Re: Which DB/Software suite combo is best for Web<->DB implementation

John Mullee (john@exmachina.net) wrote: : I said: : > > Don't even think about Informix's web datablade. : Thomas Tatum wrote: : > I disagree. : : Validating a date in Informix Web-Datablade tags. : This resembles no language I ever heard of, except maybe RPG. But not : really. That's because it isn't a programming language. It's meant to be used as mark-up directioves for HTML. If you want to do some serious programming stuff, use 'C', or SPL, or Java, and implement your code as a UDR. i.e. CREATE FUNCTION DateIsValid ( ARG1 LVARCHAR, Arg2 LVARCHAR, Arg3 LVARCHAR ) RETURNING boolean -- -- Use SPL to check the validity of the date. Alternatively. -- you might simply try the INFORMIX date check routines and -- catch the exception. In any case, return 't' if it's OK, and -- 'f' otherwise. -- END FUNCTION; The the whole ugly mess John posted reduces to: <?MIVAR NAME=MMI_VALDATE>TRUE<?/MIVAR> <?MISQL SQL="EXECUTE FUNCTION DateIsValid ( '$year_date_birth', '$month_date_birth', '$day_date_birth')"> <?MIVAR COND(=,$1,'f')>$(SETVAR,$MMI_VALDATE,FALSE)<?/MIVAR> And those of you more conversant in the Web Blade than I can probably reduce this further. The advantage of this is that you can re-use the DateIsValid() function all over the place without re-using the reams of mark-up. Also, if you find a bug, then you can simply change the function to fix it, rather than re-writing lots of code. The trick is this: think of it as if you're building the application in the ORDBMS, and using the WebBlade as the means of interfacing the DBMS to HTML. Hope this helps! KR Pb