Mustang Software Product Review: CodeBase
by Bob Dalton. Reprinted with permission.
Recently as many of you might remember I
wrote briefly of a Database Management solution called CodeBase. I was so intrigued by
the possibilities of this product I arranged with Sequiter Software (www.sequiter.com),
the makers of CodeBase, to review in depth the commercial version of it for the benefit
of Mustang’s 3rd party WIN Server Developers and Programmers.
Some Background
Even if you are not designing Database specific online applications you probably will
still need some type of database management add on tools. Why? Online programming differs
from standalone application development in that database record keeping is virtually a
"must" requirement on a day to day basis for almost every type and class of
server side application intended to communicate with users over the Internet.
In the DOS programming days of writing BBS
applications most developers would do this record keeping with a file consisting of an
array of records and have to build in their own record locking and unlocking routines not
to mention record manipulation, sorting and other necessary tasks. The manual programming
of these some time intricate processes often led to problems and online application errors
and crashes.
As programming technology advanced a better
solution came along with the current breed of compilers such as Visual C++, Delphi and
Visual Basic which provided, through the mechanism of Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC) or
the Borland Database Engine (BDE), built in database table management and manipulation
routines which made database record keeping more of a pleasure then the chore it had been.
The only drawback to using ODBC (in Visual C++ or Visual Basic) or the BDE (in Delphi or
Borland C++) was that the overhead required to implement ODBC or the BDE on users system
was quite heavy, not to mention complex, and this led to very large distribution files.
This has become even more of an acute
problem for those Online Developers who need to design downloadable Client side database
support as it made for unacceptably large download files. Unknown to many developers is
that there are other more efficient alternatives to doing it this way and Sequiter
Software is offering one you might want to consider...
CodeBase - A single DLL only approach
Sequiter's solution is their product called CodeBase. In order to test CodeBase out I
chose the Visual Basic version of the product. In the box I found a single CD-ROM, a
printed "Getting Started" manual and a printed "Visual Basic Reference
Guide". On the CD-ROM which comes with their commercial product you will find
language support for Microsoft Visual C++, Visual Basic, Borland’s Delphi and
Borland’s C++ Builder.
I might note that the only difference between the Commercial
Boxed versions is the printed language specific "Reference Guide" which you
choose when you place your order. Although only a single language specific printed
Reference Guide of your choice is provided with the product the CD-ROM does contain ALL
the electronic Adobe Acrobat versions of each available printed language specific
Reference Guide.
This multi-language support on a single
CD-ROM is refreshing to see and is an acknowledgment of the increasingly common
multi-platform capable Developer/Programmer. The Installation went smoothly. Once installed
all I had to do was chose
which of the supported database formats (FoxPro, Clipper or dBase) I wanted to use,
rename the appropriate 16 or 32 bit dll, in this case I chose the FoxPro support dll, and
then move that dll somewhere on my path where it could be found by the Visual Basic
compiler such as the Windows System directory. This single dll was 573KB in size for 16
bit FoxPro support and 397KB in size for 32 bit FoxPro support.
Next I installed a plug in data aware tool
set called CodeControls, in this case a VBX for the 16 bit version of VB I was using, and
copy a declaration module file (codebase.bas) to my working application directory. Now I
was ready to use it with a Visual Basic application. With many Developer add on products
their is usually a sparsity of provided example source code but
not here as I found on the CD-ROM 100 small VB example applications alone to work with! I
randomly compiled several of these provided example applications, all of which worked on
the first try, and I have to say I was impressed by the speed in which they executed which
would seem to bear out their claim to be able to "query millions of records in a
single second". Compared to the cumbersome ODBC or BDE methods I was used to this was
really a pleasant change and all for the better in my opinion.
After playing with the example applications
for awhile I next reviewed the manual which I found adequate for the task of explaining
the many available dll function calls and typical of many Developer manuals of this type.
Other items included on the CD-ROM were CodeReporter, a windows application used to design
sophisticated database reports for use with the CodeBase dll, and an application called
CodeBase Administrator that helps to [administer CodeBase client/server] applications. Taken
together I found the package pleasingly complete and easy to use, even for an intermediate
programmer, although you will need to generate the database tables or files separately
with either your compiler or a database package.
Recommendation and Summary
If you are looking for a much smaller, more efficient and faster alternative to either
ODBC or the BDE in your online WIN Server client or server applications then CodeBase by
Sequiter Software would be an excellent add on solution to this problem.
Bob Dalton is working as the Developer Relations Manager at Mustang Software Inc.
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