In this article Barry Mavin, CEO and Chief Software Architect for Recital, details how to use the Client Drivers provided with the Recital Database Server to work with local or remote server-side OLE DB data sources.

Overview

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 JDBC Driver provides the same functionality for java applications.

The Recital Universal ODBC Driver provides the same functionality for applications that use ODBC.

Each of the above Client Drivers use a connection string to describe connections parameters.

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.

To connect to a server-side OLE DB data source, you use the gateway=value key/value pair in the following way.

gateway=oledb:oledb_connection_string_on_server

You can find examples of connection strings for most ODBC and OLE DB data sources by clicking here.

Example in C# using the Recital Universal .NET Data Provider:

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// 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, and a gateway to
// the SQL server Northwind database. It then 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()
{
	string gateway = "oledb:Provider=sqloledb;Initial Catalog=Northwind;
		Data Source=localhost;Integrated Security=SSPI";
	RecitalConnection swindConn = new 
		RecitalConnection("Data Source=localhost;gateway=\""+gateway+"\");
	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;
}

Example in Java using the Recital Universal JDBC Driver:

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// standard imports required by the JDBC driver
import java.sql.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.URL;
import java.math.BigDecimal;
import Recital.sql.*;
 
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// The following code example creates a Connection to the Recital 
// Database Server, and a gateway to the SQL server Northwind database. 
// It then retrieves all the customers.
public void SelectCustomers()
{
    // setup the Connection URL for JDBC
	String gateway = "oledb:Provider=sqloledb;Initial Catalog=Northwind;
		Data Source=localhost;Integrated Security=SSPI";
	String url = "jdbc:Recital:Data Source=localhost;gateway=\""+gateway+"\";
	// load the Recital Universal JDBC Driver
	new RecitalDriver();
 
	// create the connection
	Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url);
	// create the statement
	Statement stmt = con.createStatement();
	// perform the SQL query
	ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT CustomerID, CompanyName FROM Customers");
	// fetch the data
	while (rs.next()) 
	{
		String CompanyID = rs.getString("CustomerID");
		String CompanyName = rs.getString("CompanyName");
		// do something with the data...
	}
    
	// Release the statement
	stmt.close();
	
	// Disconnect from the server
	con.close();
}

In this article Barry Mavin, CEO and Chief Software Architect for Recital, gives details on Working with user-defined Functions in the Recital Database Server.

Overview

User-defined functions (UDFs) are collections of statements written in the Recital 4GL (compatible with Visual FoxPro) stored under a name and saved in a Database. User-defined functions are just-in-time compiled by the Recital database engine. User-defined functions can be used in SQL statements to extend the power and flexibility of the inbuilt functions. Using the Database Administrator in Recital Enterprise Studio, you can easily create, view, modify, and test Stored Procedures, Triggers, and user-defined functions.

Tip

Creating and Editing user-defined functions

To create a new User-defined function,  right-click the Procedures node in the Databases tree of the Project Explorer and choose Create. To modify an existing User-defined function select the User-defined function in the Databases Tree in the Project Explorer by double-clicking on it or selecting Modify from the context menu. By convertion we recommend that you name your User-defined functions beginning with "f_xxx_", where xxx is the name of the table that they are associated with.

Testing the user-defined function

To test run the user-defined function, select it 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 it.

Example

Example: user-defined function "f_order_details_total".

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// example user-defined function
function f_order_details_total(pUnitprice, pQuantity, pDiscount)
    return (pUnitprice + pQuantity + pDiscount) > 0
endfunc

Example: using the user-defined function in a SQL SELECT statement.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// sample code to use a user-defined function in a SQL SELECT statement
select * from customers where f_order_details_total(Unitprice, Quantity, Discount)

Using user-defined function libraries with the Recital Database Server

You can place all of the user-defined functions associated with a particular table into a procedure library. You then define an Open Trigger for the table that opens up the procedure library whenever the table is accessed. This is a much faster way of using user-defined functions as it reduces the amount of file open/close operations during a query and also simplifies development and maintenance.

By convertion we recommend that you should name the library using the convention "lib_xxx", where xxx is the name of the table that the library is associated with.

Example: procedure library in lib_order_details.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// example user-defined functions
function f_order_details_total(pUnitprice, pQuantity, pDiscount)
    return (pUnitprice * pQuantity - pDiscount) > 0
endfunc

function f_order_details_diff(pUnitprice, pQuantity, pDiscount, pValue)
    return f_order_details_total(pUnitprice, pQuantity, pDiscount) - pValue
endfunc

Example: Open Trigger in dt_order_details_open.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// This trigger will open up the procedure library when the table is opened
set procedure to lib_order_details additive

Example: Close Trigger in dt_order_details_close.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// This trigger will close the procedure library when the table is closed
close procedure lib_order_details

Example: using the user-defined function in a SQL SELECT statement.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// sample code to use a user-defined function in a SQL SELECT statement
select * from customers where f_order_details_total(Unitprice, Quantity, Discount)

User-defined functions can also be used with any of the Client Drivers that work with the Recital Database Server.

We are pleased to announce the release of Recital 10.0.2.

Here is a brief list of features and functionality that you will find in the 10.0.2 release. 

• New commands
  SAVE/RESTORE DATASESSION [TO variable]
  CONNECT "connectString"
  DISCONNECT 
• New functions (OData compatible)
  startsWith(haystack as character, needle as character)
  endsWith(haystack as character, needle as character)
  indexOf(haystack as character, needle as character)
  substringOf(haystack as character, needle as character)
  concat(expC1, expC2)
• New system variables
  _LASTINSERTEDSYNCNUM
• Enhanced commands
  Added CONNSTRING "connectingString" to the USE command to connect to remote servers (Recital, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, ODBC)
• Further SQL query optimizer improvements to boost performance
• Performance improvements in Recital Web
• Forced all temporary files into temp directory (improves performance when local tmpfs is used as temp directory and reduces network i/o)
• Fixed cookie and session variable problems in Recital Web
• Fixed problem with temporary files being left after some server queries involving memos and object data types
• Improved performance of the Windows ODBC driver
• Fixed a security flaw in Recital Web
• Fixed all reported bugs