RDBMS

Question

Level 1

1 points

RDBMS

I need the facilities provided by an RDBMS for an app that I am currently specifying that goes way beyond what SQLite can provide and wonder if anyone has a suggestion.

What I need is ODBC connectivity and a framework for Objective-C. It really needs to be a well tested interface as I do not have the time to work through bugs and all. It needs to be comprehensive and support all the standard SQL statements.

I have had a cursory look at some of the obvious candidates like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle and cannot come to any conclusion apart from the fact that such support is very sparse and documentation even poorer.

If I could narrow down the choice to a well supported database (meaning asurred support and updates for years and versions ahead) I would be prepared to work with the native interface in the db such as PostgreSQL's libpq. But all the info I can get seems to indicate support for Objective-C is quite sporadic and not of high quality such as very sparse documentation.

I would expect better support with Oracle but it seems the latest version supported is 10.2 whereas their latest release is 11.2 and info on their support for ODBC on OS-X or Objective-C frameworks is probably buried away so deeply in their docs that I can't find the info. It may be that there is no support, but I cannot seem to find any references to these. I probably will not need version 11, but I do need ODBC or good support at the native library level for Objective-C.

I would appreciate some pointers from anyone with experience with this. Thank you.

Stephen

iMac Intel, Mac OS X (10.7.2), iMac (late 2010) Core i7 16GB RAM

Posted on Nov 6, 2011 10:17 PM

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Answer 1

sptrakesh

Level 4

1,785 points

Nov 7, 2011 3:12 AM in response to StephenNg

Since you say you are willing to work with the native interface such as libpq, why are you looking at ODBC? All of the above DB's provide very robust C API's that have been heavily used and consequently tested by people for years.

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

56,710 points

Nov 7, 2011 9:34 AM in response to StephenNg

I think you should specify what you are trying to accomplish at a higher level. Oracle and MySQL are enterprise-level databases. You don't put them into an app. You would write your app to support your client's database. The 'S' in SQL stands for structured, not standard.

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Answer 3

StephenNg Author

Level 1

1 points

Nov 7, 2011 9:37 PM in response to etresoft

sptrakesh, etresoft,

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply. The reasons why I am looking at a well supported RDBMS is simple. Firstly, I understand the relational model better than any other and I do not have the time to learn something new as it is unproductive and I do have time constraints. Secondly, I am dealing with an application that could easily churn out a couple hundred thousand transactions or more a year per client. I cannot use a less robust system with poor admin facilites. Also, it is more likely that I can find a db administrator for MySQL, Oracle or PostgreSQL.

Yes! I am willing to use a lower level interface as long as there is a well maintained and supported objective-c framework. Everything I have looked at so far does not meet these requirments.

It seems that I may be expecting too much. Nothing I have seen so far is well supported for OS-X. Some have not even been ported and certified for Lion. Perhaps I just cannot locate the information, which is why I thought I would ask all you experts. It is a very poor state of affairs don't you think?

JDBC seems better suported, though I think Apple have stopped working on Java. This is besides the point, I want a product that is Mac Cocoa/Appkit based and not some other clunky UI and API.

Stephen

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Answer 4

sptrakesh

Level 4

1,785 points

Nov 8, 2011 5:20 AM in response to StephenNg

I will just repeat my earlier statement. Forget about objective-c frameworks if you want a very robust and well supported API. The native C libraries or ODBC libraries provided by the vendors are going to be much more robust and well tested than any objective-c framework you will find. Keep in mind that OS X is not a player in the enterprise marketplace, and objective-c still remains one of the least popular and used languages.

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Answer 5

etresoft

Level 9

56,710 points

Nov 8, 2011 6:57 AM in response to StephenNg

And I will just repeat my earlier question. What do you want to do? Precisely. Specifically. I still don't even know if you are trying to build an iPhone app or a Mac app.

A couple of hundred thousand transactions a year per client puts you into the range of very small scale databases. SQLite is relational and more than powerful enough for that. Oracle is for when you need a couple hundred thousand transactions per minute. But, at a fundamental level, Oracle and MySQL are client/server technologies. To handle even one "client", you must have a server. Where are you going to get that? How are you going to deliver the data to the client? Native database protocols are usually not going to be feasible over the internet. The best idea is to set up a web-based interface with a database back-end. Any big hosting provider such as Dreamhost can set you up with that. But since you are using a web interface (and you really, really should), you don't need to worry about any client-side database libraries. With modern scripting software on the web server side, you don't have to worry about the specific databases there either.

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Answer 6

Nov 10, 2011 3:56 PM in response to StephenNg

If you haven't already then check out FrontBase RDBMS (www.frontbase.com). This has an Obj-C client framework (FBAccess) and ODBC driver for OSX and is very actively maintained with regards to the Mac. It is also SQL-92 compliant.

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Answer 7

StephenNg Author

Level 1

1 points

Nov 10, 2011 8:31 PM in response to crichardson71

That was a very constructive answer. I will check FrontBase out. Thanks.🙂

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