Creating an Image of the Application
An executable image is a compiled version of the application that the user can run directly from the operating system, without going through ABF. The image file is a "snapshot" of the application at the time the image is made. Creating an executable image of your application gives you three advantages:
• Maintaining the application's integrity. Your application is intended as a program that end users run to do their work. If users run it from within ABF, they have the ability to redefine the application. Problems arise if accidental changes make their way into the application.
• Optimizing the application's performance. Better system performance results when the application runs from the operating system level and does not include the overhead of starting up ABF.
• Running the image against a different database. If you have a development and a production version of the same database, you can develop and image the application in the development database and run it against the production database. See the section, Running the Application on a Different Database.
When you create an executable image of the application, ABF:
• Ensures that the compiled form file, which has a .c file extension (.mar for VMS), for each compiled form in the application is up to date
• Compiles it into an object file (.obj) in the object code directory
• Links this object code file into the executable
• Does not look for later versions of the form in the system catalog
Building an executable image can be a lengthy process, often taking as much as five times longer than running the application with the Go operation. This is because the frames and procedures defined in the application must be compiled and linked.
On the other hand, the program is more convenient to run from the image than under the Go operation. See
Testing Incomplete Applications for more information about the behavior of the Go operation.
Last modified date: 01/30/2023