Getting Parameters from the Application Server

There are two circumstances when the client dataset needs to fetch parameter values:

The application needs the value of output parameters on a stored procedure.
The application wants to initialize the input parameters of a query or stored procedure to the current values on the source dataset.

Client datasets store parameter values in their Params property. These values are refreshed with any output parameters when the client dataset fetches data from the source dataset. However, there may be times a TClientDataSet component in a client application needs output parameters when it is not fetching data.

To fetch output parameters when not fetching records, or to initialize input parameters, the client dataset can request parameter values from the source dataset by calling the FetchParams method. The parameters are returned in a data packet from the provider and assigned to the client dataset's Params property.

At design time, the Params property can be initialized by right-clicking the client dataset and choosing Fetch Params.

Note: There is never a need to call FetchParams when the client dataset uses an internal provider and source dataset, because the Params property always reflects the parameters of the internal source dataset. With TClientDataSet, the FetchParams method (or the Fetch Params command) only works if the client dataset is connected to a provider whose associated dataset can supply parameters. For example, if the source dataset is a table type dataset, there are no parameters to fetch.

The Params property can also be used to pass parameter values to the source dataset. For details on how to do this, see Passing parameters to the source dataset.

If the provider is on a separate system as part of a stateless application server, you can't use FetchParams to retrieve output parameters. In a stateless application server, other clients can change and rerun the query or stored procedure, changing output parameters before the call to FetchParams. To retrieve output parameters from a stateless application server, use the Execute method. If the provider is associated with a query or stored procedure, Execute tells the provider to execute the query or stored procedure and return any output parameters. These returned parameters are then used to automatically update the Params property.