ObjectStore Active Toolkit Reference

Chapter 4

Configuring ATK

Introduction
The ATK installation configures ATK to use the same ObjectStore application schema, metaknowledge, and string formats as Inspector. Using the ATK configuration utility, you can change these settings and the default settings for the types of joins ATK uses in queries. You can also check the status of the ObjectStore Server on the application host.

In this chapter
This chapter presents the following topics:

The ATK Configuration Utility

 The ATK configuration utility is an application that you can use to change the ATK ActiveX server and OLE DB provider default settings. The ATK installation program establishes these defaults based on the locations of ATK and Inspector. You can synchronize all ATK settings with the corresponding Inspector settings, or you can reconfigure individual ATK settings.

Running the ATK Configuration Utility

Before configuring
 The database schema is stored in the ATK library, and all other settings are stored in the Windows NT registry. Before configuring ATK, unlock the ATK libraries by closing all applications that created ATK ActiveX server objects or access the ATK OLE DB provider, including Active Server Pages. If the ATK libraries are locked when you run the ATK configuration utility, it cannot modify the application schema path. Furthermore, any changes applied to the ATK settings are not visible to the already running ATK instances. Even after a reboot, the application schema path is not updated under such circumstances.

Starting the configuration utility
To start the ATK configuration utility, choose Start | Programs | ObjectStore ATK 6.0 | Configuration Utility.

The ATK configuration utility has three sheets:

Procedures for configuring the information on these sheets are described in the following sections.

Synchronizing with Inspector

ATK and Inspector share metaknowledge, data views, instance formats, and the ObjectStore application schema. To synchronize these ATK settings, the ATK string display format, and all other ATK settings with the corresponding Inspector settings, click Synchronize with Inspector from any sheet. (For more information about how ATK works with the Inspector, refer to Chapter 1, ATK and the Inspector.)

Setting the Application Schema Path

What is the application schema?
 The application schema is an ObjectStore database in the file vomsch30.adb. In order for the application to access the application schema, the schema must be under the control of an ObjectStore Server. If you manually move the application schema, you must reconfigure ATK with the schema's new location.

For example, suppose an application running on a Windows NT workstation that has no ObjectStore Server queries a Solaris ObjectStore Server. To successfully query the Solaris Server database, you must copy the application schema to the Solaris machine and reconfigure ATK on the Windows NT machine with the remote location of the Solaris workstation.

Default location
By default, the vomsch60.adb is placed in C:\odi\ATK6.0\lib. Use the Application Schema sheet to check or modify the ATK application schema path, and to configure ATK to use a particular ObjectStore Server located on your network.

Application Schema Sheet

The Application Schema sheet displays the ATK application schema configuration:

Traffic signal icon
 The color of the traffic signal summarizes the application schema configuration:

An ATK application that runs when the traffic signal is yellow or red encounters an error when it attempts to open a database.

Changing the application schema database path
To establish a new location:

  1. Click Change App Schema Path.

  2. Enter another directory location. You can specify a directory on the local machine, an ObjectStore rawfs, or a network file server directory.

  3. Copy vomsch60.adb to the directory location you specified.

ObjectStore Server

 The Application Schema sheet also indicates whether an ObjectStore Server is running on the host designated by the application schema path:

Synchronizing with Inspector

 To use the application schema database path that Inspector uses, click Synchronize with Inspector. Note that this synchronizes all ATK configuration settings in all tabs with the equivalent Inspector settings.

Modifying the ATK General Settings

Use the General Settings sheet to specify the location of the ATK metaknowledge, and to choose the default type of join ATK uses when displaying relationships in a single table.

Metaknowledge

Because ATK and Inspector use the same metaknowledge, the ATK installation checks the location of the Inspector knowledge and uses that setting for ATK. (For details of how ATK and the Inspector share metaknowledge, refer to Chapter 1, ATK and the Inspector.)

By default, the ATK installation designates the file system as the metaknowledge location. To manually modify this setting, specify the location from which ATK should load the metaknowledge.

Default X-to-Many Joins

By default, the ATK ActiveX server displays one-to-many and many-to-many relationships in a table using Inspector-like joins, and the ATK OLE DB provider returns one-to-many and many-to-many relationships using SQL-like joins. You can choose the join format you prefer. For more information about these types of joins, refer to Chapter 3, Active Toolkit OLE DB Provider.

Synchronizing with Inspector

If you have modified the location of the Inspector metaknowledge and want to update all ATK settings to match the corresponding Inspector setting, click Synchronize with Inspector.

Modifying the String Format Settings

Use the String Formats sheet to specify the default string display format for the current database. For additional information about string formats and string interpretation, refer to Viewing Blob in the ObjectStore Inspector User Guide.

Interpreting Strings

By default, ATK interprets strings as plain ASCII text. You can interpret strings using any format that the Inspector supports. This is especially helpful if the database contains strings that are encoded using SJIS, EUC, or Unicode.

Japanese Expressions

If the application retrieves objects encoded in Japanese characters, you can ensure that ATK uses a Japanese-enabled parser that supports DBCS and Unicode. This parser is included in the ATK kernel.

Show Strings

By default, ATK displays strings up to the first null character it encounters. Instead, ATK can skip displaying invalid characters or display an alternate character for each invalid one.

BLOBs

By default, ATK displays ASCII strings that are longer than 768 characters as binary large objects (BLOBs). You can increase or decrease this limit.

Show Single Characters

You can display single characters as either a character or an ASCII value. For example, the letter D can be shown as D or 68. This also affects the type of the column in which the value is displayed; it is either char[n] or integer.



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Copyright © 1998 Object Design, Inc. All rights reserved.

Updated: 05/11/99 11:39:35