Enscribe Data Base
Padmaraj Bhat
I have heard that there are 3 data bases supported in NonStop:
Enscribe, SQL/MP and SQL/MX
Can you please tell me about the Enscribe Data Base ?
Thanks in Advance.
Paddy
Keith Dick
It is a slight overstatement to say that Enscribe is a database. The manual calls it a record manager. If you are familiar with IBM ISAM files, Enscribe probably is closer to that than to a database.
You can read about Enscribe in the Enscribe Programmer's Guide, which you can find by going to docs.hp.com, scrolling down to NonStop Technical Library, clicking on the link for your system type, then scrolling down to find that title. Anything beyond the first chapter of that manual gets right into very technical details, which probably is more than you want at the moment. If there is a better introduction to Enscribe, I cannot think of it right now.
As a quick summary, Enscribe:
- Provides key-sequenced files, relative files, and entry-sequenced files.
- All files can have alternate key files (like alternate indexes), which are automatically maintained as records are inserted, updated, and deleted in the main file.
- Knows the record length, and the position of the keys, but nothing else about the records.
- Knows a key as one group of bytes in the record; you cannot have a key composed of two or more disjoint portions of the record.
- Provides record locking.
- Supports transaction protection of changes to files via TMF.
You can use the DDL product to describe the type and size of all fields in Enscribe files. This allows you to use the ENFORM product to generate reports from your Enscribe files. It also allows you to generate record declarations for your Enscribe files in any of the supported programming languages, to help you keep record declarations in sync if you use multiple languages to access your files. But the disc process and filesystem know nothing of the record descriptions made with DDL.
dimandja
sequenced, relative, unstructured, and queue files.
If you already know SQL, then Enscribe is a no-brainer.
You deal with/use key-sequenced files pretty much in the same fashion
as you would with SQL.
Entry-sequenced files are a bunch of variable length records that are
appended to the end of the file. The key to those records is the
block number and record position within the block. You can obtain
this key through Guardian Calls. However specifying an Alternate key
for these records will allow you to access the file in Random Access
mode.
Relative files use the order of records entry to the file as a Record
Key stored in each record. You can also have an Alternate Key here.
Queues let you add and remove records in a first in first out basis
known as FIFO.
Unstructured files I try to stay away from. I find them unwieldy and
resistant to anything civilized.
Oh, and you can access Enscribe databases from any machine linked to
Tandem via the Open Data Base Connectivity standard (ODBC).
Anupam Das
company like Attunity, there is no ODBC driver being provided from HP
NED to get this done. Isn't it?
dimandja
>
> - Show quoted text -
As far as I know, yes, Attunity is the only supplier of ODBC drivers
for Tandem. I have used it before.
Those folks are very good at what they do: http://www.attunity.com
Padmaraj Bhat
Hello All,
I am glad to know the quick response. I have briefed through the
manual and I have few doubts...
1. I have a structured file, let us say, key sequence file , I want to
see its content; how do i do that. The commonly used command is
FUP COPY <filename>,,SHARE,A,FOLD
but this is not readable form. i.e I have to have the least idea of
what the file has in order to understand the display, when I issue the
above command.
Is there any alternative to it ? If I had known the structure of the
file I would have created the ddl file (and dictionary ) then through
Enform, I would seen the content more clearly but I do not know
anything about that key sequenced file then ?
Is there any way to get the ddl source file( exact structure) from the
key sequenced file ?
2. I really dont understand why we need to have the alternate key
files when it stores the same data as that of key sequenced ?
3. Through DDL I have created the FUP in-file with which I have create
a key sequenced file; now How to put content into it ? Should I go for
FUP COPY or FUP Load from an 101 coded file ?
Thanks,
Paddy
dimandja
>
> - Show quoted text -
Paddy,
I am now quite confused.
Rather than launching into a full scale tutorial of Enscribe, it
should be simpler if you told us what it is your are trying to
accomplish -- other than learning Enscribe in this forum, that is. If
learning Enscribe is your goal, I would recommend starting with the
wonderful and quite readable Enscribe manual.
Primary and Alternate keys do not (should not) hold the same
information. They are separate/different ways/keys of accessing the
same file. Primary keys are required by key-sequenced files; while
alternate keys (indexes) are optional and can be created or removed
whenever the mood strikes you. If you already know SQL, this is a
concept that would be familiar.
It does not make any sense to try to FUP COPY a file whose structure
is unknown. How are you planning to interpret the data? Without a
file structure on hand, Enform will not be helpful either. Nor will
DDL.
Fup Loading/Copying data into another file assumes you know the
structures of the input and output files.
Which brings us to the point I made in another thread recently: when
creating files, always use DDL!
Doug Miller
[...]
>Paddy,
>
>I am now quite confused.
>
>Rather than launching into a full scale tutorial of Enscribe, it
>should be simpler if you told us what it is your are trying to
>accomplish -- other than learning Enscribe in this forum, that is.
From his other questions, it's quite clear that he has applied for a position
as a Tandem programmer and is trying desperately to pass the technical
interview when in fact he knows nothing at all about the platform.
We do neither him nor his potential employer any favors by "helping" him
appear knowledgeable.
wbreidbach
> In article <6190ad20-a203-43ea-8959-9503ae8f2...@c11g2000vbe.googlegroups.com>, dimandja <demou...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> [...]
>
> >Paddy,
>
> >I am now quite confused.
>
> >Rather than launching into a full scale tutorial of Enscribe, it
> >should be simpler if you told us what it is your are trying to
> >accomplish -- other than learning Enscribe in this forum, that is.
>
> From his other questions, it's quite clear that he has applied for a position
> as a Tandem programmer and is trying desperately to pass the technical
> interview when in fact he knows nothing at all about the platform.
>
> We do neither him nor his potential employer any favors by "helping" him
> appear knowledgeable.
I think you should tell us something about your intentions. Are you
going to that "technical interview" or have you been thrown into a
NonStop job without preparations?
Anyway, here is the link to the documentation: http://docs.hp.com/en/NSHSeries.html.
I would recommend to look at the Guardian Programmer's Guide.
Padmaraj Bhat
Hi,
These questions were not answered by faculties during my initial
training and stayed with me all the time. I suspected, my query on
"ENSCRIBE Data Base" will be answered with nothing but a reference to
the manual. But the quick response briefing the topic made me to jump
on my feet and I came up with the "Tweaked Questions”. I believe
neither of us need to justify why these questions need to be / need
not be answered. Kindly excuse me; I did not notice that this forum is
being used for critical problem resolution and not for knowledge
sharing. As indicated, I will be specific in my next query. I
sincerely thank the team for the support shown so far.
Paddy
wbreidbach
Just to avoid any misunderstandings: The people in this forum are
sharing a lot of their knowledge as you can see in older posts. We
know that lots of information can not be found in the manuals. Other
information is hidden very well somewhere nobody expects. And
sometimes the real behaviour of some software is not according to the
manual.
But this forum cannot not be a replacement for a training and
unfortunately that was the impression some people got regarding your
questions. As far as I understood this impression was wrong.
But anyway perhaps the hint you gave now might be a good one.
There are of lot of people having lots of knowledge and lots of
experience in this forum. Wouldn't it be a good idea to put this into
something like a "best practices on (Tandem)NonStop"? In many cases
those best practices have already been wriiten in this forum.
dimandja
>
> Paddy- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Paddy,
Have you been able to get a Tandem job since your training? If so,
what database are you using? This might help as a starting point in
answering your questions. Without any Tandem background to build
from, answering your questions would require elaborate heavy lifting
of preparatory information.
Tell me this, if you will: what have you done on Tandem so far?
Language, database, etc? Do you have any other non-Tandem
experience?
If you only had training without any hands on experience, it can be
quite frustrating to understand some of the concepts explored here.
MicroTech
> 1. I have a structured file, let us say, key sequence file ,
> I want to see its content; how do i do that?
Use FUP COPY <filename>,,HEX
You will get the contents listed as both hexadecimal and ASCII, so you
can easily decode anything stored in the file. If you only wish to see
x records, append ", COUNT x", and if you wish to start from record y,
append ",FIRST y"
> 2. I really dont understand why we need to have the alternate key
> files when it stores the same data as that of key sequenced ?
You do not "need" to always use alternate keys. But when you do,
altkeys do NOT "store the same information," they provide an alternate
view of the same data (i.e., a different "sort order"): alternate key
records store the desired key value plus the "internal" address of the
corresponding data record; when read via alternate key, the file
system first reads the altkey record, then positions to the data
record pointed to by that key record, then reads and returns the data
record to the user.
> 3. Through DDL I have created the FUP in-file with which I have create
> a key sequenced file; now How to put content into it?
You write an application which uses the DDL to format the records (and
then writes the records to the created file), or you can use FUP LOAD,
or DATALOADER (see NTL http://docs.hp.com/en/424148-003/424148-003.pdf).
It appears as if you might possibly benefit from perusing my GAME
course material (Guardian Architecture Made Easy)... Feel free to
download a copy from my online file folders at http://www.box.net/shared/bzz23tb2gu
Please spend some time reading all applicable manuals (Enscribe, FUP,
DDL, Guardian Programmer's Guide, ...)
Cheers,
Henry Norman
MicroTech Consulting
http://groups.google.com/group/microtech_software