Developing Applications with SQLFire

Developing Applications with SQLFire explains the main concepts of programming Java and ADO.NET applications with SQLFire APIs and the SQLFire implementation of SQL. It describes how to embed a SQLFire instance in a Java application and how to connect as a client. This guide also describes transactional and non-transactional behavior, and explains how to create data-aware stored procedures.

• Starting SQLFire Servers with the FabricServer Interface
  The FabricServer interface provides an easy way to start an embedded SQLFire server process in an existing Java application.
• Developing Java Clients and Peers
  A Java application can use the JDBC thin client driver to connect to a SQLFire cluster and execute SQL statements. Or, a Java application can use the JDBC peer client driver to embed a SQLFire peer process and participate as a member of the cluster.
• Configuring SQLFire as a JDBC Datasource
  The SQLFire JDBC implementation enables you to use a distributed system as an embedded JDBC datasource in products such as WebLogic Server.
• Storing and Loading JAR Files in SQLFire
  Application logic, which can be used by SQL functions and procedures, includes Java class files stored in a JAR file format. Storing application JAR files in SQLFire simplifies application deployment, because it reduces the potential for problems with a user's classpath.
• Developing ADO.NET Client Applications
  SQLFire provides a managed ADO.NET driver that you can use to develop non-Java client applications. The ADO.NET driver uses IKVM technology to translate SQLFire JDBC core libraries into .NET MSIL. The driver is supported with the Microsoft .NET 2.0 SP1 or higher framework.
• Using SQLFire.NET Designer
  The SQLFire.NET Designer component provides Visual Studio 2008 design-time support for a SQLFire distributed system. After installing the Designer component you can add SQLFire databases to the Server Explorer list in Visual Studio 2008, design queries with the Query Designer, drag-and-drop tables onto a typed DataSet, and so forth. The Designer component also enables you to create and edit SQLFire schemas directly in Visual Studio 2008.
• Understanding the Data Consistency Model
  All peers in a single distributed system are assumed to be colocated in the same data center and accessible with reliable bandwidth and low latencies. Replication of table data in the distributed system is always eager and synchronous in nature.
• Using Distributed Transactions in Your Applications
  A transaction is a set of one or more SQL statements that make up a logical unit of work that you can commit or roll back, and that will be recovered in the event of a system failure. SQLFire's unique design for distributed transactions allows for linear scaling without compromising atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability (ACID) properties.
• Using Data-Aware Stored Procedures
  A stored procedure is an application function call or subroutine that is managed in the database server. Because multiple SQLFire members operate together in a distributed system, procedure execution in SQLFire can also be parallelized to run on multiple members, concurrently. A procedure that executes concurrently on multiple SQLFire members is called a data-aware procedure.
• Using the Procedure Provider API
  SQLFire provides an API to help you develop data-aware procedures. A ProcedureExecutionContext object provides information about the table used to filter the procedure execution, colocated data, and other information about the context in which a procedure is executed. An OutgoingResultSet interface enables you to construct a result set by adding rows or columns to a List object.
• Using the Custom Result Processor API
  Data-aware procedures use a separate result processor to merge the procedure results from multiple SQLFire members. You can use the default SQLFire result processor when basic concatenation of the results are required.
• Programming User-Defined Types
  SQLFire enables you to create user-defined types. A user-defined type is a serializable Java class whose instances are stored in columns.
• Using Result Sets and Cursors
  A result set maintains a cursor, which points to its current row of data. You can use a result set to step through and process the rows one by one.