dp22+@andrew.cmu.edu (David Bruce Pinkus) (07/21/89)
Hello..
I'll be working on a multi-user database soon (probably FoxBase 2.0 -
Multi-User) on Macs and I was curious as to how data file integrity was
taken care of. I want to be able to modify a database, but I don't want
any of the datafiles to be accessable from the Finder (with appleshare).
Worse case scenerio is that the files are visible (encrypted though), but
no write access is given (I don't want the files to be thrown out). But
I don't see how the application could modify the files then. If anybody
has any experience or ideas, I would be very appreciative. Thanks.
Dave.
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Dave Pinkus | ARPAnet: dp22+@andrew.cmu.edu :) |
Carnegie Mellon U. | BITNET: q109dp22@CMCCVB |
Pittsburgh, PA | UUCP: ...!harvard!andrew.cmu.edu!dp22 |
- = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = -xdaa374@ut-emx.UUCP (William T. Douglass) (07/21/89)
In article <MYlVSxy00WB944pGlK@andrew.cmu.edu> (David Bruce Pinkus) writes: > I'll be working on a multi-user database soon (probably FoxBase 2.0 - >Multi-User) Good choice. > on Macs Another good choice :-) > and I was curious as to how data file integrity was >taken care of. I want to be able to modify a database, but I don't want >any of the datafiles to be accessable from the Finder (with appleshare). Well, we have arrived at a partial work-around to this. The trick lies in using XCMDs (a la HyperCard) to do the dirty work from inside a FoxBase program. The Apple Cheap Chooser (posted a few months ago on the net) contains XCMDs to let you mount & unmount an AppleShare volume from a simple subroutine call. We took this capability & designed our code so the database program supplied a volume password, the user was required to input a user-id & password, and the combination of the 3 mounts the file server before accessing any data files. The program unmounts the server before quiting. We still don't have error trapping done, so a bomb exposes the files erver on the user's desktop. Also, a user w/ multi-finder can simply switch out of FoxBase to access the fileserver. (I said it was a partial solution.) FoxBase does not allow opening indexes on read-only volumes. Also, indexed access is slower than I woull like under multi-user code, but acceptable. They have significantly sped up the multi-user stuff from 1.1. The ideal would be an SQL interface from FoxBase to an SQL server (like Oracle.) I think Alexis Rosen was following up on this: any comments, Alexis? For now, though, FoxBase+/Mac 2.0 is my best recommendation to you. Good luck. -- Bill Douglass, TCADA "I dreamed I was to take a test, in a Dairy Queen, on another planet." L. Anderson