World: r4wp

What's missing in the R3 port documentation is best practices examples 
for different usage models. The port model is so flexible you can 
almost use it as a way to create user-defined data types, but we're 
missing complex examples of the most efficient way to use the model. 
That's another reason I wanted to make a real R3-like odbc:// scheme, 
to learn the model better.

Oh, found that announcement about the end of OLEDB: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlnativeclient/archive/2011/08/29/microsoft-is-aligning-with-odbc-for-native-relational-data-access.aspx

so reality forced MS to drop back to ODBC

Yup. You should see what they have in store for SQL Server 2012. 
It can be run on a fully command line OS, managed remotely entirely 
through PowerShell scripting. And you can do PowerShell scripting 
of MS servers from Linux clients too, reportedly.

PowerShell is a powerful scripting lanugage, but it is a mess, I 
don't understand why they never think about simplicity.

and put support engineers out of work??

Endo, that's an interesting topic; let's switch to Languages for 
that.

using rebol's ODBC interface, is there a way to get the names of 
the columns in the last select query?  sometimes, we do not provide 
the columns (select * from table) , so relying on assumptions to 
match return values and their columns is quite dangerous.

another example is retrieving the db metadata.  it would be nice 
to be able to know what columns do what from the returned data directly 
instead of assuming their order (which can change from one db version 
and provider to another)

With ChristianE's R3 ODBC, the initial insert dbport returns a header 
list translated to REBOL naming conventions, though it doesn't work 
right with unlabeled columns. Not sure with R2.

If you want to get the column metadata about a table, use the 'columns 
command:
- For R2: http://www.rebol.com/docs/database.html#section-27

- For R3: http://www.diefettenjahresindvorbei.de/odbc/odbc-docs.html#section-3.8
 though there's an error in the docs, so use 'columns instead of 
'tables

ok, so what do the columns returned by the [columns]  query mean? 
 (without docs, remember I'm not assuming the docs are up to date 
or even apply to Firebirds interface)


I tried to list the RDB$FIELDS metadata table, but it clearly doesn't 
match the columns output.

The docs for what the 'columns command returns are at the link for 
the R2 docs above.

except that SQL actualy does return the column headers, its a pity 
R2's ODBC interface doesn't seem to keep/read it.

The ODBC docs are up to date. Remember, the main problem with R2's 
ODBC support is that it hasn't changed at all in 11-12 years, though 
ODBC itself has. That does mean that the docs there are up to date.

ChristianE's R3 interface returns the column headers, though that 
does need some work.

I used 'columns and 'tables with R2 on SQL Server, it does work well.

Back in 2001 I created an intranet site for a local celebrity by 
making the database tables, then having R2 use the 'columns command 
to generate column lists that were used to autogenerate the server-side 
pages for the intranet. All it took was one function call per table 
to generate the whole site. Restyling the site just meant editing 
the HTML template in the function (this was before CSS was practical).

I may find some time to tweak the R3 ODBC-API a bit if you could 
supply a prioritized list of things that need work. Regarding problems 
with certain SQL types one easy workaround could be to just allow 
all types without direct support by rebol to read them as strings, 
you then could do anything you like withthem. Regarding "R3's documentation 
for its port model is a bit lacking" - I surely won't have any time 
to find out why the port model I used feels alien to R3 without the 
better R3 beeing documented anywhere.

We weren't requesting an update of the port model to you, Christian. 
That can wait until we have a better idea of what it should be.

Here is the code I use to load your ODBC extension, which patches 
it after load:

; Load and patch the ODBC extension
odbc: import/no-user %odbc.dll
unless 'case = pick body-of :system/schemes/odbc/actor/open 10 [

system/schemes/odbc/actor/open: func [port [port!] /local result] 
bind [
	port/state: context [access: 'write commit: 'auto] 

 result: open-connection port/locals: make database-prototype [] case 
 [
		string? select port/spec 'host [ajoin ["dsn=" port/spec/host]]
		string? select port/spec 'target [port/spec/target]
		'else [cause-error 'access 'invalid-spec port/spec]
	]

 all [block? result lit-word? first result apply :cause-error result] 
	port
] odbc
]

There was a bug in open with certain kinds of odbc port specs. The 
above code fixes that.

You can't do an R2-style hot-patch of a function in R3, but you can 
replace the entire function with a new, fixed one.

I'm interested in creating a rebol associative db. Terry, I know, 
was talking about one such back in May last year (i think he called 
it rocketdb) - but apart from the altme logs and something on a redis 
google group, i cannot find anything. Does anyone know whether he 
released something or how i could contact him?

So far, i have this:

ieflat: ["Steeve" "isa" "person" "Steeve" "age" "42" "Tweety" "isa" 
"Canary"  "Tweety" "age" "75" "Chirp" "isa" "Canary"]

i1: make hash! 10 ;index subjects

i2: make hash! 10; index predicates

i3: make hash! 10; index objects

for i 1 length? ieflat 3 [either select i1 ieflat/:i [f: select i1 
ieflat/:i append f :i][append i1 ieflat/:i repend i1 reduce [to-block 
:i]]] ;am sure there is a better way of doing this...

for i 2 length? ieflat 3 [either select i2 ieflat/:i [f: select i2 
ieflat/:i append f (:i - 1)][append i2 ieflat/:i repend i2 reduce 
[to-block (:i - 1)]]]

for i 3 length? ieflat 3 [either select i3 ieflat/:i [f: select i3 
ieflat/:i append f (:i - 2)][append i3 ieflat/:i repend i3 reduce 
[to-block (:i - 2)]]]

rocket: func [s p o it][
    st: now/precise

	while[it > 0][
		s: i1/(:s)
		p: i2/(:p)
		o: i3/(:o)

		res1: intersect s p o
		it: it - 1
	]
	prin join " -> " difference now/precise st
]

...this needs correction of course, to handle s p o combinations, 
but the basic idea is exactly as Terry had worked out

what would be useful is to build something like a SPARQL dialect 
on top of this

anyone interested?

An associative database would be fun to have in REBOL. The 'map data 
structure in R3 replaces 'hash, and is supposed to be better.

There have been some linkups between REBOL and the relavance associative 
database, but nothing much has come of it.

    http://www.rebol.org/aga-display-posts.r?offset=0&post=r3wp500x1919
    http://www.rebol.net/cgi-bin/r3blog.r?view=0161
    http://www.relavance.com/

Thanks Sunanda - have seen those... have not been able to find the 
video of Ron Everett's talk though. Would be good to see it - would 
you happen to have a link?

I think this would be the start of something superb. If we can build 
a SPARQL like query interface on top of an associative db in rebol, 
we could simply point it to any of the open data initiatives and 
then go on the ride of a lifetime!

I wouldn't bet on MAP! very much (yet?). While it's very nice concept, 
lot of functionality is missing and what's implemented is buggy. 
OTOH it's nice and pretty fast.

i'm pretty happy with hash! so far...will try map!

am still on R2
? map tells me:
map!            datatype! hash!
map?            action!   Returns TRUE for hash values.

is map! only truly availale on R3?

in R2 map! is there just for compability. map! = hash! in R2.

x: make map! [a 1 b 2]
series? x ; == true (for R2)
series? x ; == false (for R3)

ah! ok...thanks endo

Sujoy.....Link to Devcon 2007 videos.   Link is below, but you'll 
need a logon to the website. Someone else here will be able to advise 
you on that:

   https://www.prolific.com/quilt.fcgi#files?project=619&folder=2558

http://www.rebol.org/ml-display-message.r?m=rmlZLDJ

Couldn't find an official script for it in rebol.org though.

thanks for the link Gregg

I want to change some data in a mysql database from a REBOL (2) program 
using DocKimbel's mysql-portocol.r When I use a .r script from my 
website I can connect to the database. I figured that when I ran 
a script from a console I would be able to quickly test my script 
but somehow I am stopped because the script cannot connect. This 
is the error:
** Access Error: Cannot connect to mysql-01.yourname.nl
** Where: open-proto
** Near:
Any ideas?

Arnold, make sure you GRANT privileges to the mysql user before I 
could see it remotely. Make sure you use the '%' parameter or you 
won't see past the localhost. See mysql reference manual for help. 
Also make sure you open the port (3306)

You mysql server maybe configured to accept connections only from 
127.0.0.1?