Echelon LNS - Manual (Page 31)

LNS Programmer's Guide 17
of an entire network database, and report any errors or inconsistencies it discovers. It
can optionally repair some of these errors during the validation process. Inconsistencies
and errors that may be discovered during the database validation procedure include
orphan objects (inaccessible objects in the database), broken interfaces, and duplicate
objects.
You can access the LNS Database Validation Tool by selecting LNS Database
Validator from the Echelon LNS Utilities group in the Windows Programs menu.
Consult the online help for the LNS Database Validation Tool for more detailed
information on how to use the utility.
You can also perform a database validation with your own LNS application by calling the
Validate() method on a network. LNS will then start a transaction and validate the
network database. When the validation is complete, the method returns a
DatabaseValidationReport object containing information summarizing the results of
the validation. This is the same set of information that would be provided by the LNS
Database Validation Tool if you used it to perform a validation on the same database,
including descriptions of all the errors discovered, all the errors that were repaired, and
all the errors that were not repaired.
While the ability of the new LNS database validation feature can be used to repair many
of the errors that might occur in your network databases, you should not consider it a
replacement for consistent, regular back-ups of your network databases. To facilitate
database back-ups, the Backup() method has been added to the Network object. You
can call this method on any local network to make a backup copy of the network
database, and export the backup copy to a local folder of your choice. This method is quite
useful, as you can use it to back up a network database while the network and system
are open, and while clients are attached. Echelon recommends that you use this feature
in conjunction with the database validation feature to perform regular, validated
backups of your network databases.
For more information on the database validation feature, see Validating Network
Databases on page 252. For more information on the online backup feature, see Backing
Up Network Databases on page 251.
Miscellaneous
LNS Turbo Edition features several other changes you may find useful as you develop
your applications. Consult the LNS Object Server Reference help file for more information
on these features.
• The RemoveEx() method has been added to the Networks collections. The
RemoveEx() method allows you to specify whether the network database is to be
deleted when the network is removed from the collection. If you do not delete the
network database, you can then restore the network later, without having to re-
create the database. This may be useful if you want to store network databases
on a central file server and add them to (or remove them from) any LNS Server
PC on demand.
• The CopyWithParent property has been added to the Extension object. An
Extension object represents user-defined data. You can use the
CopyWithParent property to indicate whether or not the Extension object
should be copied when its parent object is copied. This may be useful if you are
writing an application that is copying an object containing a large Extensions