/*! \page dbmilib GRASS DataBase Management Interface

by GRASS Development Team

http://grass.osgeo.org

\section dbmiIntro Introduction

The attribute management was completely changed in GRASS 6 to achieve
multi-attribute capabilities managed within external databases. The
former <tt>dig_cats/</tt> files (GRASS 5) are not used any more and
all vector attributes are stored in external database. Connection with
database is done through <b>DBMI library</b> (DataBase Management
Interface) with its integrated drivers. At time of this writing
following DBMI drivers for attribute storage are available:

 - DBF: xBase files (default)
 - ODBC: to interface from http://www.unixodbc.org
 - PostgreSQL driver (note that PostgreSQL can also be accessed through ODBC): http://www.postgresql.org
 - mySQL: http://mysql.com/
 - SQLite: http://www.sqlite.org

These drivers are compiled depending on present DB related libraries
and 'configure' settings. Only the DBF driver is always compiled. The
default DBMI driver is defined in dbmi.h

\code
#define DB_DEFAULT_DRIVER "sqlite"
\endcode

In general records in table are linked to vector entities by field number
and category number.  The field number identifies a database table and the
category number identifies the record record. I.e. for unique combination
<tt>mapset + map + field + category</tt> exists one unique combination
<tt>driver + database + table + row</tt>. Each element may have none, one or
more categories (cats). More cats are distinguished by field number (field).
The flexibility of this approach even supports the extreme case, that one
vector entity may be linked to attributes in different tables in different
databases connected by different drivers at the same time.

The DBMI library contains drivers such as DBF, SQLite, ODBC, MySQL and
PostgreSQL.  The functionality of the database support varies with the
capabilities of the underlying RDBMS. Main features are
multi-attributes support for various data types, also multiple tables
may optionally be linked to one or many vector entity/ies. SQL
(Structured Query Language) is used for all drivers, but in a limited
implementation.

For DBMI architecture details please read Blazek et al. 2002 (see below).

\section dbmiFunc DBMI library functions

The <tt>db_*()</tt> functions are the programmer's API for GRASS DBMI
programming. There are three groups:

 - <b>dbmi_base</b>:   contains functions for modules, drivers (<tt>../../db/drivers/</tt>)
 - <b>dbmi_client</b>: contains functions for modules
 - <b>dbmi_driver</b>: contains functions for drivers (<tt>../../db/drivers/</tt>)

\section dbmiBase DBMI BASE functions

Allocation:

 - db_store()
 
 - db_malloc()

 - db_calloc()

 - db_realloc()

 - db_free()

String manipulation:

 - db_char_to_lowercase()

 - db_char_to_uppercase()

 - db_Cstring_to_lowercase()

 - db_Cstring_to_uppercase()

 - db_nocase_compare()

Column properties:

 - db_get_column_value()

 - db_get_column_default_value()

 - db_set_column_sqltype()

 - db_set_column_host_type()

 - db_get_column_scale()

 - db_set_column_scale()

 - db_get_column_precision()

 - db_set_column_precision()

 - db_get_column_sqltype()

 - db_get_column_host_type()

 - db_set_column_has_defined_default_value()

 - db_set_column_has_undefined_default_value()

 - db_unset_column_has_default_value()

 - db_test_column_has_default_value()

 - db_test_column_has_defined_default_value()

 - db_test_column_has_undefined_default_value()

 - db_set_column_use_default_value()

 - db_unset_column_use_default_value()

 - db_test_column_use_default_value()

 - db_set_column_null_allowed()

 - db_unset_column_null_allowed()

 - db_test_column_null_allowed()

 - db_get_column_length()

 - db_set_column_length()

 - db_set_column_select_priv_granted()

 - db_set_column_select_priv_not_granted()

 - db_get_column_select_priv()

 - db_set_column_update_priv_granted()

 - db_set_column_update_priv_not_granted()

 - db_get_column_update_priv()

 - db_init_column()

 - db_set_column_name()

 - db_get_column_name()

 - db_set_column_description()

 - db_get_column_description()

 - db_free_column()

 - db_copy_column()

 - db_convert_Cstring_to_column_value()
 
 - db_convert_Cstring_to_column_default_value()

 - db_convert_column_value_to_string()

 - db_convert_column_default_value_to_string()

Connection settings:

 - db_set_connection()

 - db_get_connection()

Cursor management:

 - db_init_cursor()

 - db_alloc_cursor_table()

 - db_free_cursor()

 - db_get_cursor_table()

 - db_set_cursor_table()

 - db_get_cursor_token()

 - db_set_cursor_token()
 
 - db_set_cursor_type_readonly()

 - db_set_cursor_type_update()

 - db_set_cursor_type_insert()

 - db_test_cursor_type_fetch()

 - db_test_cursor_type_update()

 - db_test_cursor_type_insert()

 - db_set_cursor_mode()

 - db_set_cursor_mode_scroll()

 - db_unset_cursor_mode_scroll()

 - db_unset_cursor_mode()

 - db_set_cursor_mode_insensitive()

 - db_unset_cursor_mode_insensitive()

 - db_test_cursor_mode_scroll()

 - db_test_cursor_mode_insensitive()

 - db_alloc_cursor_column_flags()

 - db_free_cursor_column_flags()

 - db_set_cursor_column_for_update()

 - db_unset_cursor_column_for_update()

 - db_test_cursor_column_for_update()

 - db_test_cursor_any_column_for_update()

 - db_set_cursor_column_flag()

 - db_unset_cursor_column_flag()

 - db_test_cursor_column_flag()

 - db_get_cursor_number_of_columns()

 - db_test_cursor_any_column_flag()

DateTime conversion:

 - db_convert_value_datetime_into_string()

 - db_convert_Cstring_to_value_datetime()

DBmscap management:

 - db_dbmscap_filename()

 - db_has_dbms()

 - db_copy_dbmscap_entry()

 - db_read_dbmscap()

 - db_free_dbmscap()

Default settings:

 - db_get_default_driver_name()

 - db_get_default_database_name()

 - db_get_default_schema_name()

 - db_get_default_group_name()

 - db_set_default_connection()

Dirent (directory entities) array:

 - db_dirent()

 - db_free_dirent_array()

 - db_alloc_dirent_array()

Report errors:

 - db_on_error()

 - db_set_error_who()

 - db_get_error_who()

 - db_error()

 - db_protocol_error()

 - db_syserror()

 - db_get_error_code()

 - db_memory_error()

 - db_procedure_not_implemented()

 - db_noproc_error()

 - db_clear_error()

 - db_print_error()

 - db_debug_on()

 - db_debug_off()

 - db_debug()

 - db_get_error_msg()

 - db_auto_print_errors()

 - db_auto_print_protocol_errors()

Handle management:

 - db_init_handle()

 - db_set_handle()

 - db_get_handle_dbname()

 - db_get_handle_dbschema()

 - db_free_handle()

 - db_free_handle_array()

 - db_alloc_handle_array()

Index management:

 - db_init_index()

 - db_free_index()

 - db_alloc_index_columns()

 - db_alloc_index_array()

 - db_free_index_array()

 - db_set_index_name()
 
 - db_get_index_name()

 - db_set_index_table_name()

 - db_get_index_table_name()

 - db_get_index_number_of_columns()

 - db_set_index_column_name()

 - db_get_index_column_name()

 - db_set_index_type_unique()

 - db_set_index_type_non_unique()

 - db_test_index_type_unique()

 - db_print_index()

Range functions:

 - db_interval_range()

Login functions:

 - db_set_login()

 - db_get_login()

Return codes (internal use only):

 - db__send_success()

 - db__send_failure()

 - db__recv_return_code()

Data type conversion:

 - db_sqltype_to_Ctype()

 - db_sqltype_name()

String manipulation:

 - db_init_string()

 - db_set_string()
 
 - db_set_string_no_copy()

 - db_sizeof_string()

 - db_zero_string()

 - db_enlarge_string()

 - db_get_string()

 - db_free_string()

 - db_free_string_array()

 - db_alloc_string_array()

 - db_append_string()

 - db_copy_string()

 - db_double_quote_string()

Table/privileges management:

 - db_alloc_table()

 - db_init_table()

 - db_free_table()

 - db_set_table_name()

 - db_get_table_name()

 - db_set_table_description()

 - db_get_table_description()

 - db_get_table_number_of_columns()

 - db_set_table_select_priv_granted()

 - db_set_table_select_priv_not_granted()

 - db_get_table_select_priv()

 - db_set_table_update_priv_granted()

 - db_set_table_update_priv_not_granted()

 - db_get_table_update_priv()

 - db_set_table_insert_priv_granted()

 - db_set_table_insert_priv_not_granted()

 - db_get_table_insert_priv()

 - db_set_table_delete_priv_granted()

 - db_set_table_delete_priv_not_granted()

 - db_get_table_delete_priv()

 - db_get_table_column()

 - db_get_table_column_by_name()

 - db_set_table_column()

 - db_append_table_column()

 - db_clone_table()

 - db_table_to_sql()

Token management:

 - db_find_token()

 - db_drop_token()

 - db_new_token()

Value management:

 - db_test_value_isnull()

 - db_get_value_int()

 - db_get_value_double()

 - db_get_value_as_double()

 - db_get_value_string()

 - db_get_value_year()

 - db_get_value_month()

 - db_get_value_day()

 - db_get_value_hour()

 - db_get_value_minute()

 - db_get_value_seconds()

 - db_set_value_null()

 - db_set_value_not_null()

 - db_set_value_int()

 - db_set_value_double()

 - db_set_value_string()

 - db_set_value_year()

 - db_set_value_month()

 - db_set_value_day()

 - db_set_value_hour()

 - db_set_value_minute()

 - db_set_value_seconds()

 - db_test_value_datetime_current()

 - db_set_value_datetime_current()

 - db_set_value_datetime_not_current()

 - db_copy_value()

 - db_CatValArray_init()

 - db_CatValArray_free()

 - db_CatValArray_alloc()

 - db_CatValArray_realloc()

 - db_convert_Cstring_to_value()

 - db_convert_value_to_string()

Misc:

 - db_isdir()

 - db_legal_tablename()

 - db_whoami

\section dbmiClient DBMI CLIENT functions

 - db_add_column()

 - db_begin_transaction()

 - db_bind_update()

 - db_CatValArray_get_value()

 - db_CatValArray_get_value_double()

 - db_CatValArray_get_value_int()

 - db_CatValArray_sort()

 - db_CatValArray_sort_by_value()

 - db_close_cursor()
 
 - db_close_database()

 - db_close_database_shutdown_driver()
 
 - db_column_Ctype()

 - db_column_sqltype()

 - db_commit_transaction()

 - db_copy_table()

 - db_copy_table_where()
 
 - db_copy_table_select()

 - db_copy_table_by_ints()
 
 - db_create_database()

 - db_create_index()

 - db_create_table()

 - db_delete()

 - db_delete_database()

 - db_delete_table()
 
 - db_describe_table()

 - db_drop_column()

 - db_drop_index()

 - db_drop_table()

 - db_execute_immediate()

 - db_fetch()

 - db_find_database()

 - db_get_column()
 
 - db_get_num_rows()

 - db_get_table_number_of_rows()
 
 - db_grant_on_table()

 - db_gversion()
 
 - db_insert()

 - db_list_databases()

 - db_list_drivers()

 - db_list_indexes()

 - db_list_tables()

 - db_open_database()

 - db_open_insert_cursor()

 - db_open_select_cursor()
 
 - db_open_update_cursor()

 - db_print_column_definition()
 
 - db_print_table_definition()

 - db_start_driver_open_database()

 - db_select_CatValArray()

 - db_select_int()

 - db_select_value()

 - db_shutdown_driver()

 - db_start_driver()
 
 - db_table_exists()

 - db_update()


\section dbmiDriver DBMI DRIVER functions

 - db_driver()

 - db_driver_mkdir()

 - db_d_add_column()

 - db_d_append_error()
 
 - db_d_begin_transaction()

 - db_d_bind_update()

 - db_d_close_cursor()

 - db_d_close_database()

 - db_d_commit_transaction()

 - db_d_create_database()

 - db_d_create_index()

 - db_d_create_table()

 - db_d_delete()

 - db_d_delete_database()

 - db_d_describe_table()

 - db_d_drop_column()

 - db_d_drop_index()

 - db_d_drop_table()

 - db_d_execute_immediate()

 - db_d_fetch()

 - db_d_find_database()

 - db_d_get_num_rows()

 - db_driver_mkdir()

 - db_d_grant_on_table()

 - db_d_init_error()
 
 - db_d_insert()

 - db_d_list_databases()

 - db_d_list_indexes()

 - db_d_list_tables()

 - db_d_open_database()

 - db_d_open_insert_cursor()

 - db_d_open_select_cursor()

 - db_d_open_update_cursor()

 - db_d_report_error()

 - db_d_update()
 
\section dbmiReferences References

Text based on: R. Blazek, M. Neteler, and R. Micarelli. The new GRASS 5.1
 vector architecture. In Open source GIS - GRASS users conference 2002,
 Trento, Italy, 11-13 September 2002. University of Trento, Italy, 2002.
 http://www.ing.unitn.it/~grass/proceedings/proceedings/pdfs/Blazek_Radim.pdf

\section dbmiSeeAlso See Also
 
GRASS Vector Architecture: \ref vectorlib

\section dbmiAuthors Authors

 - Joel Jones (CERL/UIUC)
 - Radim Blazek
*/