Introducing Stored Procedures and Subroutines

A stored procedure is a program or procedure that resides on the execution path of a server. The procedure is called by a client application such as WebFOCUS but can also be called by another explicitly requested procedure. It is executed on the server on which it resides.

A stored procedure is one of the following:

• A compiled and linked 3GL program, written in a language such as C or COBOL, which is located and called on a server or gateway process.
• A file of 4GL command syntax (known as a FOCEXEC) written in a combination of Dialogue Manager (DM) syntax and/or other commands, such as SET, TABLE FILE, SQL, and DBMS passthru that run on the server.

A subroutine is a specialized 3GL-based routine that is compiled and linked as a DLL and then called in-line within a 4GL command syntax request, thus integrating 4GL syntax with specialized 3GL calculations. It can be thought of as a specialized calculation integrated at the table column level, although the same subroutine might also be applicable for use in a Dialogue Manager calculation.

This manual describes the use of compiled and 3GL programs and subroutines. Full 4GL FOCEXEC syntax is fully covered in other documents, such as the Developing Reporting Applications, Creating Reports With WebFOCUS Language, and Server Administration manuals. They are not covered in this manual.