Coding CML Database Access

The Corporate Media Library (CML) application uses a Microsoft® SQL Server™ database called FmLib for the Fitch & Mather library. You can read about the design and structure of this database in the section Database Design. To learn how to install the FmLib database (and the rest of the CML application), see Deployment.

The database has been populated with roughly 40 records of fictional library items: books, periodicals, audio/visual materials, reference works, and computer software. During use by library users, the database also builds tables containing session-specific search results.

Information in the FmLib SQL Server database is accessed in four ways:

• Directly from Active Server Pages (ASP) code. See Accessing the Database from ASP Pages.
• From COM components running on the Web server such as the Search component. These COM components in turn call stored procedures that reside in the FmLib database.
• From RDS ActiveX® controls running on client computers. See CML Data Access Using RDS.
• From Index Server, to enable full-text search. An Index Server process, scheduled to run during times of low library use, builds catalogs of library materials. These indexed catalogs are then available for the CML to search to speed users' requests for information on library items.

To read about why each type of database access was chosen, see Choosing CML Data Access Strategy.