Getting Started

Getting Started

Welcome to Mimer SQL. This document describes how to set-up Mimer SQL on Windows after the installation.

To get the most out of this document, you should be familiar with your Windows environment and know how to use the various Windows system tools.

Licensing Mimer SQL

When you install Mimer SQL, a default development edition license is installed. This license covers basic usage for development purposes and enables 10 concurrent users. You do not need a license for client access.

If you want to use Mimer SQL for any purpose other than development, you must purchase a commercial license. Contact your Mimer SQL distributor to purchase the license you require. Your new license will be sent to you via e-mail. You apply the new license by double-clicking on the e-mail attachment.

For more information, start the Mimer Administrator, located in the Mimer SQL program group, click the License Key tab and select Help.

Rights and Privileges

On Windows you must belong to the administrators group to set-up Mimer SQL clients and servers.

Documentation

The Mimer SQL Documentation Set, JDBC Driver Guide, Release Notes, and Windows specific documentation are available in the Mimer SQL program group, under Documentation.

Note: The documentation set (i.e. SQL Reference Manual, Programmer's Manual, System Management Handbook, and User's Manual) will only be available if you chose to install it when you installed Mimer SQL.

If you would like printed copies of the documentation set, contact your Mimer SQL representative.

Useful Links

The Mimer SQL Developer Site contains lots of useful information, like FAQ's, How-to's and articles: http://developer.mimer.com

Setting-up a Database Client

If you want to access a Mimer SQL database server (also referred to as a remote database) already installed on your network, all you need to do is set-up a Mimer SQL database client.

You set-up a client using the Mimer Administrator.

Start the Mimer Administrator, located in the Mimer SQL program group.
Click the Remote tab and then click the Add button.
In the Remote Database Definition dialog box, enter the database name, the node (computer) where the database server is located and which network protocol to use.
The database name must be the same name used on the remote computer. Ask your system or database administrator if you are unsure of the name.

The node name is the name of the computer as registered in the network. It is usually entered in lower case letters.

The network protocol is usually tcp. You can also use NamedPipes.

Click OK, you are now ready to access the Mimer SQL database from your development tool. An ODBC data source with the same name as the database is created automatically.

Creating Mimer SQL Databases

Creating Mimer SQL databases is easy. All you need to do is:

add a database definition for the database
create the system databanks
set the SYSADM password
create a database user
start the Mimer SQL database server.

You do this using the Mimer Administrator and a wizard to guide you.

Creating a Database

Start the Mimer Administrator, located in the Mimer SQL program group.
In the Mimer Administrator, on the Local tab, click Add to create a database. The Local Database Definition dialog box opens.
Enter the name of the database and the directory in which you want to create it. Click OK.
The Mimer Administrator asks if you want to create system databanks. In the Create Systems dialog box, click Yes. The following wizard starts:

The example above demonstrates the following important points:

- you must specify the file locations of databanks not in the default directory as absolute paths

- to safeguard against data loss in the event of a hard disk failure, place the log databank, LOGDB, on a separate disk from the other databanks.

- If possible, also place TRANSDB on a separate disk. However, LOGDB and TRANSDB should not be placed on the same disk. If you only have one alternative disk, use it for LOGDB. Mimer SQL examines the available hard disks and suggests how the files should be distributed. (In the above example, C: and M: are on separate hard disks.)

Note: You can use the Disk Administrator in the Administrative Tools menu to check the layout of logical disk partitions (e.g. C:, D:) on the available hard disks.

The file sizes are expressed in 2K blocks. The initial sizes are not critical as the files will be automatically extended as required.

Enter the database information and click Next.

The next step is to specify the password for the system administrator SYSADM. Enter the system administrator's password, and confirm it. Click Next.

Note: Keep the SYSADM password secure, as SYSADM can alter passwords for Mimer SQL users that he/she creates. If you lose the SYSADM password, it cannot be retrieved from your Mimer SQL system.

When the system databank creation is complete, the wizard asks you what you want to do next. Select both options available and click Next.
Continue with the wizard to create a development user and start the database server.

After completing the wizard, you can access your database directly from your favorite ODBC tool. You can also access it using Mimer WSQL - available for download for free from our Web site: http://developer.mimer.se/howto/howto_14.htm

If you want to access this database from another computer in the network, you must install and set-up a database client on the other computer. See Setting-up a Database Client.

Starting and Stopping Database Servers

How you start and stop Mimer SQL database servers depends on the Windows operating system you are using.

However, on all Windows platforms supported by Mimer SQL, you can control local database servers using the Mimer Administrator.

Go to your Mimer SQL program group and select Mimer Administrator, Mimer Administrator starts.

Click the Local tab and right-click on the database name. A pop-up menu enables you to start and stop the database server.

Starting and Stopping

You can start and stop database servers, and enable or disable logins using the Mimer Controller, located in the Mimer SQL program group. You can control both remote and local databases using the Mimer Controller.

The operating system equivalent of the Mimer Controller is the Services dialog box in the Control Panel. You can use Windows Services to start and stop Mimer SQL databases.

Autostart

By default, Mimer SQL database servers are created with the startup setting set to Autostart. Mimer SQL database servers will start automatically whenever the machine reboots.

You can view and change the Autostart setting using the Mimer Administrator or Windows Services.

Logging Database Events

Mimer SQL writes events to the Windows event log. Use the Event Viewer, located under Administrative Tools, to examine the event log.

The source for Mimer SQL events is the name of the database service they relate to, and they are logged in the Application log.

Setting Up and Running DbVisualizer

DbVisualizer is a graphical front-end used to view and manage your database objects. It is started from the DbVisualizer shortcut in the Mimer SQL program group or from the Tools menu in the Mimer Administrator.

The first time DbVisualizer is started you may need to install Java on you computer. Once Java is installed DbVisualizer is started. The very first time DbVisualizer is started two operations are automatically initiated:

First the New Connection Wizard is started. This wizard will help you set up a connection to you Mimer SQL database:

You are first prompted for a name of the connection. A common naming scheme is to use the database name followed by the username in parenthesis. For example: dbsql (MIMER_STORE)
In the second step you select database driver. Select Mimer from the drop down list.
In the third step you fill in the database name, username, and password used when accessing the Mimer SQL server. Enter the name of the database you want to connect to. If you have set up the Mimer SQL Example database, you can enter username MIMER_STORE and password GoodiesRUs (if you have used the default password). If your database is on another computer remember to change the Server field to the name of the computer. Before proceeding, make sure you test that your connection is working properly.
You have now completed the wizard and can explore the various objects in you database by selecting them in the tree view to the left. Note that you can modify existing object and create new ones by right-clicking on the objects or object types.

The second that happens when DbVisualizer is invoked for the first time is that the Driver Finder will locate the Mimer SQL JDBC Driver. Unless errors have occurred, this dialog can simply be closed.

Running Mimer BSQL and Other Utilities

In order to run most of the Mimer SQL utilities from a command prompt window, you must specify which database to access. You can do this in different ways:

Enter the database name on the command line, e.g. BSQL database_name
Use the environment variable MIMER_DATABASE, e.g. SET MIMER_DATABASE=database_name
Use an ODBC default data source. Specify Default as the data source name in the Mimer Administrator.

The order of the three methods is significant as the first methods override the later ones. For example, specifying the database on the command line overrides the setting of the MIMER_DATABASE environment variable.

The Developer and Example Environments

If, when installing Mimer SQL, you chose to install the development and sample files, you can choose to set-up a development environment and an example environment.

To install the environments:

Start Mimer Administrator, located in the Mimer SQL program group.
Select the Local tab, and open the Tools menu, for example:

Select Create Example Environment, the following dialog box opens:

Select the environment(s) you want to create and click Next. A wizard will guide you through the necessary steps.

Accessing the Example Environment

To access the example environment, you can use:

DbVisualizer or Mimer BSQL, both available in the Mimer SQL program group
Any ODBC-based SQL tool
WSQL, an unsupported SQL tool, available for download from http://developer.mimer.com/downloads

Building the Development Environment

Note: You must have the Microsoft Visual Studio or equivalent development kit installed.

To build the environment:

Open a command prompt window.
Change the current directory to the development kit home directory, under the installation directory, e.g. \Program Files\Mimer SQL 10.1\DEV
Enter the following commands:
 NMAKE /F makefile.mak
 DSQL
 OSQL
 NMAKE /F makefile.mak clean
 
You must have a path which includes the NMAKE program.

The sample programs created accept SQL statements and display selected results.

Note: To build and run the OSQL (ODBC sample program) you must have defined a data source.

You can use the makefile as a starting point for writing your own makefiles.

An alternative to the above steps is to open the makefile in Microsoft Visual Studio and then compile the programs.

Mimer PSM Debugger

Mimer SQL also contains a Java-based graphic debugger for PSM routines. The Mimer PSM Debugger supports watching variables, step-wise execution and setting breakpoints.

You can debug procedures and functions.

Mimer PSM Debugger requires a Java 2 (version 1.2 or later) compatible Java runtime environment.

You can download the files from: http://java.sun.com/j2se/downloads.html

Starting the Mimer PSM Debugger

You start the PSM debugger with this command:
 java -jar psmdebug.jar
 
The syntax for the database URL in the login dialog is:
 hostname[:port]/database
 
If the database resides on your local machine, then specify localhost as the host name.

Examples:
 localhost/testdb
 
 my_node.mimer.se/supplier
 
 my_node.mimer.se:1365/supplier_temp
Packaging Mimer SQL with a Windows Application

If you want to package your application with Mimer SQL, you should read the Mimer SQL Packaging Guide for Windows: http://developer.mimer.com/documentation/latest_winpackguide_html/Mimer_SQL_Engine_WinPack/index.htm

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Fax: +46 18 780 92 40
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