IDS .NET SQL Driver

IDS .NET SQL Driver

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IDS .NET SQL Driver defines and implements a .NET database access API available to all .NET Framework languages including C#, Visual Basic, C++ and JScript. This API resembles the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) 3.0 API. It is an independent API not related to the ADO.NET and .NET Data Provider architecture (namespace System.Data), and it is also not related to Visual J# .NET.

The ids.sql Namespace

The ids.sql namespace is the IDS .NET SQL Driver. The driver offers powerful database access features not available in the ADO.NET and .NET Data Provider architecture:

scrollable and updatable resultset batch updates comprehensive database meta-data returns auto-generated keys	large objects (Blob and Clob) transactions and savepoints data source objects connection and statement pooling
Refer to the solution diagram for a conceptual view of the relationship between the .NET SQL Driver, IDS Server and the supported databases.

The .NET SQL Driver API

The IDS .NET SQL Driver defines a database access API consists of seven primary interfaces and classes. Programming-wise, the starting points are either a class that implements the Driver interface or the DataSource interface. The following summarizes their functions and relations.

Interface and Class	Descriptions
Driver	Represents a driver in the .NET SQL Driver architecture.
DataSource	Represents a data source in the .NET SQL Driver architecture.
Connection	Represents a connection (or session) to the underlying database system.
Statement	Represents a SQL statement object that can execute SQL commands and returns either a ResultSet or an update count.
PreparedStatement	Represents a prepared SQL command that can be repeatedly and efficiently executed and can set statement parameters.
CallableStatement	Represents a SQL stored procedure call that can be repeatedly executed and can set input and retrieve output parameters.
ResultSet (abstract class)	Represents a tabular view of a SQL query result, which may also be scrollable and updatable.

The Driver Implementation

The .NET SQL Driver API implementation consists of three concrete classes in the ids.sql namespace:

Interface and Class	Descriptions
IDSDriver	Implements the Driver interface of the .NET SQL Driver API.
IDSDataSource	Implements the DataSource interface of the .NET SQL Driver API.
IDSCPDataSource	A subclass of IDSDataSource that offers a built-in connection pooling and prepared statement pooling feature.

The .NET SQL Driver API strongly resembles the JDBC 3.0 API with only minor differences. Developers porting Java applications to C# or other .NET languages will find it very familiar and easy to work with.

At the same time, the driver API and implementation also offer .NET language specifics that let developers write .NET style applications. This is best demonstrated by the properties defined in the IDSDataSource class. For each Java style get/set methods that manipulates connection and data source parameters, there also exists an equivalent property with the appropriate set and get accessor. For example,

Java style methods:

public String getURL(); public String setURL();

.NET style property equivalent:

public String URL { get; set; }