NAME

Ace::Local - use giface, tace or gifaceclient to open a local connection to an Ace database

SYNOPSIS

  use Ace::Local
  my $ace = Ace::Local->connect(-path=>'/usr/local/acedb/elegans');
  $ace->query('find author Se*');
  die "Query unsuccessful" unless $ace->status;
  $ace->query('show');
  while ($ace->encore) {
    print $ace->read;
  }

DESCRIPTION

This class is provided for low-level access to local (non-networked) Ace databases via the giface program. You will generally not need to access it directly. Use Ace.pm instead.

For the sake of completeness, the method can also use the aceclient program for its access. However the Ace::AceDB class is more efficient for this purpose.

METHODS

connect()

  $accessor = Ace::Local->connect(-path=>$path_to_database);

Connect to the database at the indicated path using giface and return a connection object (an "accessor"). Giface must be on the current search path. Multiple accessors may be open simultaneously.

Arguments include:

-path: Path to the database (location of the "wspec/" directory).
-program: Used to indicate the location of the desired giface or gifaceclient executable. You may also use tace or aceclient, but in that case the asGIF() functionality will nog work. Can be used to override the search path.
-host: Used when invoking gifaceclient. Indicates the host to connect to.
-port: Used when invoking gifaceclient. Indicates the port to connect to.
-nosync: Ordinarily Ace::Local synchronizes with the tace/giface prompt, throwing out all warnings and copyright messages. If this is set, Ace::Local will not do so. In this case you must call the low_read() method until it returns undef in order to synchronize.

query()

  $status = $accessor->query('query string');

Send the query string to the server and return a true value if successful. You must then call read() repeatedly in order to fetch the query result.

read()

Read the result from the last query sent to the server and return it as a string. ACE may return the result in pieces, breaking between whole objects. You may need to read repeatedly in order to fetch the entire result. Canonical example:

  $accessor->query("find Sequence D*");
  die "Got an error ",$accessor->error() if $accessor->status == STATUS_ERROR;
  while ($accessor->status == STATUS_PENDING) {
     $result .= $accessor->read;
  }

low_read()

Read whatever data's available, or undef if none. This is only used by the ace.pl replacement for giface/tace.

status()

Return the status code from the last operation. Status codes are exported by default when you use Ace.pm. The status codes you may see are:

  STATUS_WAITING    The server is waiting for a query.
  STATUS_PENDING    A query has been sent and Ace is waiting for
                    you to read() the result.
  STATUS_ERROR      A communications or syntax error has occurred

error()

May return a more detailed error code supplied by Ace. Error checking is not fully implemented.

encore()

This method will return true after you have performed one or more read() operations, and indicates that there is more data to read. encore() is functionally equivalent to:

   $encore = $accessor->status == STATUS_PENDING;

In fact, this is how it's implemented.

auto_save()

Sets or queries the auto_save variable. If true, the "save" command will be issued automatically before the connection to the database is severed. The default is true.

Examples:

   $accessor->auto_save(1);
   $flag = $accessor->auto_save;

AUTHOR

Lincoln Stein <lstein@w3.org> with extensive help from Jean Thierry-Mieg <mieg@kaa.crbm.cnrs-mop.fr>

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See DISCLAIMER.txt for disclaimers of warranty.