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January 1, 2002

The Big Little Database

Pervasive offers an affordable departmental platform

By Ganesh Variar

Continued from Page 1

The Pervasive Control Center (see Figure 1) is a graphical tool for managing the database. This utility is similar to the Enterprise Manager in Oracle. It lets developers create, modify, or delete databases and objects within the database. You can also use it to set up database security and export or import data, to configure settings for Pervasive client and server components, and to check consistency and referential integrity within the database.

The Control Center also lets users start other useful utilities such as Monitor (for monitoring server engine activity), Function Executor (a Btrieve interface), Maintenance (for performing file and data manipulations), SQL Data Manager (a SQL interface), User Count Administrator (for increasing user licenses), ODBC Administrator (for setting up Data Source Names), and System Analyzer (for analyzing system components and restoring a previous version of the database). Pervasive would do well to embed the functions performed by some of these utilities within the Control Center itself so that users have a single point of control for all administrative tasks.

THE FINER POINTS

I tried installing Pervasive.SQL 2000i Server on a computer running Windows 2000. The installation was a breeze and took me less than five minutes.

Pervasive supports many high-end relational features such as triggers, views, stored procedures, and correlated subqueries. The SQL syntax implements most of the features of ANSI SQL-92 as well as ODBC version 2.5. Supported data types include long varchar and varbinary, which can store values that are up to 2GB in size. Pervasive.SQL 2000i provides row-level locking on key and data pages.

The database runs into some limitations because it uses the ODBC engine interface. For example, the total number of columns, indexes, and constraints in a database can't exceed 65,535. Table and column names are limited to 20 characters in length. Although these are not serious limitations for Pervasive's primary target of midtier users, it may become a limiting factor for enterprise-level databases.

The Pervasive.SQL 2000i SDK offers a full suite of interfaces, components, and data access methods combined with sample applications, documentation, and tutorials for developers. The I*net Data Server is a unique solution that ships along with the SDK package. It is designed to help programmers develop an application once for deployment on multiple platforms, including LAN/WAN networks and Internet/intranet environments, without having to rewrite any code.

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BECOMING MORE PERVASIVE

Pervasive.SQL 2000i has great potential for growth on either end of the spectrum. On one hand, it can increase its penetration of the embedded database market by venturing into the fast-growing mobile computing segment. On the other hand, it has the potential to add more relational features to the database and grow into the fiercely competitive high-end database market. For example, vamping up the SQL syntax with online analytic processing extensions would enable Pervasive to tap the data mart market.

If you're looking for a low-cost database with high-end features, then Pervasive.SQL 2000i might be just the right solution for you.

Ganesh Variar [ganesh_variar@yahoo.com] is a project manager at Saama Technologies, a Silicon Valley-based consulting firm. He has eight years' experience in managing and designing business intelligence solutions.