Recital

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Recital on Linux 64 bit requires certain 32 bit libraries for installation and/or operation.  It also needs to be installed and configured as the root user, or using sudo for those systems without a root login.

For systems that do not have the xterm libraries installed, please install these to use xterm, or set the DB_TERM environment variable to start Recital from a terminal:
DB_TERM=gnome-terminal; export DB_TERM

This setting can be added to the /opt/recital/conf/recital.conf (text) file to make it available system-wide.

Please note that the Recital ODBC Driver for Linux requires a 32 bit ODBC Driver Manager.

Centos 6:

sudo yum install zlib-devel.i686 pam-devel.i686
(and accept dependencies)
Then run the installer in text mode
sudo ./recital-10.0.3-linux32.bin --mode text
Run Recital with sudo the first time, to set the system filetype compatiblity settings.
sudo recital
After saving the compatibility settings, quit to exit, then run Recital as your preferred user.
> quit
$ recital

RedHat / Fedora family:

sudo yum install zlib-devel.i686 pam.i686
(and accept dependencies)
Then run the installer in text mode
sudo ./recital-10.0.3-linux32.bin --mode text
Run Recital with sudo the first time, to set the system filetype compatiblity settings.
sudo recital
After saving the compatibility settings, quit to exit, then run Recital as your preferred user.
> quit
$ recital

 Ubuntu family:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs 
In later versions of Ubuntu, ia32-libs is obsolete. The following package should be installed:
sudo apt-get install lib32z1
Ubuntu 12.04 and above also require the following:
sudo apt-get install libpam0g:i386
Then run the installer in text mode
sudo ./recital-10.0.3-linux32.bin --mode text
Run Recital with sudo the first time, to set the system filetype compatiblity settings.
sudo recital
After saving the compatibility settings, quit to exit, then run Recital as your preferred user.
> quit
$ recital

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The PHP ODBC functions can be used to access Recital data via the Recital Universal ODBC Driver.

The following example connects to a Recital ODBC datasource, executes a query then outputs all the results from the resultset.

<?php
$sql = "select country from customers limit 10";
$conn = odbc_connect('Recital ODBC test', '?', '?');
$rs = odbc_exec($conn, $sql);
odbc_result_all($rs);
odbc_close($conn);
?>

Output:

<table><tr><th>Country</th></tr>
<tr><td>Germany        </td></tr>
<tr><td>Mexico         </td></tr>
<tr><td>Mexico         </td></tr>
<tr><td>UK             </td></tr>
<tr><td>Sweden         </td></tr>
<tr><td>Germany        </td></tr>
<tr><td>France         </td></tr>
<tr><td>Spain          </td></tr>
<tr><td>France         </td></tr>
<tr><td>Canada         </td></tr>
</table>

For information on installing and configuring the Recital Universal ODBC Driver and creating and modifying datasources, please see the Documentation section of this web site.

Note: Use of ? for the username and password on the local server is dependent on DB_LOCAL_LOGIN being enabled.



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Recital is a dynamic programming language with an embedded high performance database engine particularly well suited for the development and deployment of high transaction throughput applications.

The Recital database engine is not a standalone process with which the application program communicates. Instead, the Recital database is an integral part of any applications developed in Recital. 

Recital implements most of the SQL-99 standard for SQL, but also provides lower level navigational data access for performing high transaction throughput. It is the choice of the application developer whether to use SQL, navigational data access, or a combination of both depending upon the type of application being developed.

The Recital database engine, although operating as an embedded database in the user process, multiple users and other background processes may access the same data concurrently. Read accesses are satisfied in parallel. Recital uses automatic record level locking when performing database updates. This provides for a high degree of database concurrency and superior application performance and differentiates the Recital database from other embeddable databases such as sqlite that locks the entire database file during writing. 

Key features of the Recital scripting language include:

  • High performance database application scripting language
  • Modern object-oriented language features
  • Easy to learn, easy to use
  • Fast, just-in-time compiled
  • Loosely-typed
  • Garbage collected
  • Static arrays, Associative arrays and objects
  • Develop desktop or web applications
  • Cross-platform support
  • Extensive built-in functions
  • Superb built-in SQL command integration
  • Navigational data access for the most demanding applications
  • Scripting  language is upward compatible with FoxPRO

Key features of the Recital database include:

  • A broad subset of ANSI SQL 99, as well as extensions
  • Cross-platform support
  • Stored procedures
  • Triggers
  • Cursors
  • Updatable Views
  • System Tables
  • Query caching
  • Sub-SELECTs (i.e. nested SELECTs)
  • Embedded database library
  • Fault tolerant clustering support
  • Chronological data versioning with database timelines
  • Optional DES3 encrypted data
  • Hot backup
  • Client drivers for ODBC, JDBC and .NET 
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When using Recital Web you can maintain the exact state of each cursor between pages like this.

On entry to the .rsp page.

IF type( _session["state"] ) != "U"
    m_state = _session["state"]
    RESTORE DATASESSION FROM m_state
ELSE
    // open up your tables for the first time 
ENDIF

On exit of the .rsp page.
SAVE DATASESSION TO m_state
_SESSION["state"] = m_state
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Each Recital table can have one or more data dictionaries to provide a central repository for constraints and other metadata. 

Here's how to set up field validation for a field with a small static number of acceptable values.

Using the example.dbf table from the southwind sample database, validation can be added to the title field to ensure it matches one of a list values.
open database southwind
alter table example add constraint;
(title set check inlist(alltrim(title),"Miss","Mr","Mrs","Ms"))
The inlist() function checks whether the specified expression exists in the comma-separated list which follows.  An attempt to update title with a value not in the list will give an error: Validation on field 'TITLE' failed.

If you have access to the Recital Workbench, you can use the modify structure worksurface to add and alter your dictionary entries, including a customized error message if required.

validation


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Recital 10 introduced the REQUIRE() and REQUIRE_ONCE() statement.

The REQUIRE() statement includes and executes the contents of the specified file at the current program execution level.

When a file is included, the code it contains inherits the variable scope of the line on which the include occurs. Any variables, procedures, functions or classes declared in the included file will be available at the current program execution level.

The REQUIRE_ONCE() statement is identical to the REQUIRE() statement except that Recital will check to see if the file as already been included and if so ignore the command.

The full syntax is:
REQUIRE( expC )
REQUIRE_ONCE( expC )

e.g.

REQUIRE_ONCE( "myapp/myglobals.prg" )
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Key features of the Recital database include:

  • SQL-92 and a broad subset of ANSI SQL 99, as well as extensions
  • Cross-platform support
  • Stored procedures
  • Triggers
  • Cursors
  • Updatable Views
  • System Tables
  • Query caching
  • High-performance
  • Single-User and Multi-User
  • Multi-Process
  • ACID Transactions
  • Referential Integrity
  • Cascading Updates and Deletes
  • Multi-table Joins
  • Row-level Locking
  • BLOBs (Binary Large Objects)
  • UDFs (User Defined Functions)
  • OLTP (On-Line Transaction Processing)
  • Drivers for ODBC, JDBC, and .NET
  • Sub-SELECTs (i.e. nested SELECTs)
  • Embedded database library
  • Database timelines providing data undo functionality
  • Fault tolerant clustering support
  • Hot backup
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In Linux you can run lsof and pipe it though grep for the files you are interested in, for example;
$ lsof | grep db.exe | grep accounts
db.exe    16897      john    6uw     REG      253,0    20012    3413872 /usr/recital100/qa/accounts.dbf
db.exe    16897      john    7u      REG      253,0     4176    3413885 /usr/recital100/qa/accounts.dbx
If you want to check for locks you can use lslk, for example;
$ lslk | grep db.exe | grep accounts
db.exe    16897 253,0 3413872 20012  w 0  0  0 12319   0 /usr/recital100/qa/accounts.dbf
If you don't have lslk installed you can install it with one of the updaters, for example on redhat linux:
$ yum update lslk

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TIP
The Compatibility Dialog settings are written to the compat.db file in <path>/conf - please ensure that the user setting the compatibility settings has write access to this file and directory.  Once these settings are written, the dialog will not be displayed unless SET COMPATIBLE is issued.

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This article talks about the log files available in Recital products and how to enable logging when required.

Overview

When discussing a problem with the Recital Support Team, one of the most common requests is that you enable logging and send them the log files produced. Log files along with error files are designed to provide detailed information about Recital processes and the prevailing environment and can be a fast-track to resolving a problem.

Log Files

There are three main types of log file:

  1. System Log
  2. Client/Server Communication Logs
  3. Custom Logs

System Log

The System log is a system-wide  all product log.  It tracks all login and logout operations from either Recital or the Recital Server. Logout details include the exit code: 0 for an error-free, 'normal' exit and the error number and message when an error has occurred. It also shows the licenses that have been loaded and any license error codes and messages. The system log filename is recital.log.
 

Client/Server Communication Logs

The Client/Server communication logs track the requests and responses between the Recital Server and its clients. The log files are as follows:


Filename Type Description

dbserver.log

System-wide

The Recital Server startup log. This logs any problems with the Recital Server startup.

port.log

System-wide

The port listener log. The port listener (or portserver) listens on port 8001 for client connection requests and spawns the appropriate server process.

net.log

Connection

The netserver log. The netserver is the Recital Server database and 4GL engine.

rsi.log

Connection

The Recital Server Interface (RSI) Gateway log. This logs communication with the Database Gateways to SQL databases.

rec.log

Connection

The Recital Database Gateway log. The Recital Database Gateway (or recserver) is the SQL database engine for Recital Gateway data access.

mys.log

Connection

The MySQL Database Gateway log.

ora.log

Connection

The Oracle Database Gateway log.

inf.log

Connection

The Informix Database Gateway log.

ing.log

Connection

The Ingres Database Gateway log.

pos.log

Connection

The PostgreSQL Database Gateway log.

jdb.log

Connection

The JDBC Driver Database Gateway log.


Custom Logs

The Recital/4GL USERLOG() function can be used to log information to a user-specific log file for debugging or audit trail purposes. For full information on this function, please see the USERLOG() documentation.

Enabling Log Files

For instructions on enabling log files for individual products, please follow these links:

Enabling Log Files: Recital Server for Windows

To enable the system log file for the Recital Universal Application Server for Windows, include the following command in the UAS\config.db file:

set syslogging on

The Recital Server Manager System Logging tab allows for the viewing and resetting of the System log.

Section

Item

Description

System Logging

DateTime

Date and time stamp of the action.

Name

Login name used by connection

Action

Action logged: Login, Logoff, Errot

Details

Details of action

Buttons

Purge

Allows the log file to be reset

Refresh

Refreshes the display

To set up Client/Server logging, use the Recital Server Manager Settings tab to update the server's Registry entries:

The following Log file settings can be configured:

Item

Description

Log files Directory Path

Enter the directory in which log files will be created. The default is the UAS\log directory.

Enabled

Check to enable log file creation.

Versions

Check to enable log file versioning.

Listener

Click to view the current port listener log file

Server

Click to view the current netserver log file

Purge

Click to purge all log files

Enabling Log Files: Recital Server for Linux

To enable the system log file for the Recital Server for Linux, include the following command in the conf/config.db file:

set syslogging on

To set up Client/Server logging, the Recital Server can be started with the 'logging' parameter, in which case, all relevant logging will take place.

# service startup logging<

Alternatively, one or more of the following environment variables can be added to the dbserver.conf file or set at the Operating System prompt.  The Recital Server must be restarted before environment variable changes will be recognized.  Each environment variable should be set to the name of a log file.

Environment Variable

Logs Activity of...

UASLOG_PORT

Port Server (db_rsiserver)

UASLOG_NET

(Net) Server (db_netserver)

UASLOG_ORA

Oracle Server (db_oraserver)

UASLOG_INF

Informix Server (db_infserver)

UASLOG_ING

Ingres Server (db_ingserver)

UASLOG_JDB

JDBC Server (db_jdbserver)

UASLOG_REC

Recital Server (db_recserver)

Extract from recital.conf:

UASLOG_PORT="port.log" ; export UASLOG_PORT
UASLOG_NET="net.log"   ; export UASLOG_NET
UASLOG_ORA="ora.log"  ; export UASLOG_ORA
UASLOG_INF="inf.log"     ; export UASLOG_INF
UASLOG_ING="ing.log"   ; export UASLOG_ING
UASLOG_JDB="jdb.log"   ; export UASLOG_JDB
UASLOG_REC="rec.log"   ; export UASLOG_REC
DB_LOGDIR

If the environment variable DB_LOGDIR is set to an existing directory, all log files will be written to this directory.  If not, the log files will be created in the bin directory.

DB_LOGDIR is set in the conf/recital.conf file. By default it is set to the log directory:

DB_LOGDIR=${ROI_ROOT}log/           ; export DB_LOGDIR
DB_LOGVER

If the environment variable DB_LOGVER is greater than 0, version numbers are added to the file names.  For example, the activity of the first Net Server process will be logged to net.log, the second to net001.log, the third to net002.log etc. up to the maximum value of DB_LOGVER.

DB_LOGVER is set in the conf/recital.conf file:

DB_LOGVER=10; export DB_LOGVER

Enabling Log Files: Recital Server for UNIX

To enable the system log file for the Recital Server for UNIX, include the following command in the conf/config.db file:

set syslogging on

To set up Client/Server logging, the Recital Server can be started with the 'logging' parameter, in which case, all relevant logging will take place.

# service startup logging

Alternatively, one or more of the following environment variables can be added to the <em>dbserver.conf</em> file or set at the Operating System prompt.  The Recital Server must be restarted before environment variable changes will be recognized.  Each environment variable should be set to the name of a log file.

Environment Variable

Logs Activity of...

UASLOG_PORT

Port Server (db_rsiserver)

UASLOG_NET

(Net) Server (db_netserver)

UASLOG_ORA

Oracle Server (db_oraserver)

UASLOG_INF

Informix Server (db_infserver)

UASLOG_ING

Ingres Server (db_ingserver)

UASLOG_JDB

JDBC Server (db_jdbserver)

UASLOG_REC

Recital Server (db_recserver)

Extract from recital.conf:

UASLOG_PORT="port.log" ; export UASLOG_PORT
UASLOG_NET="net.log"   ; export UASLOG_NET
UASLOG_ORA="ora.log"  ; export UASLOG_ORA
UASLOG_INF="inf.log"     ; export UASLOG_INF
UASLOG_ING="ing.log"   ; export UASLOG_ING
UASLOG_JDB="jdb.log"   ; export UASLOG_JDB
UASLOG_REC="rec.log"   ; export UASLOG_REC
DB_LOGDIR

If the environment variable DB_LOGDIR is set to an existing directory, all log files will be written to this directory.  If not, the log files will be created in the bin directory.

DB_LOGDIR is set in the conf/recital.conf file. By default it is set to the log directory:

DB_LOGDIR=${DB_ROOT}log/           ; export DB_LOGDIR
DB_LOGVER

If the environment variable DB_LOGVER is greater than 0, version numbers are added to the file names.  For example, the activity of the first Net Server process will be logged to net.log, the second to net001.log, the third to net002.log etc. up to the maximum value of DB_LOGVER.

DB_LOGVER is set in the conf/recital.conf file:

DB_LOGVER=10; export DB_LOGVER

Enabling Log Files: Recital Universal Application Server for OpenVMS

To enable the system log file for the Recital Universal Application Server for OpenVMS, include the following command in the db_uas:config.db file:

set syslogging on

To set up Client/Server logging, one or more of the following symbols can be added to the <em>db_uas:login.com</em> file.  The Recital Server must be restarted before symbol changes will be recognized.  Each symbol should be set to the name of a log file.

Symbol

Logs Activity of…

UASLOG_PORT

Port Server (db_rsiserver)

UASLOG_NET

(Net) Server (db_netserver)

UASLOG_ORA

Oracle Server (db_oraserver)

UASLOG_INF

Informix Server (db_infserver)

UASLOG_ING

Ingres Server (db_ingserver)

UASLOG_JDB

JDBC Server (db_jdbserver)

UASLOG_REC

Recital Server (db_recserver)

Extract from db_uas:login.com

$ uaslog_port :==  port.log
$ uaslog_net  :==  net.log
$ uaslog_ora  :==  ora.log
$ uaslog_inf  :==  inf.log
$ uaslog_ing  :==  ing.log
$ uaslog_jdb  :==  jdb.log
$ uaslog_rec  :==  rec.log
DB_LOGDIR

If the symbol DB_LOGDIR is set to an existing directory, all log files will be written to this directory.  If not, the log files will be created in the UAS directory.

DB_LOGDIR is set in the db_uas:login.com file. By default it is set to the UAS.log] directory:

$db_logdir    :== 'db_root'.log]               ! system logging directory
DB_LOGVER

If the symbol DB_LOGVER is enabled, version numbers are added to the file names. For example, the activity of the first Net Server process will be logged to net.log, the second to net001.log, the third to net002.log etc.

DB_LOGVER is set in the db_uas:login.com file:

$db_logver  :== true                           ! enable multiple log files

Enabling Log Files: Recital for Linux

To enable the system log file for Recital for Linux, include the following command in the conf/config.db file:

set syslogging on

Enabling Log Files: Recital for UNIX

To enable the system log file for Recital for UNIX, include the following command in the conf/config.db file:

set syslogging on

Enabling Log Files: Recital for OpenVMS

To enable the system log file for Recital for OpenVMS, include the following command in the db_ovd:config.db file:

set syslogging on

In Brief

  • Log files provide important information to aid problem resolution, but they are also an overhead, so logging should only be enabled when required, not in normal production operation.
  • The System log provides a system-wide view of logins, exits and error codes.
  • The System log can be viewed in table format via the SYSLOGGING System Table.
  • The System log is enabled using the SET SYSLOGGING ON Recital/4GL command in the conf/config.db file.
  • Client/Server logs provide detailed information on client/server requests and responses.
  • Client/Server logs are enabled using environment variables, symbols or Registry entries or by specifying the 'logging' parameter when starting the Recital Server.
  • The location of log files is determined by the DB_LOGDIR setting.
  • Versioning of log files is determined by the DB_LOGVER setting.
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