Paging and caching large record sets Support

Today we look at viewing large record sets, and how to optimise this process both for the person doing the viewing and for the server processing the page. To handle the former, we'll use a technique known as paging, and for the latter, caching. This caching is not the client side browser caching we've all come to know and hate; this caching is done entirely on the server.

 

The code supplied is half the length of the Dreamweaver-generated code, and is hugely beneficial if you have a site where users look through large lists of data without amending it.

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2. Create a Recordset

Now that we have a connection to the database, let's retrieve some data through it. We do this by creating a recordset, which is a collection of rows or records, each containing a number of columns, or fields. These row/column combinations each contain one distinct piece of data.

-          Using the Insert bar, switch to the Application sub-set. Click the first icon in this group, Recordset.

-          A Recordset dialog appears.

-          Name the recordset 'Orders'.

-          Select your PagingSample connection from the list.

-          Select the Orders table from the Table list.

-          For Columns, select 'Selected', and then holding down your Control key, click all but the Order ID columns.

-          Set Sort to sort by Order Date in ascending order.

-          Click Test to see whether the SQL query returns data.

-          Click OK to close the Test SQL Statement dialog, and click OK again to save your new recordset.

Excellent! Now we're ready to display some data.

3. Use a Dynamic Table to display the Recordset

Let's use two SB's to display the data in our new Orders recordset, and add paging capability:

-          Go to Design view by clicking Design on the Document toolbar.

-          On the Application Insert bar, click the down arrow on the third icon from the left. Select the first option, Dynamic Table from the list.

-          Name your new dynamic table 'OrdersView'.

-          For 'Show', set it to display 2 records at a time. Why 2? Well, if it can work for 2 records, it can work for 10 or 20 or 50!

-          Click OK to save the dynamic table.

-          Again on the Application Insert bar, click the down arrow on the sixth icon from the left. Select the first option, Recordset Paging from the list.

-          Your Orders recordset should already be selected in the Recordset list. Set 'Display using' to Text.

-          Click OK to save the recordset paging controls.

Right! We now have a paged recordset. The user won't have to wait minutes for the entire recordset load into the browser. This makes browsing this data a more pleasant experience. And what's more, we got to this point in less than 10 minutes! That's powerful.