The Storage Kit
The Storage Kit lets your application store and retrieve persistent
data. Persistent data doesn't disappear with your application; it's stored on a long-term storage device, such as
a hard disk, floppy disk, CD-ROM, and so on, so you can return to it later.
The classes provided by the Kit fall into three categories:
- The database classes (BDatabase, BTable, BRecord, and BQuery) let you store data
as "structured entries" or records. The content of a record--the number of
individual datums it contains, and the type of values each datum can assume--depends on the record's structure. The description of this structure is given by the
table to which the record conforms. Because records are structured, you can easily
and quickly locate a specific record based on the values that are stored in the record.
- The file system classes (BStore, BDirectory, BFile, and BResourceFile) provide a
means for storing data in files. The data in a file can be unstructured (instances of
BFile) or structured (BResourceFile).
- Instances of the BVolume class represent the actual storage devices themselves.
BVolumes objects are used in both database and file-system applications.
It's suggested that you explore the Storage Kit by visiting the BVolume class
description, and then proceed to the database or file system classes in the order given
above.
The Be Book, HTML Edition, for Developer Release 8 of the Be Operating System.
Copyright © 1996 Be, Inc. All rights reserved.
Be, the Be logo, BeBox, BeOS, BeWare, and GeekPort are trademarks of Be, Inc.
Last modified September 6, 1996.