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<TITLE>Xbase DBMS Chapter 1</TITLE>
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<h1><p align="center">Getting Started</p></h1>
<p align="center">Chapter Updated 8/14/03</p>
<hr><h2>Overview</h2>
Welcome to Xbase DBMS. Xbase DBMS is a collection of specifications,
programs, utilities and a C++ class library for manipulating Xbase type
datafiles and indices. Xbase has been developed and produced by several
people from around the world via the internet.
<br><br>
The term Xbase is often used used to describe the format of the original
DBase, Clipper and Foxbase (.DBF) files. Many vendors support the industry
standard Xbase file format and are committed to this technology for many
years to come, thus insuring continued support.<br><br>
The original purpose of the Xbase library was to provide reliable and
economical programming tools to programmers for reading, writing and updating
DBF databases, indices and memo fields.<br><br><br>
<hr><h2>System Requirements</h2>
To use Xbase DBMS, the following items are needed:<br><br>
A computer and C/C++ compiler.<br><br>
The original source code is developed on a Linux platform with the GCC
public domain C/C++ compiler.
<br><br>
Xbase DBMS has been successfully ported and runs on Linux, Sun Solaris,
OpenVMS, FreeBSD, OS2 and DOS/Windows (Using the large memory model).
<br><br>
This software is not intended to be used on any system using an SCO operating
system.
<br><br>
<hr><h2>Classes and User Interface</h2>
There are six classes in the Xbase library which are available
for use in a typical Xbase application program.<br><br><br>
<CENTER><TABLE BORDER>
<CAPTION ALIGN=TOP><H3>Xbase Classes - Version 1.8.0 and newer</H3></CAPTION>
<TR VALIGN=BASELINE>
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>Class<TD>Basic Description<TD>How Used<TD>Old Class<br>Name
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbXBase<TD>Basic Xbase Class<TD>Every program gets one of these<TD>XBASE
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbDbf<TD>Database and Field class<TD>Need one of these for each open DBF file<TD>DBF
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbNdx<TD>Ndx index class<TD>Need one of these for each open NDX index<TD>NDX
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbNtx<TD>Ntx index class<TD>Need one of these for each open NTX index
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbString<TD>String class<TD>Used for handling strings
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbHtml<TD>Html generation class<TD>Needed for creating HTML code<TD>HTML
</TABLE></CENTER>
<br><br>
There are other classes used internally by these Xbase classes, but most
application programs need not to be concerned with. These classes are
xbStack - used for stack data structures, xbExpn - used for expression
logic, and xbDate - used for date manipulation logic.
<br><br>
<hr><h2>Portability, Type Defs and Structures</h2>
To effectively make the Xbase library as portable across platforms as possible,
three things occured.
<br><br>
<li>First, the software was developed to run and compile on either big endian
or little endian computers and store all numeric data in little endian format.
<br><br>
<li>Secondly, field types must be consistently defined in each environment. The <em>types.h</em>
file defines the xbase data types. To modify the Xbase code base to function
in a different (non ported to yet) environment, start by modifying the <em>types.h</em>
file for your site and recompile.<br><br>
<li>Thirdly, support for unix automake and autoconf has been to provided
support on a wide variety of unices.
<hr><br><br>
<CENTER>
<TABLE BORDER>
<CAPTION ALIGN=TOP><h3>Field Types</h3></CAPTION>
<TR ALIGN=BASELINE>
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>Type<TD>Description
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbULong<TD>unsigned long int
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbUShort<TD>unsigned short int
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbShort<TD>short int
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbLong<TD>long
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbFloat<TD>float
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>xbDouble<TD>double
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>char<TD>char
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>void<TD>void
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>struct SCHEMA<TD>Used for defining record structures
</TABLE></CENTER>
<br><br>
Xbase was designed for portability utilizing standard ANSI-C compliant
code. If you decide to write updates to the Xbase project, please try
to keep your work to standard generic ANSI-C (no special DOS/WINDOWS Calls).
<br><br>
<hr><h2>Compilation Overview</h2>
If you are building the sources on a Linux/Unix platform:<br><br>
Download the source<br>
./configure<br>
make<br>
su<br>
make install<br>
exit<br><br>
<br><br>
Before compiling the library, you may need to modify the options for your
environment. Do "./configure --help" for a list of the current options
<br><br>
On my server, I had to:
<li>Verify the library and associated links were copied from xbase/xbase/.libs
into /usr/local/lib
<li>Add /usr/local/lib is in /etc/ld.so.conf
<li>execute program <em>ldconfig</em> as root to refresh the new libs
<br><br>
Actual milage at your site may vary.
<br><br>
<hr><h2>Building a program with the Xbase library</H2>
Create a directory for your project:<br><br>
cd /home/me<br>
mkdir MyProject<br>
cd MyProject<br>
vi MyProg.cpp<br><br>
To use the Xbase classes, include the following header file in the program:
<br><br>
#include <xbase/xbase.h><br><br>
For more details, check out the sample programs in the
xbase/examples directory.
<br><br>
<hr><h2>Compiling and Linking Unix Application Program for v3.0 later</h2>
The install script should have provided specific instructions for your
environment on how to link with the xbase library. <br><br>
In the Linux environment, assuming that you are using shared libraries,
and usr/local/lib has been added to
the /etc/ld.so.conf file, and the ldconfig command was executed
<br><br>
To Compile:<br>
g++ -c -Wall -I/usr/include -I/usr/src/linux/include-asm-i386 -I/usr/local/include
-I/usr/local/xbase myprog.cpp<br><br>
To Link Edit:<br>
g++ -o myprog myprog.o libxbase.so<br><br>
<hr><h2>Compiling an Application Program with Borland v4.5 C/C++compiler</h2>
With Borland C compiler: bcc -Ic:\xbase\src myprog.cpp -Lc:\xbase\src\xbase.lib
<br><br>
<hr><h2>Getting the latest development version of XBase</h2>
<br>The Xbase project is in an ongoing state of development with new
enhancements being added and bug fixes being applied as they are found
and the package maintainers have time. There are several programmers
from various parts of the world working on Xbase. If you would like to
get the latest version of the Xbase library for your project, it is
available on sourceforge.net.
<br><h3>Notes about using the current development library</h3>
<li>1 - Library functions may or may not be documented
<li>2 - The library may or may not be stable. This is the development library
and is being updated with current code changes. If you are using it, and it
does not behave the way you think it should, you may want to drop a note to
<A HREF="mailto:xdb-devel@lists.sourceforeg.net">xdb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
</A> This may sound a little unsettling, but the
library is generally stable. It goes through periods of time where it is in
a state of flux when major changes are occurring, but for the most part it is
probably OK to use.
<li>3 - If you have changes to contribute to the library, mail your updates
to<A HREF="mailto:xdb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">
xdb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net</A><br>.
<hr><br>
<h2>System Limitations</h2>
<br>
Maximum size of a database file is the size of LONG - 2,147,483,647 bytes<br>
Total number of fields in a database - 1024 <br>
Total number of characters in all fields - 32767<br>
Maximum number of characters in a field - 254<br>
Total number of records in a file - 1 billion<br>
Maximum index key length - 100 bytes<br>
Maximum .DBT file memo block size - 32256<br>
Maximum expression result length - 100 bytes<br>
Maximum NDX index key length - 100 bytes<br><br>
<hr><br><br>
<CENTER>
<TABLE BORDER>
<CAPTION ALIGN=TOP><H3>Xbase Options - Unix Automake environment</H3></CAPTION>
<TR VALIGN=BASELINE>
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>OPTION<TD>DESCRIPTION
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-xbase-debug<TD>Turns off xbase debugging code
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-index-ndx<TD>Turns off NDX index options
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-index-ntx<TD>Turns off NTX index options
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-memo-fields<TD>Turns off memo fields
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-expressions<TD>Turns off expression processing
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-ui-html<TD>Turns off HTML user interface class
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-xbase-locking<TD>Turns off xbase locking
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-xbase-debug<TD>Turns off debug logic
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-exceptions<TD>Turns on exception processing
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--with-castellano<TD>Turn on castellano/spanish date options
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-realdelete<TD>Turn off Xbase record deletion
<TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>--without-xbase-filter<TD>Turn off Xbase filter logic
</TABLE></CENTER>
<br><br>
Use these options on the command line when executing the <em>./configure</em>
command. Also, you can execute <em>./configure --help</em> for a complete
list of all unix configure options.
<br><br>
<B>Q</B> Why turn any of thes options off?<br>
<B>A</B> Smaller library<br><br><hr>
<p><img src=xbase.jpg><br><hr>
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