[Isis-users] Help | Retrieve and write data to the databases

De Smet Egbert egbert.desmet at uantwerpen.be
Wed Apr 16 15:29:43 CEST 2014


I have explained already earlier on that indeed all scripts in fact create 'queries' which are then passed on to the main executable : wxis.exe (in the script wxis_llamar.php in the htdocs/common directory). The passing on goes via an 'IsisScript' (files with extension .xis) which mostly first gather cgi-environment variables (e.g. database-name, query term etc.) then manipulate these variables in virtual ISIS-records and finally use these to produce output.
Such output can be a new record (= a series of lines each representing a field with a field-tag) to write into the database, a new value to be substituted into an existing (occurrence of a) field of an existing record, a list of records formatted according to the very specific PFT formats etc.
Thus the IsisScript is an intermediate layer to allow for more sophisticated manipulation of values before they are passed on to the database-executable (wxis) which then performs the classic database-functions : create record, edit record, delete record, search record and display/list record.

Your question on which files are involved ... sorry but there are too many ! ABCD is an advanced system, not just a few scripts. The sub-directories in Central e.g. (and that is only one module !) have meaningful names, so you can guess that 'dataentry' contains the scripts dealing with cataloging and editing records, 'dbadmin' for database administration (creating/editing database-structures, quite special feature of ABCD), circulation for loans, reserve for reservations etc.
Then again there are many scripts for other modules (iAH, Site, Secs-Web, ...), so you have to understand the modular architecture as explained in the manual.

Egbert de Smet
Universiteit Antwerpen
________________________________________
From: isis-users [isis-users-bounces+egbert.desmet=ua.ac.be at iccisis.org] on behalf of Arthur Palm [music.poprock_91 at hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 3:08 PM
To: isis-users at iccisis.org
Subject: [Isis-users] Help | Retrieve and write data to the databases

Hello,

Just a random question to understand the ABCD library system and how it works, especially about retrieving and writing new records to the ISIS database. Image yourselves I have created this function in the ABCD system and this function requires the system to write new records to the databases and also retrieve records from the database. What do I have to do to let this new function retrieve and write new records to the database? what files will be involved in the process and where are these files located? And also how does existing functions retrieve and write new records to the database, and what files are involved in the process? Also what is the function of the  executable file called "WXIS.EXE", does this executable file has to do with writing and retrieving information to the database?

Thank you in advance,
Arthur


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