Has anybody tried obtaining data from MACESS in real-time? We need to
integrate our existing system (user-interface) with MACESS, and would
like to provide on-the-fly access to specific data that resides in
MACESS.

We have a few concerns:
1. There seems to be no API to do so directly
2. There may be performance implications -- for users who are actively
using MACESS throughout the day

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

--Alex

MACESS uses the Btrieve interface of Pervasive.SQL for most (or all) of
its database work.

Depending on the exact Btrieve/Pervasive version that you have, there
are a few different options:
- If you have DDF's and Pervasive.SQL 2000i or newer, then you should
be able to access your data directly from ODBC. This can safely be
done while the system is live, especially if you always open the files
from a Read-Only DSN.
- If you do not have DDF's, then you can either create DDF's and use
the first option above, or you will be limited to doing native API
calls to the database. While native API calls are the fastest possible
connection to your data (which is why MACESS uses them), they are also
the most complicated access method to learn if you have never used them
before.

For information on the above, please check our white papers at
www.goldstarsoftware.com/press.asp. You can also get the Pervasive.SQL
Software Developers Kit from www.pervasive.com if you want to get all
the info needed for building API-level applications.

Keep in mind, of course, that these tools give you FULL access to the
data -- enabling you or your users to randomly change data with no
audit trail (unless you also have Pervasive's AuditMaster software
installed). As such, accessing the database outside of the application
may void portions of your support contract with MACESS, if any. You
should contact them for approval before embarking on such a project.
Goldstar Software Inc.
Building on Btrieve(R) for the Future(SM)
Bill Bach
BillBach (AT) goldstarsoftware (DOT) com
http://www.goldstarsoftware.com
*** Chicago: Pervasive.SQL Service & Support - July 19-22, 3005 ***
*** Chicago: Pervasive DataExchange Class - July 27-29, 2005 ***

Alex wrote: