This article discusses the features in Recital that allow data to be imported and exported between platforms in Microsoft® ADO XML Format.
Overview
Extensible Markup Language, XML, is widely regarded as a lingua franca for the interchange of data. XML's text-based, platform-independent format and its integration of data and the schema to define and describe that data, make it the ideal import/export medium. Recital software provides the functionality to output the data from Recital - and other supported table formats such as FoxPro and FoxBASE - into XML file format and to import XML data into those tables' formats. Such import/export operations provide the means to exchange data with third-party applications and can also facilitate the transfer of data between Recital installations on binary-incompatible platforms.
The features examined in this article are available in Recital Terminal Developer and in the Recital Mirage and Recital Database Servers on all Recital supported platforms. Both the Recital/4GL and Recital/SQL provide XML import and export capabilities. The XML files discussed are in Microsoft® ADO XML format.
Microsoft® ActiveX® Data Objects XML Format
The ADO XML format is primarily designed for ADO Recordset persistence and ADO XML files created by Recital can be used in this way and loaded directly into ADO Recordsets. The format can, though also be used for more generic data transfer. An ADO XML file is self-contained, consisting of two sections: a schema section followed by a data section. The schema conforms to the W3C XML-Data specification and defines the data structure.
For additional information on the Microsoft® ActiveX® Data Objects XML Format, please see Appendix 1.
NOTE: The Recital XMLFORMAT setting should always be in its default setting of ADO for ADO XML Format operations.
set xmlformat to ADO
SQL
Recital/SQL offers the ability to export data into XML files using the SELECT and FETCH statements and import from XML using the CREATE TABLE and INSERT statements.
SQL: Exporting
The SELECT...SAVE AS XML statement allows the complete result set from a SELECT statement to be saved as an XML file. This could be a complete table:
open database southwind SELECT * from orders SAVE AS XML orders.xml
or a more complex multi-table query:
open database southwind SELECT orders.orderid, orders.customerid,; employees.employeeid, employees.lastname, employees.firstname,; orders.orderdate, orders.freight, orders.requireddate,; orders.shippeddate, orders.shipvia, orders.shipname,; orders.shipaddress, orders.shipcity,; orders.shipregion, orders.shippostalcode, orders.shipcountry,; customers.companyname, customers.address, customers.city,; customers.region, customers.postalcode, customers.country; FROM orders INNER JOIN customers; ON customers.customerid = orders.customerid,; orders INNER JOIN employees; ON orders.employeeid = employees.employeeid; SAVE AS XML orderinfo
The resulting XML file can then be further processed within the same or a different Recital environment or transferred to a third party product.
<x-ml xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" xmlns:rs="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset" xmlns:dt="uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882" xmlns:s="uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3- 00AA00C14882"> <s:schema id="RowsetSchema"> <s:elementtype rs:updatable="true" content="eltOnly" name="row"> <s:attributetype rs:basecolumn="orderid" rs:basetable="orders.dbf" rs:write="true" rs:nullable="true" rs:number="1" name="orderid"> <s:datatype rs:fixedlength="true" rs:precision="14" rs:scale="0" dt:maxlength="10" rs:dbtype="numeric" dt:type="number"> </s:datatype></s:attributetype> <s:attributetype rs:basecolumn="customerid" rs:basetable="orders.dbf" rs:write="true" rs:nullable="true" rs:number="2" name="customerid"> <s:datatype rs:fixedlength="true" dt:maxlength="5" rs:dbtype="str" dt:type="string"> </s:datatype></s:attributetype> <s:attributetype rs:basecolumn="employeeid" rs:basetable="orders.dbf" rs:write="true" rs:nullable="false" rs:number="3" name="employeeid"> <s:datatype rs:fixedlength="true" rs:precision="20" rs:scale="0" dt:maxlength="10" rs:dbtype="numeric" dt:type="number"> </s:datatype></s:attributetype> <s:attributetype rs:basecolumn="lastname" rs:basetable="orders.dbf" rs:write="true" rs:nullable="false" rs:number="4" name="lastname"> <s:datatype rs:fixedlength="true" dt:maxlength="20" rs:dbtype="str" dt:type="string"> </s:datatype></s:attributetype> <s:attributetype rs:basecolumn="firstname" rs:basetable="orders.dbf" rs:write="true" rs:nullable="false" rs:number="5" name="firstname"> <s:datatype rs:fixedlength="true" dt:maxlength="10" rs:dbtype="str" dt:type="string"> </s:datatype></s:attributetype> <s:attributetype rs:basecolumn="orderdate" rs:basetable="orders.dbf" rs:write="true" rs:nullable="true" rs:number="6" name="orderdate"> <s:datatype rs:fixedlength="true" dt:maxlength="10" rs:dbtype="Date" dt:type="Date"> </s:datatype></s:attributetype> <s:attributetype name="freight" ...
Click image to display full size
Fig 1: Microsoft® Office Excel 2003: orderinfo.xml.
For data accessed through a Recital Database Gateway, such as Oracle, MySQL or PostgreSQL, the FETCH command can be used to save a cursor results set into an XML file:
// Connect to MySQL Database 'mydata' via Recital Database Gateway nStatHand=SQLSTRINGCONNECT("mys@mysql1:user1/pass1-mydata",.T.) if nStatHand < 1 dialog box [Could not connect] else DECLARE cursor1 CURSOR FOR; SELECT account_no, last_name, first_name FROM example OPEN cursor1 FETCH cursor1 INTO XML exa1.xml SQLDISCONNECT(nStatHand) endif
SQL: Importing
The CREATE TABLE statement allows a new table to be created based on the structure defined in an XML file. The data from the XML file can optionally be loaded into this new table if the LOAD keyword is included. For example, a new 'orderinfo' table can be created and populated with data from the orderinfo.xml file created by the SELECT...SAVE AS XML statement shown earlier:
open database southwind SELECT orders.orderid, orders.customerid,; employees.employeeid, employees.lastname, employees.firstname,; orders.orderdate, orders.freight, orders.requireddate,; orders.shippeddate, orders.shipvia, orders.shipname,; orders.shipaddress, orders.shipcity,; orders.shipregion, orders.shippostalcode, orders.shipcountry,; customers.companyname, customers.address, customers.city,; customers.region, customers.postalcode, customers.country; FROM orders INNER JOIN customers; ON customers.customerid = orders.customerid,; orders INNER JOIN employees; ON orders.employeeid = employees.employeeid; SAVE AS XML orderinfo CREATE TABLE orderinfo FROM XML orderinfo LOAD
The INSERT statement can be used to load data when the table structure already exists. Taking our earlier orderinfo.xml file again, the data can be loaded using INSERT:
open database southwind; SELECT orders.orderid, orders.customerid,; employees.employeeid, employees.lastname, employees.firstname,; orders.orderdate, orders.freight, orders.requireddate,; orders.shippeddate, orders.shipvia, orders.shipname,; orders.shipaddress, orders.shipcity,;; orders.shipregion, orders.shippostalcode, orders.shipcountry,; customers.companyname, customers.address, customers.city,; customers.region, customers.postalcode, customers.country; FROM orders INNER JOIN customers; ON customers.customerid = orders.customerid,; orders INNER JOIN employees; ON orders.employeeid = employees.employeeid; SAVE AS XML orderinfo CREATE TABLE orderinfo FROM XML orderinfo INSERT INTO orderinfo FROM XML orderinfo
The examples above show the export and import in a single piece of code. To transfer data between binary-incompatible platforms, the export phase using SELECT...SAVE AS XML would be carried out on the source platform, the resulting XML file would be transferred to the target platform, then the import phase using CREATE TABLE...LOAD or CREATE TABLE + INSERT would be run on the target platform.
Recital/4GL
The Recital/4GL offers the ability to export data into XML files using the COPY TO ... TYPE XML command and import from XML using the XMLFIRST() and XMLNEXT() functions.
Recital/4GL: Exporting
The COPY TO command can be used to export data from Recital and other natively supported tables out to a wide range of formats. This includes exporting to an XML file. The '.xml' file extension is added automatically. The COPY TO command can be used to export an entire table:
open database southwind use orders copy to orders type xml
or, using the FIELDS clause and the FOR or WHILE clauses, restrict the field list and export only those records which match a particular condition:
open database southwind use orders copy to orders type xml fields orderid for year(orderdate) = 1996
Only the orderid field from those records which match the condition is exported:
<x-ml xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" xmlns:rs="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset" xmlns:dt="uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882" xmlns:s="uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3- 00AA00C14882"> <s:schema id="RowsetSchema"> <s:elementtype rs:updatable="true" content="eltOnly" name="row"> <s:attributetype rs:basecolumn="ORDERID" rs:basetable="ORDERS" rs:write="true" rs:nullable="true" rs:number="1" name="ORDERID"> <s:datatype rs:fixedlength="true" rs:precision="10" rs:scale="0" dt:maxlength="10" rs:dbtype="numeric" dt:type="number"> </s:datatype></s:attributetype> </s:elementtype> </s:schema> <rs:data> <z:row orderid="10248"> <z:row orderid="10249"> <z:row orderid="10250"> <z:row ...
Recital/4GL: Importing
Data from an XML file can be extracted one record at a time using the XMLFIRST() and XMLNEXT() functions. XMLFIRST() reads the first record from an XML file and loads information from the file into a series of memory variables and arrays. The record data is loaded into a one-dimensional array which is created automatically. Each element in the array contains the data for its corresponding field in string format. The field names are loaded into another automatically-created array. The XMLNEXT() function works in a similar way to deal with all the subsequent records in the XML file. The XMLCOUNT() function can be used, as in the example below, to determine how many data records the XML file has.
The Recital/4GL includes a vast range of functions for manipulation and conversion of arrays and their individual elements. In the example program below, the XMLFIRST() and XMLNEXT() functions are used to sequentially extract each record from an XML file, whose name is passed to the program as a parameter. Once loaded into an array, the data is converted to the correct Recital data type then appended into a table. The table name is also passed as a parameter.
procedure replaceit append blank for i = 1 to numfields if type(field(i)) = "N" replace &(field(i)) with val(data[&i]) elseif type(field(i)) = "D" replace &(field(i)) with stod(data[&i]) elseif type(field(i)) = "T" replace &(field(i)) with ctot(data[&i]) elseif type(field(i)) = "L" replace &(field(i)) with iif(data[&i]="T",.T.,.F.) elseif type(field(i)) = "Y" replace &(field(i)) with val(data[&i]) else replace &(field(i)) with data[&i] endif next return procedure starthere parameters cTable, cFile numfields=xmlfirst(cFile,targ,trans,where,fldnames,data) if numfields < 1 dialog box [No records in XML file] else use &cTable replaceit() endif numrecs = xmlcount(cFile) if numrecs > 1 numleft = numrecs -1 for i = 1 to numleft xmlnext(trans,where,fldnames,data) replaceit() next endif return
Alternative Import/Export Methods
Other features exist in Recital to facilitate the import and export of data:
RDDs
The RDDs, Replaceable Database Drivers, are available on Windows, Linux and all supported 32-bit UNIX platforms. They allow for the use and creation of database tables and indexes in FoxPro, dBase and Clipper formats. The file format is the same across all the platforms that support the RDDs, allowing the tables and indexes to be transferred as required. The formats are also supported by a wide range of third-party products as well as their originating database systems. For more information on the RDDs, please see the online documentation on Xbase migration and the SET FILETYPE command.
BUILD/INSTALL
These are Recital/4GL commands for the export (BUILD) and import (INSTALL) of Recital tables and their associated memo, dictionary and multiple index files in ASCII format to allow them to be transferred across binary incompatible platforms. For more information, please see the online documentation on Recital/4GL commands.
COPY Commands
The COPY TO, COPY STRUCTURE, COPY STRUCTURE EXTENDED and CREATE FROM commands can all be used to enable data to be transferred between different formats and different platforms. For more information, please see the online documentation on Recital/4GL commands.
Appendix 1: Microsoft® ActiveX® Data Objects XML Format
For detailed information on the Microsoft® ActiveX® Data Objects XML Format, please consult the following Microsoft documentation:
Link |
- For building shared libraries on the MAC the following need to be set
-
- The shared library file extension should be .dylib
- The compile flag is -dynamic
- For accessing the shared libraries at runtime
-
- DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH needs to be set to the location of the shared libraries
- Useful utilities for shared library support
-
- The following command will display the table of contents of the dynamically linked library
otool -TV sharedlibraryfile.dylib

If you are running your Redhat/Centos or Fedora machine in an enterprise environment you may be sitting behind a network proxy server like squid.
If you try and update or install software it will fail with timeouts or errors contacting the repository mirrors.
To configure YUM to work with your proxy server you need to add the following line to your /etc/yum.conf file.
Anonymous proxy configuration:
proxy=http://yourproxyip:port/
If your proxy server requires authentication add the following lines to your /etc/yum.conf file instead.
proxy=http://yourproxyip:port/ proxy_username=youruser proxy_password=yourpassword
You will be able to update and install software now, give it a go!
In this article Barry Mavin, CEO and Chief Software Architect for Recital provides details on how the Recital Database Server can be used to provide a solution for Universal Data Integration.
Overview
The Recital Database Server handles universal cross-platform data access to a wide range of data sources. The database server natively handles full remote SQL data access to Recital, Visual FoxPro, FoxPro, FoxBASE, Clipper and older dBase data. Using Bridges, it handles full remote SQL data access to C-ISAM and OpenVMS RMS. Using gateway connections, it handles full remote SQL data access to Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, server-side ODBC, server-side JDBC and server-side OLE DB data sources. With its ability to access data using server-side ODBC, JDBC and OLE DB drivers from clients on all supported operating systems (Windows, Linux, Unix, OpenVMS), the Recital Database Server is an ideal Data Integration Solution for applications of all sizes and complexity.
Universal Data Integration Solutions
There are several ways in which data may be accessed by the Database Server.
Table 1:
Client Universal Data Access solutions for accessing local or remote data.
Client | Solution |
---|---|
Recital | Use remote gateway connections |
Visual FoxPro | Use the Universal ODBC Driver |
Java (all platforms) | Use the Universal JDBC Driver |
.NET Framework | Use the Universal .NET Data Provider |
Microsoft Office | Use the Universal ODBC Driver |
Windows Mobile | Use the Universal Compact Framework .NET Data Provider |
PHP on Linux | Use the Universal ODBC Driver for Linux |
Mono on Linux | Use the Universal .NET Data Provider |
Others | If the data source you want to access is not in the list above, then you can use a remote ODBC, JDBC or OLE DB gateway. You can find examples of connection strings for most ODBC and OLE DB data sources by clicking here. |
Table 2:
Windows Server Universal Data Access solutions accessible from any remote client running on Windows, Linux, Unix or OpenVMS:
Data Source | Solution |
---|---|
Recital | Native support (See table 1) |
Visual FoxPro | Native support (See table 1) |
FoxPro | Native support (See table 1) |
FoxBASE | Native support (See table 1) |
Clipper | Native support (See table 1) |
dBase | Native support (See table 1) |
C-ISAM | Use a bridge (See table 1) |
Access | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=\somepath\mydb.mdb;User Id=admin;Password=;" |
Exchange | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:Provider=ExOLEDB.DataSource;Data Source=http://servername/publicstore" |
Excel | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\MyExcel.xls;" |
Oracle | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:Provider=msdaora;Data Source=TheOracleDB;User Id=xxxxx;Password=xxxxx;" |
SQL Server | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=Aron1;Initial Catalog=pubs;User Id=sa;Password=asdasd;" |
MySQL | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:Provider=MySQLProv;Data Source=mydb;User Id=xxxxx;Password=xxxxx;" |
IBM DB2 | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:Provider=DB2OLEDB;Network Transport Library=TCPIP;Network Address=XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX;Initial Catalog=MyCtlg;Package Collection=MyPkgCol;Default Schema=Schema;User ID=MyUser;Password=MyPW" |
Sybase ASA | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:Provider=ASAProv;Data source=myASA" |
Sybase ASE | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:Provider=Sybase.ASEOLEDBProvider;Srvr=myASEserver,5000;Catalog=myDBname;User Id=username;Password=password" |
IBM Informix | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:Provider=Ifxoledbc.2;password=myPw;User ID=myUser;Data Source=dbName@serverName;Persist Security Info=true" |
Ingres | Use a gateway connection gateway="odbc:dsn=data_source_name" |
Firebird | Use a gateway connection gateway="odbc:dsn=data_source_name" |
IBM AS400 iSeries | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:PROVIDER=IBMDA400; DATA SOURCE=MY_SYSTEM_NAME;USER ID=myUserName;PASSWORD=myPwd" |
Interbase | Use a gateway connection gateway="oledb:provider=sibprovider;location=localhost:;data source=c:\databases\gdbs\mygdb.gdb;user id=xxxxx;password=xxxxx" |
Others |
If the data source you want to access is not in the list above, then you can use server-side ODBC, JDBC or OLE DB. |
Table 3:
Linux and Unix Server Universal Data Access solutions accessible from any remote client running on Windows, Linux, Unix or OpenVMS:
Data Source | Solution |
---|---|
Recital | Native support (See table 1) |
Visual FoxPro | Native support (See table 1) |
FoxPro | Native support (See table 1) |
FoxBASE | Native support (See table 1) |
Clipper | Native support (See table 1) |
dBase | Native support (See table 1) |
C-ISAM | Use a bridge (See table 1) |
Oracle | Use a gateway connection gateway="oracle:Connection_String" |
MySQL | Use a gateway connection gateway="mysql:Connection_String" |
IBM DB2 | Use a gateway connection gateway="db2:Connection_String" |
PostgreSQL | Use a gateway connection gateway="postgres:Connection_String" |
Others |
If the data source you want to access is not in the list above, then you can use a server-side JDBC driver. |
Table 4:
OpenVMS Server Universal Data Access solutions accessible from any remote client running on Windows, Linux, Unix or OpenVMS:
Data Source | Solution |
---|---|
Recital | Native support (See table 1) |
Visual FoxPro | Native support (See table 1) |
FoxPro | Native support (See table 1) |
FoxBASE | Native support (See table 1) |
Clipper | Native support (See table 1) |
dBase | Native support (See table 1) |
RMS | Use a bridge (See table 1) |
Others |
If the data source you want to access is not in the list above, then you can use a server-side JDBC driver. |
Supported Data Sources
Native Data Access
The Recital Database Server has native built-in support for the following data sources:
- Recital
- Visual FoxPro
- FoxPro
- FoxBASE
- Clipper
- dBase
You can setup tables to work with using the Database Administration Tool in Recital Enterprise Studio.
Bridges
Using Bridges, you can access the following data sources as if they were standard Recital/FoxPro tables:
- CISAM
- OpenVMS RMS
You can setup bridges using the Database Administration Tool in Recital Enterprise Studio.
Gateways/Connections
Using Gateways, you can transparently access the following local or remote data sources:
- Recital
- Oracle
- ODBC (Server-side ODBC data sources)
- JDBC (Server-side JDBC data sources)
- OLEDB Use this to connect to SQL Server and other Windows OLE DB data sources)
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
Remote Data Object functions
Recital 10 includes a complete and robust set of data source independent functions for accession MySQL, Oracle, DB2 and Postgres. This article explains how to use them.
Client Data Access drivers
Included with the Recital Database Server are three Client drivers. These Client drivers can access any data sources supported by the Recital Database Server. They are not restricted to accessing only Recital data. They can be used to access server-side ODBC, JDBC and OLE DB data sources also.
Recital Universal .NET Data Provider
Use this client driver when building .NET applications with Visual Studio .NET. 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.
Key features of the Recital Universal .NET Data Provider:
- Fully Internet enabled
The Recital Universal .NET Data Provider works across the internet providing access to a wide range of data sources located on remote servers running Windows, Linux, Unix and OpenVMS. - SQL Server compatible
The Recital Universal .NET Data Provider is plug compatible with the .NET Framework SQL Server Data Provider. - Cross-platform Data Integration
Using the Recital Universal .NET Data Provider, you can connect to remote Windows, Linux, Unix or OpenVMS servers and access any data source supported by the Recital Database Server. - Managed code
The Recital Universal .NET Data Adaptor written in C# is 100% .NET Framework managed code. - Runs on Windows Mobile
The Recital Universal .NET Data Adaptor runs under the .NET Compact Framework on Windows Mobile.
Recital Universal JDBC Driver
The JDBC API is the industry standard for database-independent connectivity between the Java programming language and a wide range of databases. The JDBC API provides a call-level API for SQL-based database access. JDBC technology allows you to use the Java programming language to exploit "Write Once, Run Anywhere" capabilities for applications that require access to enterprise data.
Key features of the Recital Universal JDBC Driver:
- Fully Internet enabled
The Recital Universal JDBC driver works across the internet providing access to a wide range of data sources located on remote servers running Windows, Linux, Unix and OpenVMS. - JDBC 3.0 API
The Recital Universal JDBC driver supports the JDBC 3.0 API. - Pure Java Type 3 Driver
The Recital Universal JDBC driver is a 100% pure Java Type 3 driver. - Full Access to Metadata
The JDBC API provides metadata access that enables the development of sophisticated applications that need to understand the underlying facilities and capabilities of a specific database connection. - Cross-platform Data Integration
Using the Recital Universal JDBC driver, you can connect to remote Windows, Linux, Unix or OpenVMS servers and access any data source supported by the Recital Database Server. - No Installation
A pure JDBC technology-based driver does not require special installation; it is automatically downloaded as part of the applet that makes the JDBC calls. The Recital Universal JDBC Driver is 100% java.
Recital Universal ODBC Driver
Connect to remote data from Microsoft Office or other applications that support ODBC data access. The Recital Universal ODBC Driver is also available for Linux and Unix.
Key features of the Recital Universal ODBC Driver:
- Fully Internet enabled
The Recital Universal ODBC driver works across the internet providing access to a wide range of data sources located on remote servers running Windows, Linux, Unix and OpenVMS. - Works with Crystal Reports
The Recital Universal ODBC driver supports the SQL syntax generated by Crystal Reports. - Works with Microsoft Office
The Recital Universal ODBC driver works with Microsoft Office products. - Works with PHP on Linux
The Recital Universal ODBC driver is available for Linux and works with PHP.
The Openfiler NAS/SAN Appliance (NSA) is a Storage Management Operating System / NAS Appliance distribution. It is powered by the Linux 2.6 kernel and Open Source applications such as Apache, Samba, LVM2, ext3, Linux NFS and iSCSI Enterprise Target. Openfiler combines these ubiquitous technologies into a small, easy to manage solution fronted by a powerful web-based management interface. Openfiler allows you to build a Network Attached Storage (NAS) and/or Storage Area Network (SAN) appliance, using industry-standard hardware, in less than 10 minutes of installation time.
Building upon the popularity of server virtualization technologies such as VMware, Virtual Iron, and Xen, Openfiler can also be deployed as a virtual machine instance or on a bare metal machine.
This deployment flexibility of Openfiler ensures that storage administrators are able to make the best use of system performance and storage capacity resources when allocating and managing networked storage in a multi-platform environment.
Openfiler is ideally suited for use with High Availability Recital applications as it incorporates:
- Heartbeat cluster manager
- drbd disk replication
- CIFS
- NFS
- Software and hardware RAID
- FTP
- rsync
- HTTP/DAV
- iSCSI
- LVM2
- Multiple NIC bonding for High Availability
- Powerful web-based GUI
Recital provides the following additional benefits:
- Easy to Install and Deploy - Users can set up Recital in minutes enabling organizations to deliver new applications faster than other databases.
- Easy to Administer - Recital is a low administration database that eliminates the need for highly trained, skilled, and costly database administrators to maintain the database.
- High Performance - Superior database performance for the most demanding of OLTP applications. Additionally, Clustered Recital provides 99.999% availability.
- Embeddable Library - Recital Embedded Edition provides in-process data storage engine that delivers all the features of a traditional relational database but in a size which makes it ideally suited for ISVs/VARs who need a small footprint and easy to use toolkit.
- Platform Independence - Recital runs on Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Windows, and Mac OS X giving organizations complete flexibility in delivering a solution on the platform of their choice.
If you have 4 GB or more RAM use the Linux kernel compiled for PAE capable machines. Your machine may not show up total 4GB ram. All you have to do is install PAE kernel package.
This package includes a version of the Linux kernel with support for up to 64GB of high memory. It requires a CPU with Physical Address Extensions (PAE).
The non-PAE kernel can only address up to 4GB of memory. Install the kernel-PAE package if your machine has more than 4GB of memory (>=4GB).
# yum install kernel-PAE
If you want to know how much memory centos is using type this in a terminal:
# cat /proc/meminfo
I am pleased to finally report that the Centos release of Redhats 5.3 has been built and is available for download from http://www.centos.org/
The highlights of this release can be found at the following URL: http://www.redhat.com
The main areas of interest in my opinion excluding critical secirty fixes are:
- Updated hardwaresupport support for the new Intel Core i7 (Nehalem) chips
- Beefed up virtualiseation support increasing CPU and Ram limits of Virtual machines.
- Inclusion of the fully open sourced OpenJDK. This makes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 the first enterprise-ready solution with a fully open source Java stack when combined with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform.
For those who already have Centos 5.2 installed you can simply receive the update via Yum.
Before you do the following, check that you do not have 3rd party repo's and the Centos-testing repo enabled.
You can display the currently enabled repo's using the following command.
$ yum repolist
Then as root at the prompt type:
$ yum update
This article looks at the range of client access mechanisms for Windows that can be used with the Recital C-ISAM Bridge and details bridge configuration and usage.
Overview
Just because the format of data is regarded as 'legacy' does not make that data in any way obsolete. Modern client interfaces can not only extend the life of long-term data, but also provide different ways to analyse and gain advantage from that data.
Recital Corporation provides a range of solutions to interface to Informix compliant C-ISAM data on Linux or UNIX from Windows clients.
.NET
Click image to display full size
Fig 1: Recital Mirage .NET application accessing the C-ISAM Demo table.
Recital offers two alternative ways to access C-ISAM data using Microsoft .NET:
The Recital .NET Data Provider is a managed Data Provider written in C# that provides full compatibility with the Microsoft SQLserver and OLE DB data providers that ship with the .NET framework. It is fully integrated with the Visual Studio .NET IDE supporting data binding and automatic code generation using the form designer. The Recital .NET Data Provider works in conjunction with the Recital Database Server for Linux or UNIX to access C-ISAM data.
Recital Mirage .NET is a complete solution for migrating, developing and deploying 4GL database applications. Recital Mirage .NET works in conjunction with the Recital Mirage .NET Application Server for Linux or UNIX to access C-ISAM data.
JDBC
Click image to display full size
Fig 2: Java™ Swing JTable accessing the C-ISAM Demo table via the Recital JDBC Driver.
The Recital JDBC Driver is an all Java Type 4 JDBC 3.0 Driver, allowing you to access C-ISAM data from Java applets and applications. The Recital JDBC Driver works in conjunction with the Recital Database Server for Linux or UNIX to access C-ISAM data.
ODBC
Click image to display full size
Fig 3: Microsoft® Office Excel 2003 Pivot Chart and Pivot Table accessing the C-ISAM Demo table via the Recital ODBC Driver.
The Recital ODBC Driver is an ODBC 3.0 Driver, allowing you to access C-ISAM data from your preferred ODBC based Windows applications. You can develop your own applications in languages such as C++ or Visual Basic, manipulate the data in a spreadsheet package or word processor document and design charts, graphs and reports. The Recital ODBC Driver works in conjunction with the Recital Database Server for Linux or UNIX to access C-ISAM data.
Configuring the Recital C-ISAM Bridge
Data access is achieved through a C-ISAM Bridge. This requires the creation of an empty Recital table that has the same structure as the C-ISAM file and of a RecitalC-ISAM Bridge file.
On Linux and UNIX, Recital Terminal Developer and the Recital Database Server come complete with an example C-ISAM data file, C-ISAM index and Recital C-ISAM bridge that can be used for testing and as a template for configuring your own C-ISAM bridges. The Recital Database Server also includes a bridge creation ini file.
Step 1:
Create a Recital table with the same structure as the C-ISAM file. The fields/columns in the structure file must exactly match the data type and length of those in the C-ISAM file. The Recital table will have one byte more in total record length due to the Recital record deletion marker.
To create the table, use the SQL CREATE TABLE command or the Recital Terminal Developer CREATE worksurface. The SQL CREATE TABLE command can be called directly:
SQLExecDirect: In: hstmt = 0x00761BE8, szSqlStr = "CREATE TABLE cisamdemo.str (DD Char(4) DESCRIPTION "Dd...", cbSqlStr = -3 Return: SQL_SUCCESS=0
or be included in a 4GL program:
// createtab.prg CREATE TABLE cisamdemo.str; (DD Char(4) DESCRIPTION "Dd",; CONFIRM Char(6) DESCRIPTION "Confirm",; PROCDATE Char(6) DESCRIPTION "Procdate",; CONTROL Char(5) DESCRIPTION "Control",; DOLLARS Decimal(13,2) DESCRIPTION "Dollars",; DEALER Char(5) DESCRIPTION "Dealer",; TERRITORY Char(2) DESCRIPTION "Territory",; WOREP Char(12) DESCRIPTION "Worep",; CURRTRAN Char(3) DESCRIPTION "Currtran",; TRADDATE Char(6) DESCRIPTION "Traddate",; CITY Char(10) DESCRIPTION "City",; ACCOUNT Char(11) DESCRIPTION "Account",; PRETRAN Char(2) DESCRIPTION "Pretran",; AFSREP Char(14) DESCRIPTION "Afsrep",; REPKEY Char(9) DESCRIPTION "Repkey",; BRANCH Char(3) DESCRIPTION "Branch",; WODEALER Char(5) DESCRIPTION "Wodealer",; BANKCODE Char(2) DESCRIPTION "Bankcode",; COMMRATE Decimal(6,4) DESCRIPTION "Commrate",; NEWREP Char(1) DESCRIPTION "Newrep",; SETTLE Char(1) DESCRIPTION "Settle",; POSTDATE Char(6) DESCRIPTION "Postdate") if file("cisamdemo.str") return .T. else return .F. endif // end of createtab.prg
Server-side 4GL programs can be called by all clients, e.g. from a Java class with a JDBC connection:
//--------------------------------- //-- create_str.java -- //--------------------------------- import java.sql.*; import java.io.*; import Recital.sql.*; public class create_str { public static void main(String argv[]) { try { new RecitalDriver(); String url = "jdbc:Recital:" + "SERVERNAME=cisamserver;" + "DIRECTORY=/usr/recital/data/southwind;" + "USERNAME=user;" + "PASSWORD=password"; Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, "user", "pass"); Statement stmt = con.createStatement(); CallableStatement sp = con.prepareCall("{call createtab}"); boolean res = sp.execute(); String outParam = sp.getString(1); System.out.println("Returned "+outParam); sp.close(); con.close(); } catch (Exception e) { System.out.flush(); System.err.flush(); DriverManager.println("Driver exception: " + e.getMessage()); e.printStackTrace(); } try { System.out.println("Press any key to continue..."); System.in.read(); } catch(IOException ie) { ; } } }
The table should be given a ‘.str’ file extension (rather than the default ‘.dbf’) to signify that this is a structure file only.
Please see the end of this article for information on matching Informix and Recital data types
Fig 4: Recital CREATE/MODIFY STRUCTURE worksurface for character mode table creation.
Step 2: Creating the Bridge File
If you have Recital installed on the server platform, the Bridge File can be created using the CREATE BRIDGE worksurface. The corresponding command to modify the bridge file is MODIFY BRIDGE <bridge file>. This is the cisamdemo.dbf bridge file in the CREATE/MODIFY BRIDGE WORKSURFACE:
> modify bridge cisamdemo.dbf
Fig 5: Recital CREATE BRIDGE/MODIFY BRIDGE worksurface for bridge creation.
For Recital Database Server clients, the Bridge File can be created using the Recital/SQL CREATE BRIDGE command:
Recital/SQL CREATE BRIDGE:
CREATE BRIDGE cisamdemo.dbf; TYPE "CISAM"; EXTERNAL "cisamdemo.dat"; METADATA "cisamdemo.str"; ALIAS "cisamdemo"
or:
CREATE BRIDGE cisamdemo.dbf; AS "type=CISAM;external=cisamdemo.dat;metadata=cisamdemo.str;alias=cisamdemo"
The examples above assume that the C-ISAM file, the bridge file and the Recital structure file are all in the current working directory. Full path information can be specified for the <externalname> and the <databasename>. For added flexibility, environment variables can be used to determine the path at the time the bridge is opened. Environment variables can be included for either or both the <externalname> and the <databasename>. A colon should be specified between the environment variable and the file name.
e.g.
CREATE BRIDGE cisamdemo.dbf; TYPE "CISAM"; EXTERNAL "DB_DATADIR:cisamdemo"; METADATA "DB_MIRAGE_PATH:cisamdemo.str"; ALIAS "cisamdemo"
Recital CREATE BRIDGE/MODIFY BRIDGE worksurface:
Fig 6: Recital CREATE BRIDGE/MODIFY BRIDGE worksurface - using environment variables.
Using the Bridge
The Bridge can now be used. To access the C-ISAM file, use the ‘alias’ specified in the Bridge definition.
SQL:
SELECT * FROM cisamdemo
Recital/4GL:
use cisamdemo
Indexes
The cisamdemo.dat file included in the Recital distributions for Linux and UNIX has three associated index keys in the cisamdemo.idx file:
Select area: 1 Database in use: cisamdemo Alias: cisamdemo Number of records: 4 Current record: 2 File Type: CISAM (C-ISAM) Master Index: [cisamdemo.idx key #1] Key: DD+CONFIRM+PROCDATE+CONTROL Type: Character Len: 21 (Unique) Index: [cisamdemo.idx key #2]
Key: DD+SUBSTR(CONFIRM,2,5)+TRADDATE+STR(DOLLARS,13,2) +CURRTRAN+ACCOUNT Type: Character Len: 42 Index: [cisamdemo.idx key #3] Key: DEALER+BRANCH+AFSREP+SUBSTR(PROCDATE,5,2) +SUBSTR(CONTROL,2,4) Type: Character Len: 28
The Recital C-ISAM bridge makes full use of the C-ISAM indexes. SQL SELECT statements with WHERE clauses are optimized based on any of the existing indexes when possible. The following ODBC SELECT call makes use of key #3 rather than sequentially searching through the data file.
SQLExecDirect: In: hstmt = 0x00761BE8, szSqlStr = "select * from cisamdemo where dealer+branch+afsrep=' 00161 595-7912", cbSqlStr = -3 Return: SQL_SUCCESS=0 Get Data All: "DD", "CONFIRM", "PROCDATE", "CONTROL", "DOLLARS", "DEALER", "TERRITORY", "WOREP", "CURRTRAN", "TRADDATE", "CITY", "ACCOUNT", "PRETRAN", "AFSREP", "REPKEY", "BRANCH", "WODEALER", "BANKCODE", "COMMRATE", "NEWREP", "SETTLE", "POSTDATE" "0159", " 15522", "930312", "13356", 4992.60, "00161", "19", "", "210", "930305", "", "70000100009", "", "595-7912", "930315791", "", "", "59", 0.0000, "1", "", "930315" 1 row fetched from 22 columns.
Using the Recital/4GL, the primary index is set as the master index when the bridge is first opened. Any secondary indexes can be selected using the SET ORDER TO <expN> command. The Recital/4GL SEEK or FIND commands and SEEK() function can be used to search in the current master index.
> SET ORDER TO 3 Master index: [cisamdemo.idx key #3] > SEEK “00161 595-7912”
Appendix 1: Data Types
Informix |
Recital |
Byte |
Numeric |
Char |
Character |
Character |
Character |
Date |
Date |
Datetime |
Character |
Decimal |
Numeric |
Double Precision |
Float |
Float |
Real |
16 Bit Integer |
Short |
Integer |
Numeric |
Interval |
Character |
32 Bit Long |
Integer |
Money |
Numeric |
Numeric |
Numeric |
Real |
Numeric |
Smallfloat |
Numeric |
Smallint |
Numeric |
Text |
Unsupported |
Varchar |
Character |
Appendix 2: C-ISAM RDD Error Messages
The following errors relate to the use of the Recital CISAM Replaceable Database Driver (RDD). They can be received as an ‘errno <expN>’ on Recital error messages:
ERRNO() |
Error Description |
100 |
Duplicate record |
101 |
File not open |
102 |
Invalid argument |
103 |
Invalid key description |
104 |
Out of file descriptors |
105 |
Invalid ISAM file format |
106 |
Exclusive lock required |
107 |
Record claimed by another user |
108 |
Key already exists |
109 |
Primary key may not be used |
110 |
Beginning or end of file reached |
111 |
No match was found |
112 |
There is no “current” established |
113 |
Entire file locked by another user |
114 |
File name too long |
115 |
Cannot create lock file |
116 |
Memory allocation request failed |
117 |
Bad custom collating |
118 |
Duplicate primary key allowed |
119 |
Invalid transaction identifier |
120 |
Exclusively locked in a transaction |
121 |
Internal error in journaling |
122 |
Object not locked |