RE: A quick EGL example

From: Brian

I can name that tune in ...

In a production setting the database is more than likely already
established
or will be developed outside of RBDe. In that case, you will just connect
to
the database and import the tables during your project setup. RBDe will
then
automagically create the Control Records, Data Access Libraries, Data
Access
Records and EGL Data Items for those tabels. This auto generation can
eliminate the need to manually code the records as Joe has illustrated.
So,
after a one time setup, you can create Joe's example in... five minutes.
:)

Thanks Brian! You're absolutely right that all of my existing tables can be
brought in using an import, making them roughly equivalent to an externally
described file.

I only need to hand-code those records which are truly being used as data
structures, either being passed to RPG programs or to the JSF page itself.
And note, I can use the generated SQL records to pass data to the page; when
I drop an array of records onto a page I can specify which columns to show
and in which order, so it's not like I have to create a new record every
time I show data.

On the other hand, if I *DO* create a record specifically for the page, it's
a matter of writing a few lines of code to define the record (exactly
equivalent to writing D-specs for a data structure) and then I can drop it
onto the page in literally seconds with just a couple of clicks. That's
especially cool for complex SQL queries.

Joe