with the operations performed on a Table by selecting the Table tab.
The Tables tab allows you to select a Trigger procedure by clicking on the small button at the right of the Text field.
Types of Triggers
As can be seen from the Tables tab detailed below, The Recital Database Server handles 6 distinct types of Triggers.
Open Trigger
The Open Trigger is called after is a table is opened but before any operations are performed on it. You can use this trigger to record a log of table usage or provide a programmable means of checing security. If the Trigger procedure returns .F. (false), then the table is not opened. You can use a TRY...CATCH block around the associated command to inform the user.
Close Trigger
The Close Trigger is called just prior to a table being closed. In this trigger you may find it useful to get transaction counts by using the IOSTATS() built-in 4GL function, and record these values in a transaction log.
Update Trigger
The Update Trigger is called prior to a record update operation being performed. You can use this trigger to perform complex application or data specific validation. If the Trigger procedure returns .F. (false), then the record is not updated. You can use inform the user from within the Trigger procedure the reason that the data cannot be updated.
Delete Trigger
The Delete Trigger is called prior to a record delete operation being performed. You can use this trigger to perform complex application or data specific validation such as cross-table lookups e.g. attempting to delete a customer recortd when there are still open orders for that specific customer. If the Trigger procedure returns .F. (false), then the record is not deleted.
Insert Trigger
The Insert Trigger is called prior to a record insert (append) operation being performed. You can use this trigger to perform such tasks as setting up default values of columns within the record. If the Trigger procedure returns .F. (false), then the record is not inserted.
Rollback Trigger
The RollbackTrigger is called prior to a rollback operation being performed from within a form. If the Trigger procedure returns .F. (false), then the record is not rolled back to its original state.
Testing the Trigger
To test run the Trigger, select the Trigger in the Databases Tree in the Project Explorer by double-clicking on it. Once the Database Administrator is displayed, click the Run button to run the Trigger.
In this article Barry Mavin, CEO and Chief Software Architect for Recital provides details on how to use the Recital Universal .NET Data Provider with the Recital Database Server.
Overview
A data provider in the .NET Framework serves as a bridge between an application and a data source. A data provider is used to retrieve data from a data source and to reconcile changes to that data back to the data source.
Each .NET Framework data provider has a DataAdapter object: the .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB is the OleDbDataAdapter object, the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server is the SqlDataAdapter object, the .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC is the OdbcDataAdapter object, and the .NET Framework Data Provider for the Recital Database Server is the RecitalDataAdapter object.
The Recital Universal .NET Data Provider can access any data sources supported by the Recital Database Server. It is not restricted to only access Recital data. It can be used to access server-side ODBC, JDBC and OLE DB data sources also.
Core classes of the Data Provider
The Connection, Command, DataReader, and DataAdapter objects represent the core elements of the .NET Framework data provider model. The Recital Universal .NET Data Provider is plug compatible with the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server. All SQL Server classes are prefixed with "Sql" e.g. SqlDataAdaptor. To use the Recital Universal Data Adaptor, simply change the "Sql" prefix to "Recital" e.g. RecitalDataAdaptor.
The following table describes these objects.
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
| RecitalConnection | Establishes a connection to a specific data source. |
| RecitalCommand | Executes a command against a data source. |
| RecitalDataReader | Reads a forward-only, read-only stream of data from a data source. |
| RecitalDataAdapter | Populates a DataSet and resolves updates with the data source. |
Along with the core classes listed in the preceding table, a .NET Framework data provider also contains the classes listed in the following table.
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
| RecitalTransaction | Enables you to enlist commands in transactions at the data source. |
| RecitalCommandBuilder | A helper object that will automatically generate command properties of a DataAdapter or will derive parameter information from a stored procedure and populate the Parameters collection of a Command object. |
| RecitalParameter | Defines input, output, and return value parameters for commands and stored procedures. |
The Recital Universal .NET Data Provider provides connectivity to the Recital Database Server running on any supported platform (Windows, Linux, Unix, OpenVMS) using the RecitalConnection object. The Recital Universal .NET Data Provider supports a connection string format that is similar to the SQL Server connection string format.
The basic format of a connection string consists of a series of keyword/value pairs separated by semicolons. The equal sign (=) connects each keyword and its value.
The following table lists the valid names for keyword values within the ConnectionString property of the RecitalConnection class.
| Name | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Data Source -or- Server -or- Servername -or- Nodename |
The name or network address of the instance of the Recital Database Server which to connect to. | |
| Directory | The target directory on the remote server where data to be accessed resides. This is ignored when a Database is specified. | |
| Encrypt -or- Encryption |
false | When true, DES3 encryption is used for all data sent between the client and server. |
| Initial Catalog -or- Database |
The name of the database on the remote server. | |
| Password -or- Pwd |
The password used to authenticate access to the remote server. | |
| User ID -or- uid -or- User -or- Username |
The user name used to authenticate access to the remote server. | |
| Connection Pooling -or- Pool |
false | Enable connection pooling to the server. This provides for one connection to be shared. |
| Logging | false | Provides for the ability to log all server requests for debugging purposes |
| Rowid | true | When Rowid is true (the default) a column will be post-fixed to each SELECT query that is a unique row identifier. This is used to provide optimised UPDATE and DELETE operations. If you use the RecitalSqlGrid, RecitalSqlForm, or RecitalSqlGridForm components then this column is not visible but is used to handle updates to the underlying data source. |
| Logfile | The name of the logfile for logging | |
| Gateway |
Opens an SQL gateway(Connection) to a foreign SQL data source on the remote server.
The gateway can be specified in several formats: |
Populating a DataSet from a DataAdaptor
The ADO.NET DataSet is a memory-resident representation of data that provides a consistent relational programming model independent of the data source. The DataSet represents a complete set of data including tables, constraints, and relationships among the tables. Because the DataSet is independent of the data source, a DataSet can include data local to the application, as well as data from multiple data sources. Interaction with existing data sources is controlled through the DataAdapter.
A DataAdapter is used to retrieve data from a data source and populate tables within a DataSet. The DataAdapter also resolves changes made to the DataSet back to the data source. The DataAdapter uses the Connection object of the .NET Framework data provider to connect to a data source and Command objects to retrieve data from and resolve changes to the data source.
The SelectCommand property of the DataAdapter is a Command object that retrieves data from the data source. The InsertCommand, UpdateCommand, and DeleteCommand properties of the DataAdapter are Command objects that manage updates to the data in the data source according to modifications made to the data in the DataSet.
The Fill method of the DataAdapter is used to populate a DataSet with the results of the SelectCommand of the DataAdapter. Fill takes as its arguments a DataSet to be populated, and a DataTable object, or the name of the DataTable to be filled with the rows returned from the SelectCommand.
The Fill method uses the DataReader object implicitly to return the column names and types used to create the tables in the DataSet, as well as the data to populate the rows of the tables in the DataSet. Tables and columns are only created if they do not already exist; otherwise Fill uses the existing DataSet schema.
Examples in C#:
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// include the references below
using System.Data;
using Recital.Data;
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// The following code example creates an instance of a DataAdapter that
// uses a Connection to the Recital Database Server Southwind database
// and populates a DataTable in a DataSet with the list of customers.
// The SQL statement and Connection arguments passed to the DataAdapter
// constructor are used to create the SelectCommand property of the DataAdapter.
public DataSet SelectCustomers()
{
RecitalConnection swindConn = new
RecitalConnection("Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=southwind");
RecitalCommand selectCMD = new
RecitalCommand("SELECT CustomerID, CompanyName FROM Customers", swindConn);
selectCMD.CommandTimeout = 30;
RecitalDataAdapter custDA = new RecitalDataAdapter();
custDA.SelectCommand = selectCMD;
swindConn.Open();
DataSet custDS = new DataSet();
custDA.Fill(custDS, "Customers");
swindConn.Close();
return custDS;
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// The following example uses the RecitalCommand, RecitalDataAdapter and
// RecitalConnection, to select records from a database, and populate a
// DataSet with the selected rows. The filled DataSet is then returned.
// To accomplish this, the method is passed an initialized DataSet, a
// connection string, and a query string that is a SQL SELECT statement
public DataSet SelectRecitalRows(DataSet dataset, string connection, string query)
{
RecitalConnection conn = new RecitalConnection(connection);
SqlDataAdapter adapter = new RecitalDataAdapter();
adapter.SelectCommand = new RecitalCommand(query, conn);
adapter.Fill(dataset);
return dataset;
} COPY DATABASE <name> TO <name> [ IF [ NOT ] EXISTS ]This command is used to copy an existing database to a new database. By default an error will be returned if the target database already exists. Specifying the optional IF NOT EXISTS keywords no error will be returned if the target database already exists. If the optional IF EXISTS keywords are specified and the target database already exists, then it will be removed before the copy. Both the databases must be closed before they can be copied.
DirectoryIndex default.rsp index.html
If when your attempt to create device meta-data fails this is drbd preventing you from corrupting a file system present on the target partition.
$ drbdadm create-md drbd0
v08 Magic number not found
md_offset 30005817344
al_offset 30005784576
bm_offset 30004867072
Found ext2 filesystem which uses 190804004 kB
current configuration leaves usable 29301628 kB
Device size would be truncated, which
would corrupt data and result in
'access beyond end of device' errors.
You need to either
* use external meta data (recommended)
* shrink that filesystem first
* zero out the device (destroy the filesystem)
Operation refused.
Command 'drbdmeta /dev/drbd0 v08 /dev/sda4 internal create-md' terminated with exit code 40
drbdadm aborting
Once you have confirmed that the file system present on the target partition is no longer required at the prompt type the following:
Replace /dev/sdaX with the block device you are targeting.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdaX bs=1M count=128
Once this has completed the drbdadm create-md drbd0 command will complete with a "success."
$ drbdadm create-md drbd0
v08 Magic number not found
v07 Magic number not found
v07 Magic number not found
v08 Magic number not found
Writing meta data...
initialising activity log
NOT initialized bitmap
New drbd meta data block successfully created.
success
$
A quick tip for optimizing TCP performance on linux.
edit /etc/sysctl.conf add the lines:
If using gigabit ethernet:
net.ipv4.tcp_mem= 98304 131072 196608
net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=1
net.core.wmem_default = 65536
net.core.rmem_default = 65536
net.core.wmem_max=8388608
To reload these use:
# sysctl -p
If using infiniband:
net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=1
net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=0
net.ipv4.tcp_sack=0
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem=10000000 10000000 10000000
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem=10000000 10000000 10000000
net.ipv4.tcp_mem=10000000 10000000 10000000
net.core.rmem_max=524287
net.core.wmem_max=524287
net.core.rmem_default=524287
net.core.wmem_default=524287
net.core.optmem_max=524287
net.core.netdev_max_backlog=300000