TechTip: Handle Multiple Members Within SQL

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[robberendt]

TechTip: Handle Multiple Members Within SQL

** This thread discusses the article: TechTip: Handle Multiple Members Within SQL **
If you are a developer putting this in software for the masses you may not want to use an alias instead of an OVRDBF for one reason. If it is possible for the user to only have read access to the data then if they try to create the alias it will bomb. I had to notify one vendor when their product failed to work in the new version because they went with the alias route. And the user only had read access to that library of data.

[Guest.Visitor]

TechTip: Handle Multiple Members Within SQL

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We are a shop that supports a software package that utilizes multi-member files. Not a program gets called in this package without overrides performed on every file that is used in an application. We have experimented with various methods of overcoming the problem with multi-member files in SQL. We have pretty much dismissed creating ALIAS DDM files as a solution, for the following reasons: 1) It is another system object to manage, track, and document, as opposed to an override. 2) ALIAS is a mysterious entity to most programmers, whereas everyone understands overrides. 3) ALIAS is "permanent", whereas overrides are not. We cannot hardcode an ALIAS name because of the multiple clients and years that are used daily. 4) It is much more "programmer-friendly" to rely on an override that the program sets, as opposed to relying that an ALIAS exists, or that it is defined as you expect it to be. 5) Ever try to locate ALIAS DDM files? And determine their definitions? A real PITA. We haven't seen where ALIAS DDM files offer any benefits over file overrides. What's the problem with using overrides? c callp system( 'OvrDbf AR320 Mbr(' + ClientID + ')' ) As I consider that last question, I realize that there may be scenarios where ALIAS DDM files are preferred. But in our environment, that has not been our experience.

[Guest.Visitor]

TechTip: Handle Multiple Members Within SQL

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You can create an alias also in Lib QTEMP. So it works like an OVRDBF, and it's temporary. You must of course hardcoding this like "SELECT * FROM ALIAS ..", but where is the problem and the difference to OVRDBF. The only difference is, you can not use an alias with record level IO.

[K.Forsythe]

TechTip: Handle Multiple Members Within SQL

** This thread discusses the article: TechTip: Handle Multiple Members Within SQL **
The tech tip was on one way to handle multi member files in an SQL environment. If you are running a traditional RPG/CL application then you have lots of other choices. If you are connecting to an iSeries DB from a Java, or VB application the OVRDBF solution is not so attractive. But let me note that creating an alias one time is much easier than issueing an override and a delete override every time you want to access an object. The complexities involved in managing the scope of an override (especially in an ILE environment) are much more significant than using an Alias.