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 Perfect Sync Software

The following review of SQL Tools appeared in the September 1999 issue of the BASICally Speaking newsletter. It is presented here in its original form. Perfect Sync has not modified the text in any way, except that we have re-formatted it for internet (HTML) presentation.

This review is reprinted here with the permission of the copyright holder, Information Management Systems.

SQL Tools Pro  1.0

Overall Rating: 4.2

    When I first started programming in DOS Basic, random access files provided all the database power I needed. However, as my programs grew more complex and the demands of the end users increased, I found that I needed faster searching and sorting, and I turned to a number of indexers and database managers to provide these capabilities. However, now that I spend most of my time developing Windows applications, I've found that I need an even greater level of sophistication in my database access code. I've discovered client-server database architectures and learned a few things about SQL, the Structured Query Language. SQL, which is sometimes pronounced "ess cue ell" and sometimes pronounced "sequel," is a database manipulation language. Its syntax bears some resemblance to Basic, and it is a convenient way of working with databases of all sizes, but particularly medium- and large-sized databases. It provides a lot of tremendous capabilities. For example, you can gather a list of all the customers in a single zip code with a single SQL statement:

SELECT * FROM CUSTOMERS WHERE 'ZIP CODE' = 48127

    I've also worked with ODBC, Microsoft's Open Database Connectivity engine. ODBC provides a connection a common interface between your program and the underlying databases. It allows you to use a standard set of API calls to access virtually any underlying database, whether it is a shared file database (like dBASE or Microsoft Access), or a full-featured client-server database (like Oracle or Informix).

    ODBC provides two lures to the programmer: the end user can connect the software to his or her database of choice without any changes required in the program, and the programmer only needs to learn one set of database access methodologies, ODBC. (If you needed to call each database's native drivers, your program's logic might need to be completely rewritten every time your end users wanted you to support a new database.)  All you need is Microsoft's ODBC engine (which is freely available from Microsoft), and an ODBC driver for the specific database(s) to which you will be connecting (many of which are also freely available from the database vendors' web sites). In fact, ODBC drivers are currently available for 55 different database formats. SQL and ODBC are powerful technologies, and they can be a great boon to you if you need to do serious database access.

    There is only one problem: Microsoft's ODBC SDK, like most of their other SDKs, is oriented toward the C language. If you wish to use ODBC, you will need to convert the header files and write a lot of "helper" functions to make your programs work smoothly, or you can invest in a library that has already done all the hard work. This is where SQL Tools Pro comes in. [See? That long preamble really is relevant!] SQL Tools is an add-on library for PB/CC and PB/DLL that encapsulates the ODBC API and allows you to embed SQL statements directly in your PowerBASIC programs. It is an extensive library, with dozens and dozens of functions and procedures that make accessing ODBC databases a relatively simple task.

    The library is shipped as a single 150k DLL with a series of include files that facilitate access to the library routines. You add to your program a "master" include file (which brings in all the other needed SQL Tools include files), and then your program makes calls to the SQL Tools functions to perform all your database access. Of course, you must also ship the SQL Tools DLL with your program, but at about 150k, it is not a terribly cumbersome addition. The product provides you with nearly complete access to the ODBC API (through version 3.0), and the thorough documentation will help you quickly learn the ropes of adding SQL and ODBC to your programs.

    Although SQL Tools is a remarkably well-designed product, it does have a few rough edges, most notably in the installation process. Perfect Sync prefers to ship exclusively by e-mail, so you will receive an e-mail message with a large, self-extracting archive attached to it. The e-mail message contains brief (and, unfortunately, incomplete) installation instructions. I recommend you save or print this message, since there is no README.TXT file inside the self-extracting archive. Once I unpacked the archive onto my hard drive, I had to use the Windows Explorer to access the documentation (which is supplied in both Windows Help and Adobe Acrobat formats). Once I could read the documentation, I found much more detailed installation instructions than the e-mail message contained.  In addition to being largely irrelevant at this point, these instructions were still incomplete. I found three additional self-extracting archives inside the SQL Tools directory: sample programs, sample databases, and Microsoft's ODBC files. None of these self- extracting archives were mentioned in the documentation. With a little effort and experimentation, I got all the files unpacked onto my hard drive in their proper subdirectories.

    Fortunately, the documentation does a good job of explaining the SQL Tools sample programs. When you unpack Microsoft's ODBC files, you'll see README.1ST file, but if you try to use the Windows Explorer to open the file, Windows will ask you to associate an application with the ".1ST" file extension. Thus, you will need to open Notepad (or an equivalent text editor) and manually navigate through your hard drive to the file before you can read it. Once I managed to get SQL Tools installed properly, I found the product fairly easy to use, but I have done some work in the past with both ODBC and SQL. These technologies will likely be somewhat intimidating to the new database programmer. However, the SQL Tools manual does a great job of covering these topics in reasonable depth, and references to further educational resources, many of them free, are included that will help the reader gain a more complete understanding of these topics.

    There are two versions of SQL Tools: Standard and Pro. The Standard version allows you to access 1 or 2 databases at one time, with 1 or 2 active SQL statements for each database. The Pro version allows you to access up to 256 databases at one time, with up to 256 active SQL statements for each database. It also provides a much more extensive set of functions that give you greater control over the ODBC engine and the databases themselves. (Please note that a database is a collection of tables. A table is a single data file, which is composed of records and fields, called rows and columns in the database world. These terms may not be the ones to which you are accustomed, so please note the definitions carefully.)

Our ratings for SQL Tools Pro 1.0 are:

Capabilities:

5

Ease of Use:

3

Documentation:

4

Reliability:

5

Performance:

4

Overall Rating:

4.2


    Is there anything a database access library needs to do that SQL Tools cannot provide?   We honestly could not think of a single thing (in large measure due to the fact that the database work is carried out using SQL statements and ODBC calls). SQL Tools is a remarkably well-thought-out package, has an excellent design, and encapsulates the ODBC interface very well.

    We awarded SQL Tools a 5 for its capabilities. Our only concern is that the developers may not be able to find enough new features to add to the product to create version 2.0! Overall, SQL Tools is relatively easy to use. As mentioned above, we do have a few concerns about the installation of the product. The lack of a README.TXT file with a recap of the e-mail message's brief installation instructions was an unwelcome discovery, and it was inconvenient to have to figure out how to finish the installation of the three undocumented self-extracting archive files. This package also requires Basic programmers to learn SQL in order to access databases.  The syntax of SQL is reminiscent of Basic, and SQL fundamentals are fairly easy to learn, but the nuances only come through extensive experience. These drawbacks are mitigated by the excellent structure of the function and procedure calls. We gave SQL Tools a 3 for ease of use.

    The documentation is, in a word, outstanding. As noted, the documentation comes in both Windows Help and Adobe Acrobat formats. The Acrobat file is more than 650 pages long, and the Windows Help file is 1.7 MB, but they are very well organized, are very thorough, and do an excellent job of teaching you to use the product. The introductory SQL information will also help you get started quickly. If you've read my reviews before, you'll know that I firmly believe that a product should come with a printed manual. Unfortunately, SQL Tools follows the crowd in this regard, providing only electronic-format documentation. If it had a printed manual, SQL Tools would get a perfect score, but the paperless format forces me to downgrade the documentation to a 4.

    We gave SQL Tools a 5 for reliability. We uncovered no bugs in our testing, and the program handles a wide variety of ODBC- compliant databases without a hiccup. Of course, you must keep within the limitations of your ODBC driver; for example, it's impossible to use a SQL JOIN statement on all the flat file databases with which I've worked. (Please be aware that SQL Tools provides you with functions that can query the exact capabilities of the driver, so your program will never have to "guess" if a function can be used.)

    Finally, we awarded SQL Tools a 4 for performance. SQL Tools itself is snappy enough, but the reliance on the ODBC engine makes database access slower than when using native drivers. However, the flexibility of an ODBC connection allows you to hook your applications to many different databases in the field with no code changes (as long as you program for the least common denominator of functionality among ODBC drivers), so this is an acceptable trade-off for most developers. [By the way, PowerBASIC + SQL Tools runs circles around Visual Basic's internal database access tools, especially the new DAO and ADO technologies (which are based on ActiveX).]

    If you are doing heavy duty database access, you should purchase the Pro version. But if your database needs are less extensive (especially if you do not need to use multithreaded access to the database), the Standard version will save you a few dollars.

    In summary, if you need to do serious database access with PB/DLL or PB/CC, purchase a copy of SQL Tools. You'll be glad you did. For more information on SQL Tools Pro, contact Perfect Sync, Inc.

--By Alan C. Earnshaw


SQL Tools  and SQL Tools Pro
Version 1.0

Published by Perfect Sync, Inc.

 

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Datum laatste aanpassing:
29 december 2003 03:42:22

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