Re: Forms with ONLINE 5.0 dbaccess

Jonathan Leffler writes: Someone had asked: |> >We are (for a client's box) currently using ONLINE version 5.0. |> >Instead of ISQL, we are using the embedded dbaccess utility. It |> >seems to accept all the SQL commands and appears to work pretty |> >well with one exception--lack of forms capability. Is there |> >any way to generate forms with dbaccess? Is there perhaps a |> >shareware program we could use to build forms and run them or |> >even a shareware program we could use to execute forms built here? |> |> Four exceptions, actually. No forms support. No reports support. No user |> menu support. No custom PERFORM or ACE support. |> |> DBACCESS is not a replacement for ISQL. It is for DBAs to use. It is |> invaluable for those DBAs who always used the ISQL Query-language facility |> and not much else, because that is what it provides. It is also available |> on run-time systems, so you can monitor a production database without |> having to install ISQL, which is also utterly invaluable. |> |> If you want forms, buy the forms product, which is Informix-SQL. Let me add, to what my co-worker from across the pond has already provided, that dbaccess was "created" so all our users would not be required to purchase ISQL just to be able to create databases and tables. This was a logical followup to Informix's unbundling of the server from tools (used to be, when there was only sqlexec, that when you bought ISQL or I4GL, you got a server along with the tool. When Turbo came out, you still got sqlexec but had to buy Turbo if you wanted to use that server. This was obviously silly, so out the servers came. Now you purchase tools and servers ala carte, and SQL capability is considered a utility. So you get it FREE!). Dave