OmniBase API reference

OmniBase API consists of methods in new classes added by OmniBase and of extensions to base Smalltalk classes (loose methods). The following document is a reference of all methods available to the application developer using OmniBase. The API described is the same in all Smalltalk dialects for which OmniBase is available (Dolphin Smalltalk, VisualWorks and VisualAge Smalltalk).

Index of classes


Block loose methods (aka BlockClosure)


Object loose methods


Object class loose methods


Class loose methods


OmniBase class methods


OmniBase methods


OmniBase transaction methods

Objects in the database can be accessed only through transaction. First you access the root object from which you can navigate to whatever object in the database. While a transaction is active it can hold locks on objects. While an object is locked in one transaction it can not be locked and changed in any other transaction. See instance methods of class ODBLocalTransaction for further details.


ODBBTreeDictionary instance methods

A b-tree dictionary provides a way to store and access large number of objects in the database. Dictionary keys can be only objects of class String or ByteArray (maximum length of a key has to be set at creation time, see method OmniBase class>>#newBTreeDictionary:). Multiple users can access and change dictionary at the same time. BTreeDictionary also includes a cursor that points to a specific key and provides a way to iterate through objects in the dictionary. See instance methods of class ODBBTreeDictionary for further details.