Roadmap to PODS Interfaces

This section summarizes the functionality provided by each M-Business client extension API (PODS) interface. From these summaries, you should be able to determine which interface to use to implement which types of application tasks in PODS.

Interface Inheritance

A PODS interface can extend another PODS interface, meaning that the interface includes all of the methods of its parent interface. This section shows you how to define a sample interface to extend another hypothetical interface.

PODS Data Types

The PODS data types, defined in the podstypes.h file, are described in the PODS Data Types table.

By using PODS data types, your code will be insulated from any future changes in the way these data types are defined; it also will make your PODS code more portable. Whenever possible, you should use PODS data types instead of any equivalent data type that may be available in C. Refer to this section to view a list of PODS data types and their descriptions.

Deriving C Macro Method Syntax Directly From IDL Source

The source files for PODS are Interface Definition Language (IDL) files. The vast majority of header files in M-Business Anywhere are generated from these IDL files. The M-Business Anywhere API Reference documents the details of calling each method in each interface, through the method’s associated macro.

PODSPodNew( ) Function Reference

PODSPodNew() is the single entry point to the shared library containing a POD. It is comparable to a constructor for a C++ class.

PODSPodNew() creates and returns a new PODSPod object. It allocates memory for the POD and tells M-Business Client about this POD. Your implementation may also perform any other initialization functions that your POD requires.