Re: SQLFORMS & load vs open?

fgreene_at_hayes.com (fgreene_at_hayes.com) wrote:
: In article <19930713.135734.250_at_almaden.ibm.com>, callard_at_vnet.IBM.COM (Claude Allard) writes:
: > I am a new user of Oracle and am trying to understand the SQLFORMS tool.
: > When I LOAD a form the .INP file is used. When I GENERATE the form the .INP
: > and .FRM files are created. If I SAVE the form it is saved in the
: > database. If I make changes and generate again only the .INP and .FRM
: > are updated. Now the dos files and the database are out of sync. What is
: > the point of these two modes of storing the form? Is there a process that
: > I should be following to maintain the dos files & database in sync?
: >
: > Any opinions or suggestions would be appreciated.
: >
 

: As you note, GENERATE creates a .INP version of the .FRM and stores it in your
: working directory. SAVE disassemble the form into its component parts and
: then stores it in a series of database tables. This is optional, but has
: several advantages (discussed below)
 

: Once you have SAVEd the form, to maintain it in the future you would use the
: OPEN command to retrieve it from the data base rather than the LOAD command
: which retrieves the .INP from your working directory. If you (re)SAVE a form
: that was LOADed, an error will result. In this case, Oracle requires you
: to first DELETE the data base version of the form and then SAVE it. Basically,
: Oracle is saying that this is not the current version of the form and refuses
: to let you put it back.
 

: Biggest advantage of saving a form is t hat, as the total number of forms in
: your system increases, you can rapidly retrieve system wide information about
: the forms. For example, I have been required to change the overall length of
: a field. What forms currently use that field? The answer lies in the
: FORM_FLD table.

But a big advantage of using the .INP files is that you can do a version control ie storing .INP files with SCCS or RCS. You can also display then the version number in a forms field generated by RCS or SCCS. How one can do this with .FRM files and stored forms ?

: Scan the table definitions in chapter 24 of the SQK*Forms designer reference
: manual for descriptions of all of the support tables.
 

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