Re: [gnome-db] get_schema call - a couple of queries about information returned.

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

On Sat, 2003-04-19 at 11:05, Steve Fosdick wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Apr 2003 03:31:59 +0100 I wrote:
> 
> > Another way to handle this would be have the provider return the type
> > as a provider specific string which is opaque to the application (such
> > as mergeant) - the application would just display it or let the user
> > choose it from a list.  If the application wanted to know what it
> > could do with data of that type it would ask the provider for the
> > corresponding GDA type - the get_gda_type method you mention later on.
> 
> That will teach me to write e-mails late at night.
> 
> The bit of the API I was referrring to is the type of a database column
> returned by GDA_CONNECTION_SCHEMA_FIELDS and I have since checked the
> code and this is already rerturned as a string.
> 
> So, the only change is that an application should not assume that it can
> convert this string to a GDA type and then convert it back again for
> display because more than one database type may map to the same GDA
> type.  Instead it should store the string exactly as-is.
> 
well, it could always get the TYPES schema from that string, and doing
that it will know what's the corresponding GDA type, and use a GDAValue
of that type to let the user manage the data.

cheers