Category: Zim:X Interacting With SQL Databases

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Exporting Zim Definitions to SQL

The export facility is used to translate Zim definitions for entity sets and/or data relationships and create them on the designated SQL server. The definitions of the resulting tables (with associated indexes) correspond to each exported Zim EntitySet or data relationship definition. The Zim definitions to be exported are selected from the EntitySets and Relationships…
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Importing SQL Table Definitions

If you are developing a Zim application to run against an existing SQL database, you must create an equivalent representation of that data in Zim. Zim’s definition interface translates SQL definitions into equivalent definitions in Zim. The mapping of SQL tables to Zim EntitySets or data relationships is straight-forward. A Zim developer must first establish…
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Distributing Data Between Zim and the SQL Database

When developing client-server database applications, it is important to consider the location of the data. Any data under the control of the database server contributes to both the load on the network as well as load on the server machine. Because of this, it is important to analyze the data associated with a given application…
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Zim Applications and SQL Database Servers

In Client-Server applications, you do not have to do anything special to access or manipulate data stored in the SQL database. The data definitions of objects under Zim’s control and the data definitions of objects not under Zim’s control are exactly the same. To an application, Zim manipulates both in exactly the same way. The…
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Transactions

Zim supports two types of transactions: implicit and explicit. An implicit transaction is associated with each individual Zim command that accesses the database in some manner (either read/only or read/write). When the command ends, all locks that were acquired are released and any database updates are committed to the database. If the command fails (e.g.…
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Establishing the SQL Database

If the Zim application being developed is based on an existing SQL database, then the Zim definition interface needs to be executed in order to import the definitions of the relevant tables from the SQL server and populate the Zim data dictionary so that the application can be developed. Conversely, if the Zim application has…
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Exporting Zim Table Definitions

If you have developed an application in Zim and want to maintain a portion of the data in an SQL database, the definitions of those objects must be maintained in the SQL database as well as in Zim. Zim’s SQL definition interface translates Zim definitions into equivalent definitions in the SQL server environment. Refer to…
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Connecting to SQL Database Servers

All SQL servers require that some type of connection be established between a client program and the server before any database operations can be attempted. In Zim, a connection between a Zim application and an SQL server is established by the “CONNECT” command and removed by the “DISCONNECT” command. During the execution of any Zim…
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Compiling Client-Server Application Programs

The “SET SQLCOMPILE” Command Zim is designed to take advantage of many characteristics of a given SQL server. Many SQL servers provide compile time facilities to increase performance at runtime. A compile time option enables you to control when the database server does certain compilation functions such as statement parsing. If SQLCOMPILE is OFF, then…
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Block Fetching

A dynamic configuration setting called “block factor” can be used to tune performance. This factor is the number of records retrieved by Zim each time it fetches records from the database. The larger the number, the fewer times Zim has to query the database, and the more time it takes to retrieve a block. So,…
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