RE: Relational Databases

Well, I'll be durned. Your explanation just made a whole bunch of puzzle 
pieces fall into place. I just realized the ColdFusion server administrator 
is another interface into MS ODBC Data Source Administrator on Win98. Here 
I thought that I was dealing with two different animals.

On a side note, I do get to see the guts of the pervasiveSQL engine that 
drives my MRP II system on WinNT at work. As the system admin and main 
technician, I have to do very low level fixes to the system when things go 
wrong. Pervasive, unfortunately doesn't use MS ODBC so I have to deal with 
it's proprietary connectivity. Two good points about Pervasive is that it 
lets me front end MRP with MSAccess and as MS phases out Jet and its 
connectivity to many less used RDBMS's, Pervasive continues to give me 
those hooks.
Thank you very much for your explanation. It made quite a few light bulbs 
go from dim to very bright. Bright is good!!!!
Dave G.

At 06:25 PM 4/7/00 -0700, Brian A. Sayrs wrote:
>DB transparency means that you can write one set of SQL queries (get db 
>info) which will work on any database.  The ODBC (Open DataBase 
>Connectivity) is an open standard which allows a programmer to do 
>this.  Database engines generally do their magic inside a black box, and 
>the community generally considers that a blessing.  If you truly wanted to 
>see the guts of a database engine hang out, you would just resort to 
>writing your own engine.  I've done that.  It works,   I'd never hoist 
>that monstrosity on anyone else, though!  :)
>
>The point is that you don't want to see the underlying code with database 
>engines, so wrapping many of the popular engines with ODBC is a good 
>thing, because you can switch as often as you need to without recoding.
>
>HTH,
>
>Brian A. Sayrs
>Owner, Southwind Solutions
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:   Dave Gorjup [SMTP:dgorjup(at)mediaone.net]
>Sent:   Friday, April 07, 2000 4:37 PM
>To:     HWG techniques
>Subject:        Re: Relational Databases
>
>I get the feeling that I don't understand some of the terminology being
>used here, esp db transparency, but if you're worried about not seeing the
>underlying code don't use CF Studio for your development. I'm learning to
>talk to the CF Express server using Notepad. The cf tags are embedded
>within your html code and look much like sql but with much less complexity.
>As someone previously mentioned, what takes 10 lines of code with ASP can
>take only 3 or 4 with CF. Of course I'm using the free Express server which
>doesn't have all the functionality of its big brother but its more than
>enough to satisfy my corporate intranet needs.
>Also, CF doesn't generate the pages that are ultimately shown to the user.
>CF server sends the requested data to a template html file and the web
>server sends it to the user.
>Apologies if I'm not understanding the discussion. I'm still learning this
>web db stuff.
>Regards,
>Dave G.
>
>At 03:21 PM 4/7/00 +0000, you wrote:
>  ><stephen>I just want people to realize that CF is not the answer
>for >database transparency, it is really good coding and knowledge of
>the >cross DB capabilities exposed by ODBC that allow for this</stephen>
>  >
>  >I have been looking into the possibility of working with HTML
>generated >from databases for some time and following this discussion has
>been a >great help to me- thankyou everyone.
>  >
>  >I like the idea of database transparency aluded to in the above
>posting. >I've been looking at using Cold Fusion (as someone said, the $500
>price >tag for just the development kit is fine if you can recover it in
>time savings >later) but I don't want to surrender control (or
>understanding) of the >processes going on underneath. For much the same
>reasons I don't use >Home Site. In order to get my head round this database
>thing I think I am >finally going to have to bite the bullet and learn more
>about SQL. I'm pretty >hot on Access and general relational database
>theory, but have no idea >whatsoever how to use SQL.
>  >
>  >Does anyone have any good suggestions for online tutorials etc.?
>  >
>  >Any other related information I need to look for? (I'm considering
>taking >the long route, like Ben Ocean, and using PHP and MySQL)
>  >
>  >TIA
>  >
>  >-Matt
>  >
>  >PS- Go easy on me with the tutorials- I'm new to this. Just a foot on
>the >ladder is all I need to start with.
>  >______________________________________________________
>  >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

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