I have had similar problems in the past, using Sybase and Delphi 5 with
other data access objects. (In other words, not just with IBO)

What I was told was that everything - INCLUDING just a normal "select" -
starts a transaction. So if you leave a data aware object open, you get a
long - running transaction.

The solution I have come up with for my own applications is to make sure
that every transaction, including selects, is kept as short as possible.
The user will only ever see information that is immediately relevant to the
task he is doing now. All selects happen within transactions. All SQL
happens within a transaction.

As far as forms (with data aware objects on them) goes, as soon as they
become hidden, they are closed. During the OnClose event, any datasets that
they may call are explicitly committed and closed.

In addition, all of my applications have several data modules. Each data
module has a "closealldatasets" procedure that I write and call when the
data module is closed. A "commondb" pas file has functions like
"closequery" and "closesp" that take a dataset of the relevant type and
commit the transaction and close the data set.

It sounds like a lot of work. But it keeps the application robust ....

HTH

Tim

At 09:49 AM 20/07/2004, you wrote:

>Hi Kevin
>
>I notice that your post hasn't been answered so I thought I would try and
>contribute a little.

<snip>

>I would welcome a clearer understanding of the options so if anyone else
>would like to illuminate please do . . . .
>
>Regards
>Paul