sub opendb {
   my $self=shift;
   local($@);
   if ( not $self->{_dbh} or not $self->{_dbh}->ping) {
      eval{ $self->{_dbh}=$self->{_dbi}->connect() ; } ;
      if ( $@ ) {
         $self->Log('!',$@) and die "db gives error" ;
         }
      }
   $self->{_dbh}->{LongReadLen}=100000; # to handle Long column types
   $self->{_dbh}->{LongTruncOk}=0;   # generates an error when the data is too long
   $self->{_dbh}->{AutoCommit}=0;   # Lets run transactional
   return $self->{_dbh};
   }