Alternative to Jet/Access .MDB, MSDE and SQL Express 2005

Although the Jet engine can work in a multi-user or web-based environment, it was designed to be a desktop database. The Jet engine and .MDB database files is simply not a robust solution for building multi-user and web based database applications. As most developers have experienced, using Jet and .MDB files in a multi-user environment can lead to problems including data corruption and even data loss.

And the final reason to avoid using Jet is the fact that Microsoft has deprecated the Jet engine and will no longer be issuing updates to it. Microsoft has stated that there is no future in Jet and is encouraging developers to migrate away from using .MDB database files to the MSDE or SQL Express. Both of these products are editions of SQL Server with less features, and both are overkill for most small to midsize database applications. These databases require lots of resources to configure and run. The MSDE footprint is over 70MB in size and SQL Express is not much better at 40MB. The caveat with SQL Express is that it works with .NET 2.0 only and is therefore not backwards compatible with .NET 1.1.

Alternative to the BDE

Small 500KB embedded footprint

Copy 'n Go! deployment

Migrating from other databases

Object-Oriented Architecture

Engine and SQL-92 query processor

.VDB Data Store

What You Get

• VistaDB 3.0 data engine with built-in SQL-92 query processor
• Managed ADO.NET Data Provider for building SQL-based .NET apps
• Managed Direct Data Access objects for building object-based .NET apps
• Native VCL components for building Win32 Delphi/C++Builder apps
• COM objects for building VB6 Win32 apps and classic ASP web apps
• Data Builder Utility for creating and managing databases
• Data Migration Wizard for migrating databases to VistaDB
• Demo and samples
• Help file
• Free unlimited distribution
• Free support
• Free software updates (e.g. 2.0 receives 2.01, 2.1, 2.x etc. updates free)

VistaDB Benefits

• Robust RDBMS for building .NET and Win32 database applications
• Industry standard SQL-92 syntax
• Small 1MB embedded footprint makes distributing ASP.NET and WinForms applications easy
• Hassle-free XCOPY deployment with zero administration and zero configuration requirements
• High-speed data management
• No additional costs or licenses required for deployment of your applications

Architecture
VistaDB is an object-oriented, fully self-contained RDBMS that uses a state-of-the-art single-file data store. VistaDB supports developing single and multi-user applications and does not require Microsoft Jet/, BDE, ODBC or any other database middleware. The VistaDB data engine itself is a single small 1MB file that features support for both SQL-92 and Direct Data Access objects. This allows developers to build .NET database applications using SQL statements or data objects.

Engine and SQL-92 processor
VistaDB features a SQL-92 compliant query processor that supports a full range of data manipulation and data definition commands including: parameterized queries, nested SELECTs, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, ALTER, CREATE, DROP, JOIN, CASE, UNION, LIKE, CONTAINS, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, IF, AS and more. That's not all, there are another 50+ V-SQL support functions such as Count(), Avg(), Max(), Lower(), Upper(), Left(), Right() etc. that provide even greater detailed data manipulation. For ultimate robust data management, VistaDB provides a highly effective Snapshot isolation Transaction Processing, which completely eliminates deadlocks since locking is not required, and VistaDB supports unlimited nesting of transactions.

Database
The VistaDB database features large storage capacity to manage billions of records per table, and a rich set of data types (BLOB, Boolean, Character, Currency, Date, DateTime, Double, GUID, Int32, Int64, Memo, Picture and Varchar), with true NULL support for all data types, Identity fields (a.k.a AutoIncrement), functions to set default values (e.g. Now), Full Text Search indexing, high-speed compound and compressed indexes, data compression, Blowfish and DES encryption on data and database structure, compound Primary Keys, Foreign Keys, true Referential Integrity, Constraints, Triggers, Relationships and much more.

One of VistaDB's key benefits is its small footprint. The engine is only 1MB and the ADO.NET Provider is only 100kb. Together, these 2 files provide features found in databases that are magnitudes larger, more expensive and more complex to use.

Easy Deployment
VistaDB makes deploying your .Net and Win32 applications incredibly easy. The VistaDB data engine does not require special registration on the target computer (i.e. access to the registry is not required for deploying your ASP.NET or WinForms applications). For .Net applications, simply including the VistaDB20.dll (1MB) and VistaDB.Provider.dll (100kb) along with your ASP.NET or WinForms .Net applications is that is required. VCL/Win32 applications do not require the VistaDB.Provider.dll for deployment.

Special benefit for ASP.NET developers: The VistaDB engine is always available to your applications, which is especially important for Web applications. ASP.NET developers can deploy VistaDB to any Web server that has the version 1.1 of the .NET Framework without having to contact the ISP for special permissions. That means you can build a fully featured ASP.NET database application that uses VistaDB, upload the application to your Web server and run it without any additional configuration.

.Net Support
VistaDB supports building WinForms and ASP.NET applications under .NET using C#, VB.NET, Delphi.NET and any other CLR-compliant language running on Windows. VistaDB includes both a managed ADO.NET Data Provider for SQL-based development and managed Direct Data Access objects for object-based development that provides high-speed, live-cursor data manipulation without the overhead of ADO.NET.

Win32 Support
To help developers make the transition from Win32 to .NET, VistaDB 3.0 includes native VCL components for Delphi 5,6,7 and C++Builder 5,6. The VistaDB VCL components include TVDBTable, TVDBQuery and TVDBDatabase. These components are tightly integrated into the Borland IDEs and are fully compatible with Borland and third party data aware controls. Full source code to these VCL components is included. COM objects are also included for use with VB6 and classic ASP.

Migrate Existing Databases to VistaDB
Getting your existing database on to VistaDB is very easy. The VistaDB Data Migration Wizard (DMW) is a utility that lets developers migrate their existing databases to VistaDB. Once a database is selected for migration, the wizard lets you select which tables, columns, indexes and relations to migrate. And you may optionally rename these items. Once the options are set, the wizard generates a new VistaDB database file (.vdb) and migrates (i.e. export/import) the existing data to the new database. DMW supports the following databases:

• Access (MDB)
• Advantage (ADT, ADM, ADI)
• APOLLO (DBF, SMT, NSX)
• Clipper (DBF, DBT, NTX)
• dBASE (DBF, DBT, MDX)
• DBISAM (DAT, IDX)
• FoxPro 2.6 (DBF, DBT, CDX, IDX)
• InterBase (BDE Edition of Migration Wizard)
• Oracle
• Paradox (BDE Edition of Migration Wizard)
• SQL Server (MDF)
• Visual FoxPro (DBC, DBF, FPT, CDX)

VistaDB Features

• 100% self-contained data engine VistaDB is 100% self-contained RDBMS. VistaDB does not require additional middleware to or data connectivity drivers such as Jet, BDE, ODBC or MDAC
• More robust than Jet/Access Robust multi-user support and solid network file sharing ensures that multiple users accessing the same database on a network will not corrupt the data, nor will users experience the locking issues that Jet/Access is notorious for
• 70x smaller than MSDE The VistaDB data engine is only 1MB in size and the ADO.NET Provider is only 100kb. VistaDB is actually 250x smaller than the full installation of SQL Server
• Lightning fast performance Using the Direct Data Access objects, VistaDB can traverse a 1 million record table in 23 seconds which is 43,478 records per second! The VistaDB ADO.NET Provider can insert 1,000 records into a database in a blazing 1.6 seconds. Test run on a P3-1Ghz with 1GB RAM 30GB NTFS Drive running Windows 2000 Pro
• XCOPY deployment XCOPY deployment makes deploying your ASP.NET and WinForms applications very easy. Full deployment of VistaDB is just over 1MB making VistaDB ideal for distributing your applications over the Internet. Deployment consists of copying 2 files to the target computer: VistaDB20.DLL (1MB) and the VistaDB.Proivder.DLL (100kb). Copy these two files to the same directory as your application. There is nothing to install and nothing to register on the target machine, which is ideal for ASP.NET developers
• Massive storage capacity Support for 16 Exabytes of storage allows you to store massive amounts of data in your VistaDB databases. Supports billions of rows per table, over 64,000 tables per database, 4GB of data per record (not including individual Varchar, Binary and Memo data, each of which can store 4GB per record), millions of columns per table and over 1,000 indexes per table
• Managed ADO.NET Provider The managed VistaDB ADO.NET Provider includes VistaDBDataAdapter, VistaDBCommand, VistaDBConnection and VistaDBDataReader objects to connect your applications with VistaDB databases. The VistaDB Data Provider is fully ADO.NET compliant and uses SQL to access and manipulate data.
• The VistaDB Provider is a native .NET Provider that works like any standard .NET Provider such as the SQL Provider provided by Microsoft. Data bound controls, such as the DataGrid are fully supported. The VistaDBDataAdapter features design-time wizards that allow you to visually connect to a database and generate Datasets
• Managed Direct Data Access objects (DDA) VistaDBDatabase and VistaDBTable .NET objects (written in C#) modelled after ADO.NET Dataset. These objects let you connect directly to the VistaDB data engine, giving you object-based, live cursors into your database for maximum performance and less overhead than ADO.NET
• Native VCL components A set of native VCL components (TVDBDatabase, TVDBTable, TVDBQuery, TVDBDirect) for Win32 development using Delphi and C++Builder lets developers build Win32 database applications. Fully compatible with all data aware controls
• SQL-92 compliant query processor that supports many data manipulation and data definition commands including Parameterized queries, nested SELECTs, SELECT (TOP, WHERE, JOIN, CASE, UNION, LIKE, CONTAINS, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, IF, AS ), INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, ALTER, CREATE, DROP, and more with 50+ V-SQL support functions such as Count(), Avg(), Max(), LastIdentity(), Lower(), Upper(), Left(), Right() etc. for detailed data manipulation
• Built for .NET VistaDB was built for .NET and supports .NET languages such as C# and VB.NET. This lets VistaDB take full advantage of the .NET framework and ensures the highest level of compatibility with your .NET applications
• WinForms and ASP.NET support VistaDB supports building both WinForms and ASP.NET database applications
• Crystal Reports is fully supported
• Data Builder Utility This visual utility allows you to create and manage all aspects of VistaDB databases, including interactive SQL with history tracking
• Data Migration Wizard This utility migrates data from various database sources to the VistaDB database format. Sources include:
  • Access (Jet engine)
  • Apollo
  • Clipper
  • dBASE IV
  • FoxPro
  • InterBase (BDE Edition)
  • Oracle
  • Paradox (BDE Edition)
  • SQL Server
  • Visual FoxPro
  • Xbase
  A BDE edition is available that supports dBASE and Paradox
• Encryption Two types of encryption are supported: Blowfish and DES. For ultimate security, VistaDB supports encrypting data and the database structure. A table can be marked for encryption and then the individual columns to be encrypted are specified. Selecting only those columns that need to be encrypted improves performance in tables that have many columns, since the engine does not have to decrypt unnecessary columns
• Rich data types Support for BLOB, Boolean, Character, Currency, Date, DateTime, Double, GUID, Int32, Int64, Memo, Picture and VarChar. VistaDB supports NULL values for all these data types. DateTimeStamp data types are supported via "Dynamic Default Values". Identity fields are supported (auto-increment with seed and step values)
• Full-Text Search (FTS) Designed to provide high-speed searching in the contents of Character, Memo, VarChar and BLOB column data. FTS is very useful for both large memo or VarChar data columns and for smaller Character type data fields too since it indexes individual words. For example, this allows high-speed searching in Character columns that store address information, allowing you to find part of a street name. When creating or restructuring a table, specify which columns are to be marked for Full Text Search and VistaDB will maintain a high-speed index for them. Subsequent searches for data in these columns is extremely fast. See Data Builder, under Data for a given table to see FTS in action
• Single and Multi-User access VistaDB 3.0 is a "file server" type database. VistaDB 3.0 supports single-user and multi-user access to database files
• Snapshot Isolation level Transaction Processing VistaDB implements an efficient next generation architecture to manage multiple nested transactions. The foundation of VistaDB's architecture is versioned transactions which is also called Snapshot isolation. With Snapshot isolation, VistaDB does not require row locks or page locks and does not perform lock escalation thereby eliminating deadlock problems during transaction processing. Each transaction (and nested transaction) receives its own snapshot view of the database when it starts. While in a transaction, modifications are isolated from all other transactions until the transaction is committed to the database. Rollbacks are effortless and will never jeopardize the integrity of a database. Snapshot isolation is used SQL Server 2005 Express
• SureCommit Unique to VistaDB, SureCommit ensures that a VistaDB database is updated with any committed transaction even if a catastrophic event, such as a power outage, occurs in the middle of the update. SureCommit resumes any incomplete updates the next time a database is accessed. SureCommit is not implemented in this release
• Row-level and Table-level locking VistaDB 3.0 provides full support for concurrency, row-level locking and table-level locking
• Primary Keys and Foreign Keys A Primary Key index is simply a list of columns that have been designated to make up the Primary Key for a table. Defining Primary Keys is straightforward. Select a column, or group of columns, in a given table that will produce a unique value within all the rows of your table
• Single-file apartment All data for a given database is stored in a single .VDB file. VistaDB databases (.VDB) use a single-file apartment structure that provides data integrity, effective transaction processing support and simplified application deployment
• Automatic Storage Recycling VistaDB automatically recycles rows that have been deleted. The space occupied by deleted tables, rows and all other database entities gets reclaimed and re-allocated
• Dynamic default values Use pre-defined functions to set default values for new records dynamically. Functions such as NOW() can be used to set DateTimeStamp values or time stamps dynamically for new records
• High-speed Indexes Developers are rewarded with speed when indexes are defined. Indexes must be used in order to truly benefit from VistaDB's data access speed. Without indexes, entire tables must be read and dynamically sorted and filtered to produce result sets. Indexes support multiple column definitions with optional Case Sensitivity, Descending and Unique index attributes. By default, indexes are not case sensitive
• Triggers Set up events or triggers to execute for table events. Triggers are attached to various events that occur in a given table. The table events that a trigger may be attached to are: RowInsert, RowDelete, RowUpdate. Each trigger may be further defined to be executed Before or After these events. You may access and update other tables and columns in a trigger script using V-Script
• Constraints Validate data entry. Constraints may be created for individual columns or groups of columns. The same V-Script used in Triggers is used to define Constraints
• Relationships Define relations between tables using Primary Keys and Foreign Keys. This allows the engine to perform cascading deletes automatically and ensures data integrity
• Full Referential Integrity Define how VistaDB manages cascading deletes and updates within the relationships gives your databases full referential integrity
• XML Import and Export Full support for high-speed importing and exporting of VistaDB data, including schema only, data only, or schema plus data. Importing and exporting to comma and space delimited text files is also supported
• Automatic data synchronization When accessing data in local and shared environments, committed changes to a database are automatically detected by all users. Since the DDA objects have live data cursors, applications using DDA benefit greatly from this synchronization
• In-memory databases and tables VistaDB supports creating and managing in-memory databases and tables as if they were physical files. In-memory tables may be created from existing physical structures, data may be loaded and saved back to physical tables
• Write-behind caching VistaDB's low-level write-behind caching occurs for row updates, deletes and insert operations to deliver improved data integrity while processing complex actions that require access to several tables and/or indexes simultaneously
• International support Managed at the database level, VistaDB supports multiple collation settings per individual indexes. This per-index collation setting prevents indexes from being corrupted in a shared international user environment where data is accessed by Windows users that run different locales

VistaDB 3.0 Editions

• VistaDB 3.0 data engine with built-in SQL-92 query processor (400KB footprint)
• Data Builder Utility for creating and managing databases
• Data Migration Wizard for migrating databases to VistaDB
• Demo and samples with source code
• Help files

VistaDB .NET Edition is designed for .NET developers building ASP.NET and WinForms applications using .NET 1.1 and 2.0. Includes ADO.NET Provider with source, supports Visual Studio .NET 2003 and 2005, Delphi 2005, SharpDevelop 1.0 and more.

VistaDB COM Edition is designed for Visual Basic and classic ASP developers building Win32 and ASP applications. Includes Win32 COM objects. Supports VB6 and classic ASP 3.

VistaDB VCL Edition is designed for Borland Delphi and C++Builder developers building Win32-based VCL applications. Includes VCL components with source. Supports Delphi 5,6,7,2005 and C++Builder 5,6.

VistaDB Suite includes all VistaDB products.

VistaDB Personal Edition is for personal or academic use only. Commercial or government use is not permitted. VistaDB Personal Edition Suite includes all VistaDB products, but does not include source code.

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