Collection Contents Index CHAPTER 31.  Adaptive Server Anywhere as an Open Server Setting up Adaptive Server Anywhere as an Open Server pdf/chap31.pdf

User's Guide
   PART 5. The Adaptive Server Family
     CHAPTER 31. Adaptive Server Anywhere as an Open Server       

Open Clients, Open Servers, and TDS


This chapter describes how Adaptive Server Anywhere fits into the Sybase Open Client/Open Server client/server architecture. This section describes the key concepts of this architecture, and provides the conceptual background for the rest of the chapter.

If you simply wish to use a Sybase application with Adaptive Server Anywhere, you do not need to know any details of Open Client, Open Server, or TDS. However, an understanding of how these pieces fit together may be helpful for configuring your database and setting up applications. This section explains how the pieces fit together, and avoids any discussion of the internal features of the pieces.

Open Clients and Open Servers 

Adaptive Server Anywhere and other members of the Adaptive Server family act as Open Servers. Client applications communicate with Open Servers using the Open Client libraries available from Sybase. Open Client includes both the Client Library (CT-Library) and the older DB-Library interfaces.

Tabular Data Stream 

Open Clients and Open Servers exchange information using an application protocol called the tabular data stream (TDS). All applications built using the Sybase Open Client libraries are also TDS applications, because the Open Client libraries handle the TDS interface. However, some applications (such as Sybase jConnect) are TDS applications even though they do not use the Sybase Open Client libraries(they communicate directly to the TDS layer.

At the other end of the client/server connection, while many Open Servers use the Sybase Open Server libraries to handle the interface to TDS, some applications have a direct interface to TDS of their own. Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise and Adaptive Server Anywhere both have internal TDS interfaces. They appear to client applications as an Open Server, but do not use the Sybase Open Server libraries.

Programming Interfaces and application protocols 

Adaptive Server Anywhere supports two application protocols. TDS is used for Open Client applications and for other Sybase applications such as Replication Server and OmniConnect. A separate application protocol specific to Adaptive Server Anywhere is used for ODBC and Embedded SQL applications.

TDS uses TCP/IP 

Application protocols such as TDS sit on top of lower level communications protocols that handle network traffic. Adaptive Server Anywhere supports TDS only over the TCP/IP network protocol. In contrast, the Adaptive Server Anywhere-specific application protocol supports several network protocols as well as a shared memory protocol designed for same-machine communication.

Top of page  Sybase applications and Adaptive Server Anywhere

The ability of Adaptive Server Anywhere to act as an Open Server enables Sybase applications such as Replication Server and OmniConnect to work with Adaptive Server Anywhere.

Replication Server support 

The Open Server interface enables support for Sybase Replication Server: Replication Server connects through the Open Server interface, enabling databases to act as replicate sites in Replication Server installations.

For your database to act as a primary site in a Replication Server installation, you must also purchase the Replication Agent for Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere, also called a Log Transfer Manager. This is available from Sybase as a separate product.

OmniConnect support 

Sybase OmniConnect provides a unified view of disparate data within an organization, allowing users to access multiple data sources without having to know what the data looks like or where it is located. In addition, OmniConnect performs heterogeneous joins of data across the enterprise, enabling cross-platform table joins of targets such as DB2, Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise, Oracle, and VSAM.

Using the Open Server interface, Adaptive Server Anywhere can act as a data source for OmniConnect.

Top of page  Open Client applications and Adaptive Server Anywhere

You can build Open Client applications either using the Open Client libraries directly from a C or C++ programming environment such as Powersoft Power++, or using 4GL application development products that support the Sybase interface, such as Powersoft PowerBuilder.

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Collection Contents Index CHAPTER 31.  Adaptive Server Anywhere as an Open Server Setting up Adaptive Server Anywhere as an Open Server pdf/chap31.pdf