Hello Daniel,

> > Well, connecting to the database from an external function
> > is generally a no-go area.
>
> Well, this must be a misunderstanding.
> The external function will connect to the fts-server, which in turn might

have a

> connection open to the FB server to wait for events.
> The UDFs will in no way connect to the the FB server themselves.

That sounds a bit better.

> > External functions should be fast. Connecting to a database
> > network latecy because of your server-side app being on
> > another machine doesn't fit this description.
>
> Uhm, so external functions doing heavy computing aren't allowed, too?
> I don't see the point here, really.

See below.

> > Mind you: executing an external function will block the server
> > thread executing it!
>
> Okay, this might be a crucial point.
> I don't know about FB's internal threading policies, so I guess it's good
> that I discuss my idea here, after all. :)
>
> Well, look at the sample stored select-procedure. Whether it selects from
> a table or from an external entity via a UDF (of course, I'll have to make

sure

> that the UDFs will never block forever for some reasons) shouldn't make a
> difference to the FB server, would it?

As long as the procedure is caling the UDF, it will block, right?
Depending on the task the UDF is performing, this may or may
not block the server.

> For incremental updating, there'll be a stack for actions in the shared

object

> anyways, so a call for fts_update(table, id) will only append the update

action

> for this table to the stack, which will be processed "later".
>
> But I notice a problem here... because I think the update will be done by
> telling the fts-server a primary key and what happened to it, it has to
> connect back to the server to get the actual texts it needs.
> I guess I need a two-way connection, after all.
> But only for updates, and those are done asynchronously. For searches, the
> fts-server doesn't need info from the database.

With regards,

Martijn Tonies
Database Workbench - developer tool for InterBase, Firebird, MySQL & MS SQL
Server
Upscene Productions
http://www.upscene.com