When used within a multi-user network environment, R:BASE allows multiple users to simultaneously access, view, update, insert, and delete data from common database resources.
To ensure data integrity when multiple users attempt simultaneous access these resources, R:BASE applies a flexible set of locking and access mechanisms, termed “concurrency controls”, to minimize contention between user requests. Several of these controls are automatically applied by the R:BASE engine, others are optionally applied by the developer. All possess default values, and each is configurable, individually, and in collaboration with other controls.
Through skillful application of these controls, the R:BASE developer has the opportunity to optimize the engine’s management of concurrency, which in turn significantly enhances the engine’s responsiveness to users’ simultaneous requests for service.
The first chapter focuses exclusively on the application of concurrency controls to R:BASE multi-user database development. The second chapter covers the R:BASE installation and preparing the application for network use. Following chapters deal with optimization techniques applied within application code. Please bear in mind that these tools and techniques address only aspect of the optimization challenge—concurrent access—and that there are other considerations beyond the scope of this Guide:
•Know your hardware. Have the best servers, workstations, switches, cabling and wireless nodes you can afford. Ensure that each is competently specified, configured, installed and maintained by someone who knows his or her craft, as well as the history of your system.
•Know your cabled Ethernet network. Same.
•Know your wireless Ethernet network. Same. But also, know when a Remote Desktop approach can overcome the performance limitations of wireless networks, especially within manufacturing environments where interference and signal degradation may degrade transmission of data.
•When designing your database schema, take full advantage of the relational capabilities of R:BASE for the linking and manipulation of data stored in multiple tables.
•Learn and apply the rules of normalization to your schema so that data is as “atomized” as possible, thus minimizing the resources required by any user at a given moment.
•Take full advantage of temporary tables and views in your coding to reduce the number and frequency of (otherwise avoidable) “hits” on permanent tables.
Topics
Multi-User Concurrency Settings
Increasing Application Performance
Increasing Performance in Forms
