50.95%
Search · Index

III.10.20 Connect to a second database

It is possible to use the OpenACS TCL database API with other databases. In this example, the OpenACS site uses a PostGre database, and accesses another PostGre database called legacy.

  1. Modify config.tcl to accomodate the legacy database, and to ensure that the legacy database is not used for standard OpenACS queries:

    ns_section ns/db/pools
    ns_param   pool1              "Pool 1"
    ns_param   pool2              "Pool 2"
    ns_param   pool3              "Pool 3"
    ns_param   legacy             "Legacy"
    
    ns_section ns/db/pool/pool1
    #Unchanged from default
    ns_param   maxidle            1000000000
    ns_param   maxopen            1000000000
    ns_param   connections        5
    ns_param   verbose            $debug
    ns_param   extendedtableinfo  true
    ns_param   logsqlerrors       $debug
    if { $database == "oracle" } {
        ns_param   driver             ora8
        ns_param   datasource         {}
        ns_param   user               $db_name
        ns_param   password           $db_password
    } else {
        ns_param   driver             postgres
        ns_param   datasource         ${db_host}:${db_port}:${db_name}
        ns_param   user               $db_user
        ns_param   password           ""
    }
    
    ns_section ns/db/pool/pool2
    #Unchanged from default, removed for clarity
    
    ns_section ns/db/pool/pool3
    #Unchanged from default, removed for clarity
    
    ns_section ns/db/pool/legacy
    ns_param   maxidle            1000000000
    ns_param   maxopen            1000000000
    ns_param   connections        5
    ns_param   verbose            $debug
    ns_param   extendedtableinfo  true
    ns_param   logsqlerrors       $debug
    ns_param   driver             postgres
    ns_param   datasource         ${db_host}:${db_port}:legacy_db
    ns_param   user               legacy_user
    ns_param   password           legacy_password
    
    
    ns_section ns/server/${server}/db
    ns_param   pools              *
    ns_param   defaultpool        pool1
    
    ns_section ns/server/${server}/acs/database
    ns_param database_names [list main legacy]
    ns_param pools_main [list pool1 pool2 pool3]
    ns_param pools_legacy [list legacy]
  2. To use the legacy database, use the -dbn flag for any of the db_ API calls. For example, suppose there is a table called "foo" in the legacy system, with a field "bar". List "bar" for all records with this tcl file:

    db_foreach -dbn legacy get_bar_query {
      select bar from foo
      limit 10
    } {
      ns_write "<br/>$bar"
    }