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Soup to Nuts with Triggers
Triggers have been
around awhile, but are still a new, seldom travelled territory to most
of us. We hope to illustrate the usage and implementation of triggers
with this month’s meeting with a presentation by Bill Fuller, one of our
own members. A trigger is defined as a set of actions that are executed
automatically whenever a specified event occurs to a specified base
table. The event can be an insert, update, or delete operation, and the
actions are executed by a user-written program.
The resulting set of actions can include almost any
operation allowed on the System i.
Database users can use triggers to validate input data,
query from other files for cross referencing purposes, enforce business
rules, access system functions (for example, print an exception message
when a rule is violated), replicate data to different files to achieve
data consistency, and write to other files for audit trail purposes.
The concept is simple enough—attach the process to the database level,
and forget having to put it at the application level. Sounds good, but
then there are other considerations—commitment control, referential
constraints…just to mention a few. Join us…and learn.
Bill Fuller has worked in the computer field
since building his first computer in 1975. He has been employed in
school systems, at Yadney Technical Products, at Bostitch-Textron, at
Gorham-Textron and currently at NATCO Products. He worked in the
mainframe DOS/VSE, CICS and DL/1 environment before migrating over to
the midrange platform in the Fall of 1987. Bill has filled many roles
from technical support, to network engineer, to RPG and RPGLE production
programming, and systems engineer. His knowledge base includes
manufacturing systems such as AMAPS, COPICS and now MAPICS. Bill’s
methodology to solutions is to use the power of the hardware and the
operating
system to his advantage, starting with triggers.
Message from the President
At our our February 17th meeting, Alan
Seiden, a Zend Framework Certified Engineer, delivered a comprehensive
presentation of Zend Server, an evolving technology that is ever
emerging. Thanks, Alan for sharing your expertise with us.
For our next meeting, March 17, 2010,
we are turning to one of our own to tap his vast technical knowledge of
a programming, tool/technique available to all of us. Bill Fuller will
discuss the implementation and use of triggers on the System i. Bill is
one of the most technically accomplished, talented people, I have had
the opportunity to work with and know. He has been in the field since
1975 and his experience spans across platforms, languages, packages, and
environments, and the inherent evolution of all. Bill Fuller has
ownership of a rich, unique knowledge of varied disciplines. Join us,
tap this knowledge, and get to know Bill.
May The Force be
with us.
Dick Ferrara
President,
NEMUG
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