New controls for FWH

[Marco Turco]

Marco, Vilian,

I really feel honoured for your trust in FIveTech and me.

We are going to review this sqlite issue and see what we can do

Great !!

[Marcelo Via Giglio]

Hi,

and what happend with ADS, it can work in stand alone and C/S mode without change source code.

I really like ADS you have the best of two worlds, ISAM navigation table and SQL, but the problem is the cost for C/S solution.

This is strange for me, because when the people ask for reporter some say there is Fast Report, now for database there are many options too.

And yes the Database is a [x]Harbour's issue.

I think we need a roadmap, there are many things unfinished

sorry but it's my opinion

Regards

Marcelo

[xProgrammer]

Hi all

I can supply a solution that is:

genuinely client server
will run happily stand alone or distributed
will run windows linux (mixed any way you like) and presumably any OS supported by [x]Harbour / hbtip library
retains data in dbf format
stand alone computer can become server with no change necessary at all
is based on IP sockets
will directly updated properties of an [x]Harbour object
easy to monitor what users are doing / debug
server software is implemented in [x]Harbour so easy for FiveWinners to understand / modify / contibute to
is fast
saves programming time
is probably easier for someone with an xBase background to understand than SQL
can be simply extended to provide client server access to information that isn't in a data base (eg supply a file name and get back formatted information extracted from that file)
returns warning and / or error information should the circumstances warrant
is OOP based

What it doesn't (currently) support is:

ad hoc queries (but you can use your current code or third party add on hosted on the server if you need ad hoc queries. Could be added to current system.
transaction logging / roll forward / roll back. I have implemented this in previous programs so it could be added
multi-threading on the server. This is probably not hard to add but I haven't delved into multi threaded code yet. So currently the server software is invoked n times to support n users. This would need to be changed to support a large number of users
Another possible limitation is maximum open files given above as I open all files up front and leave them open. This could be changed if necessary but gives speed advantage.

What I can do if desired

supply the source and a description of how it all works and how it might be extended
supply sample code as to its use

What I won't do

I am not set up to offer support like Antonio does, nor do I have the time. I would be prepared to help a single person who wanted to act as a support person for others (eg Antonio) if people were interested
Guarantee that the software will be enhanced along the lines referred to in what it doesn't (currently) support above although it is likely that I will do some of them at some stage

What I would like

Nothing other than feedback if people are interested

What next?

Nothing unless there is interest. If there is I will post a description of how it all works. This isn't exactly main stream and I certainly understand that no-one may be interested. But then again if you went with the main stream you would be writing java or C++ or VB or such like.

Regards
xProgrammer

[Marco Turco]

And yes the Database is a [x]Harbour's issue.

Hi Marcelo,
pls. note - just to be clear - that we are not asking to Antonio to develop a new database or a RDD that is the work the [x]Harbour's development team did with CDX, NTX RDDs etc.

The Sqlite and Firebird database already exist,
they are already used by thousands of programmers, they are open source, developed, tested and manteined by a large development team,
we are just asking Antonio to develop a wrapper and a class to simply access those database directly using their database API.

So, you could continue to work as usual, however - as I said, and in my opinion - it is more convenient to use those databases that permit to use a single architecture to work either in a totally embedded stand-alone/small net mode and also as client/server than continue to use DBFs with thirth part arrangement (ADS and others).

Some critics of the SQL architecture are often related to the ISAM table navigation mode for the DBFs, but this is a philosofic question, it is just a query optimization problem related, I will start on the next week to migrate to Sqlite a - relatively small - commercial product we sell and when ready I will provide the link to download the executable in order you check it directly.

Pls. note there are differences beetween Sqlite and Firebird:
either are sql database engine but Sqlite (http://www.sqlite.org) born as a stand alone/small net solution with a (free) client/server module and Firebird (http://www.firebirdsql.org) born as a client/server solution with an embedded module (just a pair of DLL to include in the app dir) to runs as stand alone.

[George]

Otto wrote:

George,

To my previous mail:
DBF
For example in AUSTRIA the only database files you may use as export files are dbf files:
Quote:
Zurverfügungstellung von Daten auf Datenträgern gem. §§131 und 132 BAO, jeweils Abs. 3, letzter Satz
1.3.1 Zulässige Exportformate
DBF-Dateien
Zusätzlich sind DBF-Dateien (z.B. dBase 3 oder dBase IV) zulässig. Dieses Format wird Dateiformaten, die Trennzeichen oder feste Feldbreite verwenden, gleichgestellt.

Therefore as you use dbf-files you don’t have to care about export.
Best regards,
Otto

Otto
I am using now ADS, instead of DBF, but I concede that I like DBF because is easy to use and we, the programmers coming from Clipper, know everything about DBF.
The issue here is DBF is going to die like Clipper did. That is the reason of my statement:

It's critical to our future, as [x]Harbour + FWH programmers, moving ASAP from DBF to a more standardized database

Regards

George

[Otto]

FYI--

Sybase Techwave includes a two day seminar on ADS. It is free. You pay to get there and for hotel accommodations. The next one is in Washington DC. This is a world class event worth attending.

http://www.sybase.com/techwave/register

The seminar as well as all materials, a 5 user license of the server, breakfast, lunch, and dinner are also included at no cost. I will be attending. Hope to see some of you there.

Reinaldo.
reinaldocrespo

I think this is good news seeing important companies promoting dbf databases.
(Sybase has partnered with SAP, a leading provider of enterprise software)

Best regards,
Otto

[George]

Otto
It's good to know that the new ADS owner SAP company will support ADS, but we have to wait a couple of years to be sure about this.
On the other hand ADS 10.0 (Advantage Database Server), updated this month by Sybase, is very different than Clipper's DBF that was updated many years ago (15?).

At this moment DBF database does not have a great future and is not suitable to continue using it in our applications.


Regards

George