Presentation vs. business logic

Basic Script files contain both the presentation code (view definitions, dialogs, code that handles user actions, etc) and the business logic code. In Web Central all presentation features are implemented in AXVW views and corresponding JS files, and the business logic in implemented as workflow rules in Java.

Most Basic Script files have a structure that makes it easy to distinguish between presentation and business logic. There are Basic Script procedures that display views and dialogs, and these procedures do not contain any real business logic code, but call other procedures that do.

Application functional specifications should explicitly list the business service methods that are called from views, along with their input and output parameters.

Examining Basic Script code

A good editor with syntax highlighting, such as Programmer’s Notepad (http://www.pnotepad.org/), makes it easier to examine Basic Script code.

Executing UPDATE or INSERT SQL

Basic Script provides the ProjDb.ExecuteSql() method to execute an UPDATE or an INSERT SQL.

The equivalent method in the Web Central API is SqlUtils.executeUpdate():

String sql = "UPDATE cost_tran SET chrgbck_status = 'CA' WHERE chrgbck_status = 'CS'";
SqlUtils.executeUpdate("cost_tran", sql);

The SQL can contain expressions such as ${concat} or ${sql.isNull}. For example, to format a Date object for SQL in a database-specific format:

Date dateDue = ...;
String sql = "INSERT INTO cost_tran_sched (date_due, ...) " + "SELECT ${sql.date(" + dateDue + ")}, ... ";
SqlUtils.executeUpdate("cost_tran", sql);

The SqlUtils class also provides some of the helper methods ported from the sup.abs, for example:

String makeLiteralOrBlank(String value)
String formatSqlReplace0WithHuge(String value)

See additional help topics:

Database_Independent_SQL_Overview

Custom SQL Queries

Executing SQL Update

Querying records

Basic Script code queries records using the RecordSet object:

Dim costTransRecurId As String
Dim rs As New RecordSet
rs.Open "SELECT cost_tran_recur_id FROM cost_tran_recur WHERE ..."
Do While Not rs.EOF
costTranRecurId = rs.Fields('cost_tran_recur_id').Value
...
rs.MoveNext ' scroll the ResultSet to the next record
Loop

The corresponding Java code looks like this:

String table = "cost_tran_recur";
String[] fields = {"cost_tran_recur_id"};
DataSource ds = DataSourceFactory.createDataSourceForFields(table, fields);

// for all records retreived by the DataSource
for (DataRecord record: ds.getRecords()) {
String costTranRecurId = record.getString("cost_tran_recur.cost_tran_recur_id");
...
}

Field values retrieved by the DataSource are already converted to Java object types that match Archibus field types. For example, record.getString("cost_tran.date_paid") returns the java.util.Date object – not a string.

See additional help topics: Read Multiple Data Records

Batch updates

Both BasicScript API and Web Central API provide the FieldOperation and FieldFormula objects that perform batch updates of the owner table field values, based on the assigned table field values. These objects generate database-independent SQL queries.

Language differences