MaxBase is the name of this package, and also the name of the program you use to edit your databases. But there is more than this!

If you have the need to share your databases on a local area network (LAN) or the Internet you can easily use the tools provided in the MaxBase package.

The owner of the local DB to be shared on the network will simply have to activate the server, a program which will handle requests from remote users:

the server

 

OS/2 users can right-click on a database and select [ open as ] - [ share DB on the network ] and answer some questions that will be posed to them; users from other operating systems will have to go to the command line, change to the directory where the database is and type:

java nrio.RXDBServer -d:[your database] -p:[Port number]

and other optional parameters. Valid parameters are:

-c:comment => description of the database ['_' are substituted with spaces in <comment>, spaces are not allowed]

-d:file[.dat] => uses database [file]

-l:file => logs all activities to file [file]

-p:port => specifies a port for listening

-q => operates in quiet mode (no output on stdout)

-v => operates in verbose mode (timestamps in log file, if a log file is requested)

-s => operates in safe mode (only read operations allowed)

-a:password => grant *A*ccess to requests made with [password] (safe mode).

-f:opt_file => a text file containing (one each line) one or more of the above options. The syntax for the entries in the options file is ITEM=value; valid items are:

COMMENT (you can use spaces between words this time)
DB_FILE (=filename, with or without the ending .dat extension)
LOG_FILE (=filename)
TCPIP_PORT
QUIET_MODE (can be =YES or =NO only)
VERBOSE_MODE (can be =YES or =NO only)
SAFE_MODE (can be =YES or =NO only)
PASSWORD

Why store options in a file? Because in Unix (and possibly other operating systems) you can obtain a list of processes, complete with their parameters, and this way you could retrieve a password by simply looking at the parameters for the running DB server. With an option file, you aren't taking this extra risk (provided of course that you don't let users access the option file).


Once you have setup your DB server, remote users can access your database right from MaxBase, specifying the correct host name and port number in the DB login sequence. The number of the users that can access a remote database at once is two for the standard edition of MaxBase and unlimited for the extended edition. Important: please read about multi-user issues if you haven't already done so.

Another option is to setup a web page which has an applet in it, and every user that will hit that page will be able to use MaxBase. For more details on how to do it, refer to the "for developers" section.

Note: Not every browser is equally capable of running Java 1.1 applets. In fact, often the problem with MaxBase is that not everyone can run Java 1.1 applets with their favorite browser (note: Netscape users should get the Java 1.1 update for the 4.0X serie of browsers in order to use MaxBase as an applet). Here it is a list of the current compatibility issues I found:

 

Netscape

Internet Explorer 4

HotJava 1.1

 

Linux

4.04 works with MaxBase

not available

Not tested

 

OS/2

(Feb. rel.) works with MaxBase

not available

Not tested

 

Win32

4.04 works with MaxBase

works with MaxBase

works with MaxBase



What if you need to access RXDBServer from machines that don't have a Java Virtual Machine?
The source file for RXDBClient is provided in this package (in the maxbase\demo directory), so you can study and port it (you'll see, it's very easy).


Max Marsiglietti © 1997
Layout and artwork Andrea Resmini 1997