Jim,
Do you mean the resource cost of hitting tables in the database? In
my opinion, that's a pretty small cost.
The advantage of the technique Scott described is that, by using a
direct dbms action, which pretty much has to be an SQL command,
you bring into play all of the functions available in R:Base, none of
which are SQL features by themselves, but are specific to
R:Base/Oterro.
Scott used the most basic SQL command SELECT, and put an
R:Base function in the expression following the work SELECT.
The SYS_TABLE table has nothing in particular to do with the results.
It could be any table name at all. Scott chose that one because he
knows every database has a table with that name. He did not select
any column information from the table. SELECT was just a syntax that
works through Oterro. And SELECT has to have a table name in its
syntax.
On your copy of the CD from the 1999 Developers' Conference, I
contributed some simple Tango (3.6) Application Files that took
advantage of this technique. You would have to modify these for your
own datasource, but the ones that use techniques like these are
RPrompt.taf -- Most of the power of an R> prompt in your Tango
application.
dbSettings.taf -- A Tango equivalent of the SHOW command. Needs to
be updated for new Oterro/R:Base settings in version 6.5.
Manuel, in fact I used a successor to RPrompt.taf recently to fix a
corrupted AUTONUM formula. Through the internet, I was able to type
in AUTONUM col IN table DELETE and push the SUBMIT button, and
then AUTONUM col IN table USING 1, 3567 and push the SUBMIT
button.
That's because AUTONUM is one of the commands available through
Oterro, and the TAF was sending what I typed as a direct DBMS
command.
(RPrompt.taf is a dangerous TAF. Just as dangerous as an R> prompt.
Build user-login security into it if you put it on a server exposed to the
Internet, and change the name of the TAF, and maybe even put extra
tests in for direct DBMS commands attempted that do not start with
the word SELECT.)
Bill
On Mon, 24 Sep 2001 09:51:58 -0400, Jim Limburg wrote:
>The other thing I wonder about this is when you executing
>something like this are you going to the expense of
>creating a record set when your using Oterro/RBase - ODBC.
>I am thinking more in an Oterro environment through VB...
>I know when you execute just a single Executable command
>against through an ADO object your are doing this at the
>expense of a creating a record set just for a quick
>simple responce. I have used this method, but would like
>to find better ways.
