This document describes purpose and use of the Natural Development
Server file, a central dictionary file that is structurally identical to the
Natural system file FDIC
.
The following topics are covered:
As Natural stores its data in system files, Natural Development
Server stores its data in the system file that is assigned to the Natural
parameter FDIC
, a logical system file which is called
the "development server file".
The development server file is used as a central dictionary file for storing Natural applications and the links to objects making up an application. It also holds object locking information. This information is not bound to certain groups of application developers, but has an impact on the entire application development of an enterprise. Therefore, this file should be available only once, to ensure that the application definitions and locking states are kept consistent.
Note:
If a Predict Program object having an implementation pointer
completely filled with a Natural member name, library name, user system file
number and user system file database id, this documentation is deleted when the
Natural member is deleted in an NDV environment. The switch "Delete
documentation with deletion of Natural member" is by default
initialized with "Y
", i.e. deleting the existing
documentation. If you want to keep the documentation set this new switch to
"N
".
The development server file layout corresponds to the file layout of
the Natural system file FDIC
used by Predict. This means that the
central dictionary file can also be used to hold Predict data, but Predict is
not a prerequisite for using the development server file. This enables you to
use your existing application documentation in the application definitions of
the remote development environment.
It is of vital importance that the various remote development environments that can be mapped use a common and unique development server file.
Non-compliance with this requirement may give rise to inconsistencies in object locking and in the applications existing in the application workspace.
To prevent the FDIC
parameter from being
overwritten when a Natural Development Server is mapped, you are strongly
recommended to prevent the NTDYNP
macro from being used
to specify FDIC
as a dynamic parameter.
In a Natural Development Server that is protected by Natural
Security, the use of another FDIC
file in the application
workspace is prevented if the application security profiles are activated. See
also Application Protection in the Natural
Security documentation.