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November 15, 2002

Beyond the ORDBMS

InterSystems' Caché combines technologies to produce a flexible and scalable database

by Ganesh Variar

Continued from Page 1

The latest version of Caché includes a new bitmap indexing capability that will work well even with transactional data, which is generally subject to constant updates. Its Enterprise Caché Protocol enhances performance by caching the data at the application server and reducing trips to the database server.

Web-Friendly Features

In today's Web-oriented world, any piece of software that hits the streets is judged by its ability to provide a platform for Web development. Fortunately, Caché is much more than just a data store. It includes an application server that provides a solid middle tier for database applications. Caché Studio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that makes it easy to develop applications quickly. Caché ObjectScript is a powerful object-oriented language designed for rapid application development.

Caché supports the creation of dynamic pages on the application server using Caché Server Pages (CSP). CSP supports HTML, XML, and WML. Caché 5 includes system-level classes that enable XML documents and document type definition files to be automatically created from Caché classes, and Caché objects to be created from XML documents without the need for cumbersome manual mapping.

Caché methods can also be published as Web services. When the service is invoked, Caché generates a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) descriptor and sends the response as XML, formatted according to Simple Object Access Protocol. Caché classes can also be exposed as Enterprise Java Beans or as ActiveX classes or as classes in C++.

Visual Caché provides a rapid application development environment with excellent links to Visual Basic. Data-aware controls in Visual Basic can be connected to Caché objects simply by specifying a Caché class and its attribute. Moreover, Caché 5 supports Basic as a supplement to its native scripting language, ObjectScript. Caché Application Tags can be added to an HTML file. These extended HTML tags can in turn generate complex application code for accessing Caché objects. CSP also supports server-side methods calls directly from the browser.

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Caché can be most effective as a database for data-intensive Web applications that involve complex logic. Caché supports complex data types and comes with several Web-friendly features. Coupled with the fact that Caché requires very little database administration for maintenance, these features make it very attractive as an embedded database for Web applications. For classical functions such as ERP systems and data warehousing, traditional relational database vendors will continue to hold sway.

Feeling Adventuresome?

The ability to provide relational, object, and multidimensional access to data, together with its enhanced performance, scalability, and fail-over features make Caché a very interesting database. Its Web-enabling characteristics make it even more attractive to businesses in today's computing environment. If you're prepared to explore beyond the realms of the traditional relational databases, Caché should definitely be high on your list. It lets you venture out into the brave new world of objects and multidimensional arrays without having to sacrifice the power of good old SQL.

Ganesh Variar [ganesh_variar@yahoo.com] is a lead analyst at Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon. He has eight years of experience managing and designing business intelligence solutions.