neoTIP4: Always give your databases an Alias.

When working with database files via the NeoBookDB plug-in, all of the database commands allow you to reference the database files in question using their file names or Aliases ... and most developers tend to use the file names ... but this practice makes for a higly inflexible design and can require you to make changes to each and every command that referenced this database if you (ever) needed to change the name of the database.

However, if you get into the habit of using the dbfDefineAlias command, any change to the database file name/location can be accomplished with just one change ... to this same dbfDefineAlias command.

A good practice would be to define all your Aliases in the publications StartUp section ...

dbfDefineAlias "[MyDocuments]address.dbf" "myAddressBook" dbfDefineAlias "[PubDir]address.dbf" "myAddressUpdates" dbfDefineAlias "[TempDir]address.dbf" "savedAddressBook"

After that, you always refer to your given Alias names in all subsequent dbfXXXXX commands ...

:Remove_DEAD_Records dbfOpen "myAddressBook" "" dbfQuery "myAddressBook" "STATUS=Dead" If "[dbfQueryResult]" ">" "0" dbfDeleteAll "myAddressBook" dbfPack "myAddressBook" Else AlertBox "Warning ..." "No DEAD records in database." EndIf dbfClose "myAddressBook" Return

Another scenario where such a practice comes in handy is when you are dealing with (say) date sensitive database file names (e.g. Trades_200701.dbf, Trades_200702.dbf etc.) ... if your Trades_Processing application needs to work on the records for "this month" or "previous month" ... you can use the Aliasing facility to define the file associated with the Alias of "Trades_ThisMonth" or "Trades_LastMonth" ... and the rest of your database commands need not change from month to month .... so you could have something like this in your StartUp section ...

dbfDefineAlias "[PubDir]Trades[Year][MonthNum].dbf" "ThisMth_"

... and one of your reporting routines could be something like ...

:TradeNumbersThisMonth dbfOpen "ThisMth_" "" dbfSum "ThisMth_" "Qty" "[TotalWidgetsThisMonth]" dbfSum "ThisMth_" "Amount" "[TotalSalesThisMonth]" dbfClose "ThisMth_" Return

Similarly, if you have identically structured (but differently named) records like Sales2007Q1East.dbf, Sales2007Q1West.dbf ... Sales2006Q4East.dbf etc. etc. ... your "Divisional Sales By Quarter" reporting application can handle the diiferent databases with just one (dbfDefineAlias) command.