> From DAVID WOLVERTON > > And to make sure I'm clear -- Tony - you are proposing a > 'middleware' tool to make U2 do something that in theory it > should be already intrinsic to the product - is that right?
Let's (un)define terms. "Middleware" - Something that is outside of the DBMS. This may be written using tools like UniObjects, UO.NET, or purchased tools. As to "a 'middleware' tool to make U2 do something that in theory it should be already intrinsic to the product": There are a lot of things that we all think these DBMS products should do, or we simply feel the features would be helpful enhancements. My position has always been that there are many things that the MV DBMS simply does not do well or at all, where the vendors have not added features that allow us to provide solutions that are compatible with the rest of the world. Rather than constantly fight this and ask these database providers to keep adding and fixing features inside the DBMS (that non-MVDBMS companies do not provide because they're unnecessary), I choose to use industry-standard coding practices (like the MVC=UI+BLL+DLL methods), and use the MVDBMS only for data storage and business application software. I don't ask the DBMS vendors for extensive external interfaces or convenience functions like PDF, etc. All of these things are done very well outside of the DBMS by other developers (for free or for fee), and it's easy to make use of the tools that are available. So I personally question whether the U2 SQL handling should exist at all, and I am not surprised if there are issues with it - though I'm sure others find it a welcome and reliable feature. The same goes for CallHTTP and some other functions that IBM and other companies have embedded into their database products. I (try to) avoid all of these issues that we see reported here on a daily basis, and keep my offerings platform independent, simply by not using platform-specific features. I've seen the problems involved in migrating platform-specific code to and from U2 and other products. I'm particularly inclined to eschew anything that locks code down to a specific platform, having seen many changes in the MV world, with Sequoia, GA, CItoh, Pick Systems, vMark, Informix, Ascential - and political decisions that companies like IBM make to simply stop supporting products or features. Because of all of this, platform independence is particularly important to me as a provider of services across many MV platforms. YMMV of course. Therefore, yes, I am proposing middleware components that extract data from the MV database and provide it to Crystal Reports - because it's easy and better in the long term to do so rather than spending more effort on the questionable components that are provided in the DBMS. (See notes below before responding to that.) > In my mind, if we generate the Schema, I'm thinking the > OLE-DB interface should "do" what I'm wanting without a 3rd > party tool I didn't say "third party" - you can use UO.NET for this purpose. Of course as a provider of "third party" products and services I'm happy if you choose mv.NET as a connectivity component, but I didn't suggest or imply this earlier, and there's no requirement here to purchase this or any other tools. > - It works fine with other tools - I'm trying to > figure out if we're just wrong (Crystal Reports works cleanly > at X number of sites and we've made a setup issue ) or if > we've found a 'true problem' - that no one can make Crystal > Reports work WITHOUT buying something else. > > Thanks! > DW That's all perfectly reasonable. As we've seen in other posts reasonably, I understand the question you're asking. I tend to propose alternatives which challenge whether the original question should be asked in the first place. I hope you get CR working direct with Unidata. My point was that if you were looking at this like other developers approach database access then the question probably would never have been necessary. Best as always, T Tony Gravagno Nebula Research and Development TG@ remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com Nebula R&D sells mv.NET and other Pick/MultiValue products worldwide, and provides related development and training services New mv.NET video: see the mv.NET category in our forum always.removethis.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/forum ------- u2-users mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
