Using Transaction objects to call stored procedures
SQLCA is a built-in global variable of type transaction that
is used in all PowerBuilder applications. In your application, you
can define a specialized version of SQLCA that performs certain
processing or calculations on your data.
If your database supports stored procedures, you may already
have defined remote stored procedures to perform these operations.
You can use the remote procedure call (RPC) technique to define
a customized version of the Transaction object that calls these
database stored procedures in your application.
Result sets You cannot
use the RPC technique to access
result sets returned by stored procedures. If the stored procedure
returns one or more result sets, PowerBuilder ignores the values
and returns the output parameters and return value. If your stored
procedure returns a result set, you can use the embedded SQL DECLARE
Procedure statement to call it.
For information about the DECLARE Procedure
statement, see the chapter on SQL statements in the PowerScript
Reference
.
Overview of the RPC procedure
To call database stored procedures from within your PowerBuilder
application, you can use the remote procedure call technique and
PowerScript dot notation (object
.function
)
to define a customized version of the Transaction object that calls
the stored procedures.
To call database stored procedures in your application:
-
From the Objects tab in the New dialog
box, define a standard class user object inherited from the built-in
Transaction object. -
In the Script view in the User Object painter,
use the RPCFUNC keyword to declare the stored procedure as an external
function or subroutine for the user object. - Save the user object.
-
In the Application painter, specify the user object
you defined as the default global variable type for SQLCA. -
Code your PowerBuilder application to use the
user object.
For instructions on using the User Object
and Application painters and the Script view in PowerBuilder, see
the PowerBuilder User’s Guide
.
Understanding the example
u_trans_database user object The following sections give step-by-step instructions for
using a Transaction object to call stored procedures in your application.
The example shows how to define and use a standard class user object
named u_trans_database.
The u_trans_database user object is a descendant
of (inherited from) the built-in Transaction object SQLCA. A descendant is
an object that inherits functionality (properties, variables, functions,
and event scripts) from an ancestor object. A descendent object
is also called a subclass.
GIVE_RAISE stored procedure The u_trans_database user object calls an ORACLE7
database stored procedure named GIVE_RAISE that calculates
a five percent raise on the current salary. Here is the ORACLE7
syntax to create the GIVE_RAISE stored procedure:
SQL terminator character The syntax shown here for creating an ORACLE7 stored procedure
assumes that the SQL statement terminator character is ` (backquote).
1 |
// Create GIVE_RAISE function for ORACLE7. |
1 |
// SQL terminator character is ` (backquote). |
1 |
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION give_raise |
1 |
(salary IN OUT NUMBER) |
1 |
return NUMBER |
1 |
IS rv NUMBER; |
1 |
BEGIN |
1 |
salary := salary * 1.05; |
1 |
rv := salary; |
1 |
return rv; |
1 |
END; ` |
1 |
// Save changes. |
1 |
COMMIT WORK` |
1 |
// Check for errors. |
1 |
SELECT * FROM all_errors` |
Step 1: define the standardclass user object
To define the standard class user object:
- Start PowerBuilder.
-
Connect to a database that supports stored procedures.
The rest of this procedure assumes you are connected to an
ORACLE7 database that contains remote stored procedures on the database
server.For instructions on connecting to an ORACLE7
database in PowerBuilder and using ORACLE7 stored procedures, see Connecting
to Your Database
. -
Click the New button in the PowerBar.
or
Select File>New from the menu bar.
The New dialog box displays.
-
On the Object tab, select the Standard Class icon
and click OK to define a new standard class user object.The Select Standard Class Type dialog box displays:
-
Select transaction
as the
built-in system type that you want your user object to inherit from,
and click OK.The User Object painter workspace displays so you can assign
properties (instance variables) and functions to your user object:
Step 2: declare the storedprocedure as an external function
FUNCTION or SUBROUTINE declaration
You can declare a non-result set database stored procedure
as an external function or external subroutine in a PowerBuilder
application. If the stored procedure has a return value, declare
it as a function (using the FUNCTION keyword). If the stored procedure
returns nothing or returns VOID, declare it as a subroutine (using
the SUBROUTINE keyword).
RPCFUNC and ALIAS FOR keywords
You must
use the RPCFUNC keyword in the
function or subroutine declaration to indicate that this is a remote
procedure call (RPC) for a database stored procedure rather than
for an external function in a dynamic library. Optionally, you can
use the ALIAS FOR “spname
” expression to supply
the name of the stored procedure as it appears in the database if
this name differs from the one you want to use in your script.
For complete information about the syntax
for declaring stored procedures as remote procedure calls, see the
chapter on calling functions and events in the PowerScript
Reference
.
To declare stored procedures as external functions
for the user object:
-
In the Script view in the User Object painter,
select [Declare] from the first listbox and Local
External Functions from the second listbox. -
Place your cursor in the Declare Local External
Functions view. From the popup menu or the Edit menu, select Paste
Special>SQL>Remote Stored Procedures.PowerBuilder loads the stored procedures from your database
and displays the Remote Stored Procedures dialog box. It lists the
names of stored procedures in the current database. -
Select the names of one or more stored procedures
that you want to declare as functions for the user object, and click
OK.PowerBuilder retrieves the stored procedure declarations from
the database and pastes each declaration into the view.For example, here is the declaration that displays on one
line when you select sp_addlanguage:1function long sp_addlanguage()1RPCFUNC ALIAS FOR "dbo.sp_addlanguage" -
Edit the stored procedure declaration as needed
for your application.Use either of the following syntax formats to declare the
database remote procedure call (RPC) as an external function or
external subroutine (for details about the syntax, see the PowerScript
Reference
):1<b>FUNCTION</b> <i>rtndatatype</i> <i>functionname</i> ( { { <b>REF</b> } <i>datatype1</i> <i>arg1</i>, ..., <br /> { <b>REF</b> } <i>datatypen</i> <i>argn</i> } ) <b>RPCFUNC</b> { <b>ALIAS FOR</b> "<i>spname</i>" }1<b>SUBROUTINE</b> <i>functionname</i> ( { { <b>REF</b> } <i>datatype1 arg1</i> , ..., <br /> { <b>REF</b> } <i>datatypen argn</i> } ) <b>RPCFUNC</b> { <b>ALIAS FOR </b>"<i>spname</i>" }Here is the edited RPC function declaration for sp_addlanguage:
1FUNCTION long sp_addlanguage()1RPCFUNC ALIAS FOR "addlanguage_proc"
Step 3: save the user object
To save the user object:
-
In the User Object painter, click the Save
button.or
Select File>Save from the menu bar.
The Save User Object dialog box displays.
-
Specify the name of the user object, comments
that describe its purpose, and the library in which to save the
user object: -
Click OK to save the user object.
PowerBuilder saves the user object with the name you specified
in the selected library.
Step 4: specify the defaultglobal variable type for SQLCA
In the Application painter, you must specify the user object
you defined as the default global variable type for SQLCA. When
you execute your application, this tells PowerBuilder to use your
standard class user object instead of the built-in system Transaction
object.
Using your own Transaction object instead of SQLCA This procedure assumes that your application uses the default
Transaction object SQLCA. But you can also declare and create an
instance of your own Transaction object and then write code that
calls the user object as a property of your Transaction object.
For instructions, see the chapter on working
with user objects in the PowerBuilder User’s
Guide
.
To specify the default global variable type for
SQLCA:
-
Click the Open button in the PowerBar.
or
Select File>Open from the menu bar.
The Open dialog box displays.
-
Select Applications from the Object Type dropdown
listbox. Choose the application where you want to use your new user
object and click OK.The Application painter workspace displays.
-
Select the General tab in the Properties view.
Click the Additional Properties button.The Additional Properties dialog box displays.
-
Click the Variable Types tab to display the Variable
Types property page. -
In the SQLCA box, specify the name of the standard
class user object you defined in the Steps 1 through 3: -
Click OK or Apply.
When you execute your application, PowerBuilder will use the
specified standard class user object instead of the built-in system
object type it inherits from.
Step 5: code your applicationto use the user object
What you’ve done so far In the previous steps, you defined the GIVE_RAISE
remote stored procedure as an external function for the u_trans_database
standard class user object. You then specified u_trans_database
as the default global variable type for SQLCA. These steps give
your PowerBuilder application access to the properties and functions encapsulated
in the user object.
What you do now You now need to write code that uses the user object to perform
the necessary processing.
In your application script, you can use PowerScript dot notation
to call the stored procedure functions you defined for the user
object, just as you do when using SQLCA for all other PowerBuilder
objects. The dot notation syntax is:
1 |
<i>object.function</i> ( <i>arguments</i> ) |
For example, you can call the GIVE_RAISE stored procedure
with code similar to the following:
1 |
SQLCA.give_raise(salary) |
To code your application to use the user object:
-
Open the object or control for which you
want to write a script. -
Select the event for which you want to write the
script.For instructions on using the Script view,
see the PowerBuilder User’s Guide
. -
Write code that uses the user object to do the
necessary processing for your application.Here is a simple code example that connects to an ORACLE7
database, calls the GIVE_RAISE stored procedure to calculate
the raise, displays a message box with the new salary, and disconnects
from the database:1// Set Transaction object connection properties.1SQLCA.DBMS="OR7"1SQLCA.LogID="scott"1SQLCA.LogPass="xxyyzz"1SQLCA.ServerName="@t:oracle:testdb"1SQLCA.DBParm="sqlcache=24,pbdbms=1"11// Connect to the ORACLE7 database.1CONNECT USING SQLCA ;11// Check for errors.1IF SQLCA.sqlcode <> 0 THEN1MessageBox ("Connect Error",SQLCA.SQLErrText)1return1END IF11// Set 20,000 as the current salary.1DOUBLE val = 200001DOUBLE rv11// Call the GIVE_RAISE stored procedure to1// calculate the raise.1// Use dot notation to call the stored procedure1<i>rv = SQLCA.give_raise(val)</i>11// Display a message box with the new salary.1MessageBox("The new salary is",string(rv))11// Disconnect from the ORACLE7 database.1DISCONNECT USING SQLCA; - Compile the script to save your changes.
Using error checking An actual script would include error checking after the CONNECT
statement, DISCONNECT statement, and call to the GIVE_RAISE
procedure.
For details, see “Error handling after
a SQL statement”.