Advantage Database Server - The Official Guide

Cary Jensen
Loy Anderson

McGraw-Hill/Osborne
2100 Powell Street, 10th Floor
Emeryville, California 94608
U.S.A.

To arrange bulk purchase discounts for sales promotions, premiums, or fund-raisers, please contact McGraw-Hill/Osborne at the above address. For information on translations or book distributors outside the U.S.A., please see the International Contact Information page immediately following the index of this book.

Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of publisher, with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication.

1234567890 FGR FGR 019876543

Book p/n 0-07-223085-1 and CD p/n 0-07-223086-Xparts of ISBN 0-07-223084-3

Publisher: Brandon A. Nordin
Vice President & Associate Publisher: Scott Rogers
Editorial Director: Wendy Rinaldi
Project Editor: Jennifer Malnick
Acquisitions Coordinator: Athena Honore
Coordinating Editor: Loy Anderson
Technical Editor: Brad Schmidt
Contributing Technical Editors: Chris Franz, Patrick Harper, Jeremy “J.D.” Mullin, Lance Schmidt, Chuck Vertrees, Mark Wilkins, and Alex Wong
Copy Editors: Jan Jue, Dennis Weaver
Proofreader: Linda Medoff
Indexer: Loy Anderson, Cary Jensen
Composition: Carie Abrew, Tara Davis
Illustrators: Kathleen Edwards, Michael Mueller, Melinda Lytle
Series Designer: Roberta Steele
Cover Illustration: Pattie Lee

This book was composed with Corel VENTURA^™ Publisher.

Information has been obtained by McGraw-Hill/Osborne from sources believed to be reliable. However, because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by our sources, McGraw-Hill/Osborne, or others, McGraw-Hill/Osborne does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or the results obtained from the use of such information.

We dedicate this book to our dance instructors, Al Lena and Ronny Roch, for sharing with us this beautiful expression of life.

About the Authors

Cary Jensen

Cary Jensen is President of Jensen Data Systems, Inc. In addition to his consulting and development duties, he is an award-winning, best-selling author of 19 books, including Building Kylix Applications (McGraw-Hill/Osborne), Oracle JDeveloper (Oracle Press), JBuilder Essentials (McGraw-Hill/Osborne), Delphi In Depth (McGraw-Hill/Osborne), and Programming Paradox 5 for Windows (Sybex). Cary is a featured Web columnist for the Borland Developers Network (bdn.borland.com), where his column “The Professional Developer” appears, and is Contributing Editor of Delphi Informant Magazine. He is an internationally respected speaker and trainer, and was the author and principal speaker for the 2001–2003 Developer Days Seminars and Workshops, the 2000–2001 Delphi Development Seminars, the 1999–2000 Borland Developer Days, and the 1995–1999 Borland/Softbite Delphi World Tours. Cary has a Ph.D. from Rice University in Human Factors Psychology, specializing in human-computer interaction.

Loy Anderson

Loy Anderson is Vice President of Jensen Data Systems, Inc., a Houston- based consulting and training company. She is an award-winning, best-selling co-author of 19 books with Cary Jensen and has served as coordinating editor on several books. Loy manages the Delphi Developers Days Seminars and Workshops, which won the 2002 and 2003 Delphi Informant’s Readers Choice Awards for Best Training. Her company’s latest workshops include .NET development, Delphi development, and Advantage Database Server training. She was also an event coordinator for the 1999–2000 Borland Developer Days and the 2000–2001 Delphi Development Seminars. Loy has a Ph.D. from Rice University in Human Factors Psychology, specializing in human-computer interaction.

About the Lead Technical Editor

Brad Schmidt

Brad Schmidt is an R&D Project Manager at Extended Systems, Inc. Prior to becoming project manager for the Advantage Database Server product line, as well as other software products at Extended Systems, he was a lead developer on the Advantage Database Server. He has worked on the Advantage product line since its inception in 1992, and has been the lead architect and developer on many of its significant features, including the Transaction Processing System, the port of the server to Windows NT, the Advantage Local Server, the Advantage proprietary file format (ADT/ADI/ADM files), and the Advantage OLE DB Provider. Brad holds a patent on functionality available in the Advantage Transaction Processing System. In addition to his current project management responsibilities, he has significant influence on new product features, contributes to all facets of Advantage documentation, and delivers several developer training sessions a year on Advantage Database Server. Brad lives in Eagle, Idaho, with his wife, Judy, two sons, Kellen and Nicholas, and a daughter, Lindsey. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Montana State University.

Acknowledgments

We want to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks to everyone who made this book possible. From Osborne Media Group, we want to thank Scott Rogers, who got this project rolling; Wendy Rinaldi, who made sure it happened; Jennifer Malnick, for her professionalism and dedication in moving this book quickly through production; as well as Dennis Weaver, our favorite copyeditor; and Jan Jue, for her meticulous work. We also want to thank Athena Honore.

We are also deeply indebted to the wonderful people at Extended Systems, Inc. In particular, we want to thank Katie Moser, Advantage Marketing Manager, and Chuck Vertrees, Advantage Product Manager, for inspiring this project and promoting it at Extended Systems. We are also deeply indebted to, and grateful for, the technical editing team, who gave us, hands-down, the best technical edit and support that we have ever had on a book. This team was lead by this book’s Technical Editor, Brad Schmidt. During the course of this book, not only did Brad, the Advantage R&D Project Manager, review these chapters, but he also had each chapter reviewed by several, and sometimes all, of the following people (listed in alphabetical order): Chris Franz, Patrick Harper, Jeremy “J.D.” Mullin, Lance Schmidt, Chuck Vertrees, Mark Wilkins, and Alex Wong. In addition, we appreciate the unflinching help of Lance, J.D., Chris, and Alex for their advice and assistance in writing the applications that appear in Part III of this book. Other people at Extended Systems we want to thank include Charles Jepson, Justin Borg, Joachim D rr, Dirk Erickson, Peter Funk, Phil Ruebel, Lee Stigile, Bryce Twitchell, Jay Wendt, and last, but not least, master salesman Bill Schuler.

We also want to thank the many wonderful people who use and champion the Advantage Database Server. This is a really great community, and your enthusiasm for this product is nothing less than contagious. Thanks also to our colleague Bill Todd. Finally, we want to thank our friend Corey Wood, who provided us with technical assistance when we wrote our first training course on the Advantage Database Server.