ADB - A(nother) database engine for Tcl/Tk

Developed by [Roalt Aalmoes]

Important websites concerning ADB/ADBSQL:
   * http://adbsql.sourceforge.net/adb.html - Manual page of ADB

   * http://adbsql.sourceforge.net/adbsql.html - Manual page of ADBSQL

   * http://sourceforge.net/projects/adbsql/ - Sourceforge page where the project is stored and can be downloaded.

ADB together with its MySQL database connectivity module [adbsql] are a Tcl/Tk package useful for Tcl/Tk programmers that want to store their data in a database-kind of way with tables and fields.

ADB support at this moment one database at a time, but within this database multiple table can be defined.

Two (optional) features of ADB that may make it worthwhile for you:

   * Writing the database as XML output and later of course the ability to read it. For this purpose, the well-known [tDOM] package has to be installed.

   * Connecting directly to a MySQL database. For this purpose the [mysqltcl] package has to be installed as well. 

The fun part of ADB is that you can either use it as a full pure tcl library, or you can use these advanced features.

Short history:

This package has been used for many years in my [ATDOR] program. A Track and Field meeting organisation program. I've decided that the database engine in this program might be useful for many other purposes. The [ATDOR] program, currently uses an older version of this library, will be re-released later to use this version. So see http://www.atdor.com for a application of approx. 20k lines of code using it.

**Examples of how to use it**

To initalise a table:
======
    proc AthletesDBKey { rec } {
        return [[lindex $rec 0]]
    }

    set structure { 
        {no        "Licence number" 10 p alphanum}
        {firstname "First name" 20 {} alphanum}
        {surname   "Surname" 20 {} alphanum}
        {sex       "Sex" 10 {} alpha}
        {birthday  "Birthday" 4 {} int}
        {club      "Club" 30 {} alphanum}
        {category  "Category" 10 {} alphanum}
    }
    ADB::Init Athletes $structure AthletesDBKey
======

To add a new record:
======
 ADB::GetEmptyArray Athletes new_arr
 set new_arr(no) 12445
 set new_arr(firstname) John
 set new_arr(surname) Doe
 set new_arr(birthday) "01-01-2001"
 ADB::Add Athletes [[array get new_arr]]
======

To fill an array with a record:
======
 ADB::GetArray Athletes 12445 athletearr
======

To parse over all records in a table:

======
  proc ForAllAthletes { } {
    set atlkey [[ADB::FirstKey Athletes]]

    while { "$atlkey" != "" } {
        ADB::GetArray Athletes $atlkey athletearr
        
        # Do something with array athletearr, for instance:
        puts "Surname is $athletearr(surname)" 

        set atlkey [[ADB::NextKey Athletes]]
    }
  }
======
An example.tcl file is included that contains these and other examples.

----
[ZB] 14.07.2008 - I think, that every TCL-er interested in database applications is more familiar with SQLite - so "quick comparison" would be handy.
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