8 FrontBase interface tutorial

8.1 On the FrontBase interface

At present time the FrontBase interface in Beta is available on the following platforms: Solaris and Linux

Although FrontBase is also available for Windows this is not supported by the Beta interface. The client library supplied by Frontbase requires Apple's WebObjects.

8.2 Downloading and installing FrontBase

You can download FrontBase at

http://www.frontbase.com

(push download at the top of the screen and follow the instructions given).

Installing FrontBase on Solaris:
Log on as 'root', and type the following:

tar -xvf <the .tar file just downloaded> 
sh install.sh

Installing FrontBase on RedHat Linux:
Log on as 'root', and type the following:

rpm -i <the .rpm file just downloaded>

8.3 Creating databases and users using the sql92 tool

sql92 is a small tool included in the FrontBase installation. By default it is located in

FrontBase/bin/sql92

A small example: start sql92 and type the following:

create database firstdb;
connect to firstdb user _system;
create user firstuser;
disconnect current;
connect to firstdb user firstuser;
disconnect current;

8.4 Communicating with FrontBase from a Beta program:

Almost everything is done the same way as when communicating with Oracle, ODBC etc.

The two major differences:

The Beta program must have its ORIGIN set to
```
'~beta/betadbc/betadbc-frontbase'
```
The Beta program must select the host on which the FrontBase server is running before opening a connection. Selecting the host is done by using
```
<your connection>.selecthost
```

Please note that shared variables is currently not possible when using the FrontBase interface. Suggested workaround: build your SQL statement dynamically using append or putformat.

A small example:

ORIGIN '~beta/betadbc/betadbc-frontbase';
-- program: Descriptor --
(#
   frontbaseCon: @Connection; 
   stmt: @frontbaseCon.DirectSQLStatement; 

   do
   'brage.mjolner.dk' -> frontbaseCon.selecthost;
   ('firstdb','firstuser','')->frontbaseCon.open;

   'create table Students("Name" varchar(100), "Age" integer);'->stmt.open; 
   stmt.execute;
   stmt.close;
   frontbaseCon.close;
#)

8.5 Types in FrontBase and Beta

The following table shows the possible types of data in FrontBase, and the type to which they are mapped in Beta:

FrontBase type	Beta type
Boolean	booleanObject
Integer	integerObject
SmallInt	integerObject
Float	realObject
Real	realObject
Double precision	realObject
Numeric	realObject
Decimal	realObject
Char	text
VarChar	text
Bit	Unsupported type
VarBit	Unsupported type
Date	time (with hh:mm:ss = 00:00:00)
Time	time (with yy-mm-dd = 00-01-01)
TimeTZ	Unsupported type
Timestamp	time (with both date and time set)
TimestampTZ	Unsupported type
YearMonth	Unsupported type
DayTime	Unsupported type
CLOB	Unsupported type
BLOB	Unsupported type

8.6 Additional information

FrontBase homepage:

http://www.frontbase.com

Documentation on the SQL92 standard (a.k.a. SQL2), which is met by FrontBase:

http://www.frontbase.com/docs/5.html
http://cui.unige.ch/db-research/Enseignement/analyseinfo/SQL92/BNFindex.html
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~shadow/sql/sql2bnf.aug92.txt

The BetaDBC Library - Reference Manual and Tutorial

[Modified: Thursday November 9^th 2000 at 16:07]