Recital 10 enhances the APPEND FROM command. The enhancement was added to the following syntax ;

APPEND FROM  <table-name> 

Before when appending into a shared Recital table each new row was locked along with the table header, then unlocked after it was inserted. This operation has now been enhanced to lock the table once, complete inserting all the rows from the table and then unlock the table. The performance of this operation has been increased by using this method. All the database and table constraints are still enforced.

We are pleased to announce the release of Recital 10.0.2.

Here is a brief list of features and functionality that you will find in the 10.0.2 release. 

• New commands
  SAVE/RESTORE DATASESSION [TO variable]
  CONNECT "connectString"
  DISCONNECT 
• New functions (OData compatible)
  startsWith(haystack as character, needle as character)
  endsWith(haystack as character, needle as character)
  indexOf(haystack as character, needle as character)
  substringOf(haystack as character, needle as character)
  concat(expC1, expC2)
• New system variables
  _LASTINSERTEDSYNCNUM
• Enhanced commands
  Added CONNSTRING "connectingString" to the USE command to connect to remote servers (Recital, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, ODBC)
• Further SQL query optimizer improvements to boost performance
• Performance improvements in Recital Web
• Forced all temporary files into temp directory (improves performance when local tmpfs is used as temp directory and reduces network i/o)
• Fixed cookie and session variable problems in Recital Web
• Fixed problem with temporary files being left after some server queries involving memos and object data types
• Improved performance of the Windows ODBC driver
• Fixed a security flaw in Recital Web
• Fixed all reported bugs 

In this article Barry Mavin, CEO and Chief Software Architect for Recital, details how to work with Triggers in the Recital Database Server.

Overview

A trigger is a special kind of stored procedure that runs when you modify data in a specified table using one or more of the data modification operations: UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE.

Triggers can query other tables and can include complex SQL statements. They are primarily useful for enforcing complex business rules or requirements. For example, you can control whether to allow a new order to be inserted based on a customer's current account status.

Triggers are also useful for enforcing referential and data integrity.

Triggers can be used with any data source that is handled natively by the Recital Database Engine. This includes Recital, FoxPro, FoxBASE, Clipper, dBase, CISAM, and RMS data,

Creating and Editing Triggers

To create a new Trigger,  right-click the Procedures node in the Databases tree of the Project Explorer and choose Create. To modify an existing Trigger select the Trigger in the Databases Tree in the Project Explorer by double-clicking on it, or select Modify from the context menu. By convertion we recommend that you name your Stored Procedures beginning with "sp_xxx_", user-defined functions with "f_xxx_", and Triggers with "dt_xxx_", where xxx is the name of the table that they are associated with.

Associating Triggers with a Table

Once you have written your Triggers as detailed above you can associate them with the operations performed on a Table by selecting the Table tab.

The Tables tab allows you to select a Trigger procedure by clicking on the small button at the right of the Text field.

Types of Triggers

As can be seen from the Tables tab detailed below, The Recital Database Server handles 6 distinct types of Triggers.

Open Trigger

The Open Trigger is called after is a table is opened but before any operations are performed on it. You can use this trigger to record a log of table usage or provide a programmable means of checing security. If the Trigger procedure returns .F. (false), then the table is not opened. You can use a TRY...CATCH block around the associated command to inform the user.

Close Trigger

The Close Trigger is called just prior to a table being closed. In this trigger you may find it useful to get transaction counts by using the IOSTATS() built-in 4GL function, and record these values in a transaction log.

Update Trigger

The Update Trigger is called prior to a record update operation being performed. You can use this trigger to perform complex application or data specific validation. If the Trigger procedure returns .F. (false), then the record is not updated. You can use inform the user from within the Trigger procedure the reason that the data cannot be updated.

Delete Trigger

The Delete Trigger is called prior to a record delete operation being performed. You can use this trigger to perform complex application or data specific validation such as cross-table lookups e.g. attempting to delete a customer recortd when there are still open orders for that specific customer. If the Trigger procedure returns .F. (false), then the record is not deleted.

Insert Trigger

The Insert Trigger is called prior to a record insert (append) operation being performed. You can use this trigger to perform such tasks as setting up default values of columns within the record. If the Trigger procedure returns .F. (false), then the record is not inserted.

Rollback Trigger

The RollbackTrigger is called prior to a rollback operation being performed from within a form. If the Trigger procedure returns .F. (false), then the record is not rolled back to its original state.

Testing the Trigger

To test run the Trigger, select the Trigger in the Databases Tree in the Project Explorer by double-clicking on it. Once the Database Administrator is displayed, click the Run button to run the Trigger.

In Adobe's own words:

"Adobe® AIR® is a cross-operating system runtime that lets developers combine HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash®, and Adobe Flex® technologies to deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) on the desktop."

The outcome of this combination of technologies is that developers can design and render quite beautiful user interfaces cross platform. For us desktop Linux users it is nice to have an additional avenue for obtaining and running attractive desktop applications.

Examples of great Adobe air applications are Adobe.com for My Desktop, TweetDeck and the Times Reader. You can download these applications and many more at the Adobe Marketplace.

The easiest way to install Adobe Air on Fedora 12 is to download the latest build from Adobe, click here.

Once you have downloaded the .bin file do the following at the shell:

su -
chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

Once you have Air installed, there is a slight tweak you will have to do to get it running on Fedora 12, it is related to the security certificates. This can be remedied in one simple line at the shell prompt as root.

su -
for c in /etc/opt/Adobe/certificates/crypt/*.0; do aucm -n $(basename $c) -t true; done

What this line is doing is using the aucm which is the Adobe Unix certificate manager to set the certificates installed as trusted.
You will now be able to go to the Adobe Marketplace and download and run Air applications without any issues.

Enjoy!