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- Using Clipper Applications on LANtastic
-
-
- 1. LANtastic and Clipper use the DOS 3.1 (and later) file and record
- locking provided through the SHARE command. Something to note is
- that a Clipper application must be written and compiled with this
- in mind. Applications compiled with Clipper for use on LANs which
- use their own proprietary file and record locking schemes (i.e.
- Novell) will most likely not work without modification.
-
- 2. To open files in a sharable mode, issue the dBASE command SET
- EXCLUSIVE OFF before issuing any dBASE USE commands.
-
- 3. The compiled executable files (xxx.exe) produced by the Clipper
- compiler must be set to READ ONLY with the DOS ATTRIB command.
-
- 4. Clipper provides the following commands for locking records and
- files:
-
- RLOCK() Attempts to lock the current record of a file and
- returns True if successful, False if not.
-
- FLOCK() Attempts to lock the currently opened file and returns
- True if successful, False if not.
-
- NETERR() Returns a True value if two users attempt to add a
- blank record to the end of a file at the same time, a
- common occurrence in dBASE/Clipper applications.
-
- 5. A general issue with any multiuser database is: What happens when
- a file or record is locked and that user's computer locks up or
- for some reason is disconnected from the LAN? In Clipper
- applications, SHARE takes care of the problem by noticing that the
- user who locked the file or record has stopped accessing it, and
- the lock is removed after about 15-30 seconds.
-
- 6. In the event of a LAN lockup or server crash, you will find it
- necessary to rebuild the index files. Often, a entry being worked
- on at the time of the crash will be completely lost. Both of
- these problems are not related to LANtastic, but dBASE, and both
- problems also occur in single user Clipper/dBASE applications.
-