SynchronousC API
Amultiplatform synchronous C API in which operations are accomplished in a few simple
functioncalls is provided for the 5800 system. The API calls include operations for storing,
retrieving,deleting, and querying of data and metadata records. Multiple threads are supported,
andoperations block until they complete.
Youmust call hc_init (once per process) and “hc_session_create_ez” on page 53 (once per
thread)prior to making any other API calls.
Allfunctions in the 5800 system C API return an hc_err. Any value other than HCERR_OK
indicatesfailure.
Thissection discusses the following topics for the 5800 system synchronous C API.
■“Changesfor the 1.1 Release” on page 44
■“Limitations”on page 45

Changes forthe 1.1 Release

Thisrelease of the synchronous C API contains the following changes:
■Handlingis added for storing, retrieving and querying the following new metadata types:
– char— for Latin 1 character set
– unicode
– binary
– date
– time
– timestamp
Queryand queryplus are merged
■Preparedstatements (pstmts) are introduced to handle values of queries that cannot be
placedinline, and a new query is introduced to handle them.
■Thefollowing new functions have been added to the API:
–“hc_check_indexed_ez”on page 89
–“hc_decode_hcerr”on page 112
–“hc_decode_hc_type”on page 113
–“hc_schema_get_length”on page 61
–“hc_nvr_add_binary”on page 71
–“hc_nvr_add_date”on page 72
–“hc_nvr_add_time”on page 73
–“hc_nvr_add_timestamp”on page 74
–“hc_nvr_get_binary”on page 81
–“hc_nvr_get_date”on page 82
SynchronousCAPI
SunStorageTek5800 System Client API Reference Manual • June 200844