loading data into COODBMS is still too difficult

I've been thinking about a static.cowdb database which would hold help descriptions, application plugins and other information which changes infrequently. The advantage of having a dedicated database for this, just as we have a dedicated database for logins, is that it reduces thread blocking and consequently improves both throughput AND response time. And in this case, where queries are the norm, multiple threads can access the database at the same time. Another plus here is that, because the cache space is shared, the increase in the memory footprint is not significant.


But there is a small complication. How to distribute the contents or provide a means of upgrading it? Note that commands like bind and importText can not currently be part of a RoleML script, as these scripts run on the server and the source file is on the client. We could use a browse script and run browse against an input file, but then if there is an error we can't simply fix the problem and rerun--we've got to undo things manually. Not a good approach.

One alternative is to make the run command (and the runScript utility) smart enough to recognize these commands and pass the file contents along with the script.