Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Database middleware is all the components that handle the communication
between an application and the database management software. Database mid-
dleware handles the application's data request until that request is handed to the
database, and in the other direction, it handles the database's response until it is
handed to the application.
The components of database middleware might include the following:
•
Database client software such as Oracle Net8 or DB2 Connect
•
JDBC or ODBC database drivers
•
Driver Manager for ODBC or JDBC
•
ADO.NET data providers
•
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in a JDBC-enabled database application
•
TCP/IP network or other libraries loaded into the application's address space
when it connects to a database such as SSL libraries for data encryption
Figure 3-1 shows an example of a deployed ODBC-enabled database appli-
cation and the middleware it uses.
ODBC
Application
Driver
Manager
Database
Driver
TCP/IP Network
Figure 3-1
Database middleware example
Database applications typically fall into four basic categories:
•
Applications that return a small result and a single row, such as an ATM
transaction—often referred to as online transaction processing (OLTP)
applications. For example, this might be a
Select
statement that retrieves
one row with two columns.
