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I'm using Squeak4.1. How does it handle Database connections? Does it provides something similar to ODBC/ADO in .NET or the J2EE stuff?
Which packages deal with database operations?
Can anybody give me some hints?
Few links that might be of use to you:
Squeak Smalltalk and Databases
SqueakDBX
Persistence in Seaside (Also see Chapter 8 in the Seaside tutorial)
Magma
Databases and Persistence
Squeak PostreSQL
If you want something that's truly an analog to ODBC/JDBC or ADO.NET, then the closest analog would be SqueakDBX, a generic, FFI-based connector to a wide variety of databases. While it uses FFI, the developers have gone to great lengths to ensure that long operations do not block the VM. While I can't honestly say I've used it in production, reviews have been positive, it supports a very wide variety of databases (MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SQLite3, and more), and it's being actively developed, so it's probably a good bet.
Historically, the downside of SqueakDBX is that you didn't get GLORP, the major ORM used in the Smalltalk world these days. The good news is that's no longer true: SqueakDBX now has GlorpDBX, which brings GLORP to SqueakDBX. Drivers are currently available for PostgreSQL, MS SQL, and MySQL, among others. If you need to connect to a traditional database, this is probably your best bet.
Benjamin: We have already started to modify Glorp, we call it GlorpDBX and now Glorp works with a generic database driver, included a GlorpSqueakDBX driver. Right now we have GlorpDBX working with SqueakDBX for Postgres, MSSQL and Oracle.
Cheers
You might not need to. If your smalltalk code runs in Gemstone, there is no need to worry about database connections and queries before you have a lot of data/a lot of transactions.
And if the number of objects is very small, SandstoneDB is much easier to use. On the Persistence in Seaside page you can find the links.
I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of some good resources (web sites, technical articles/journals, books, etc.) related to database monitoring/performance?
I am looking to write a paper that explores what kinds of statistics are useful in database monitoring, and to whom they are useful for.
So, I figured I'd ask the experts ...
(In my research, I will be focusing mostly on a PostgreSQL database, but I am looking to gather resources on many different databases).
Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!
ConSol-plugins are the de-facto standard when it comes to database monitoring with Nagios:
Oracle
MySQL
MS SQL Server
DB2
Not sure about PostgreSQL, but I've found www.sql-server-performance.com to be a wonderful resource on (MS SQL Server) database tuning.
Here's a page on that site that lists links to various performance-related topics.
http://www.sql-server-performance.com/tips/all_main.aspx
You may be able to apply some of the practices discussed here to PostgreSQL.
I don't think this is a question with a proper answer because your question tries to cover entire database programming domain in one question.
In most cases the database providers release a good set of tools for monitoring analysis purposes. Example : Oracle. You may use them as well.
And a simple google search gave me a hundreds of good resources that seems to be comply with your question.
Example
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If someone knew little about databases and wanted to learn about them from scratch, which database would you recommend learning with and why?
MySQL seems ubiquitous, but are there others that are more modern that have learned lessons from the past, or others that are simply nicer or more logical to work with?
Universal compatibility/libraries is not a big concern, unless it is something truly obscure. Mac (Unix) compatibility is a must.
If you just want to be learning the SQL language, and not database administration, I would recommend working with SQLite. If you're on a Mac, it should already be installed. It is a much simpler system than most RDBMSes; there is no server to set up, and client to connect to the server. There are no directories of cryptic files, or anything of the sort. To get started, you can just type:
sqlite3 mydatabase.db
And start working with it. It's so much lighter weight and easier to set up and use than the other database systems that I think it's a good choice for a beginner.
Now, SQLite is a fairly small and lightweight language. If you need be getting into any kind of really complex queries and data mining, I would recommend PostgreSQL. It has a fairly advanced query optimizer, and a pretty long list of SQL features.
And if you want to learn a database as something to use for back-end storage for web programming or something of the sort, MySQL is what I'd choose. It's ubiquitous, supported by almost any web host, and it's pretty fast for very simple queries and updates, which is generally what you need for a web system. It has some real gotchas to avoid when setting it up; you have to choose between several different storage engines, and it can take a lot of work to convince it to actually work with Unicode data. But it's good to learn mostly for its ubiquity.
From what I've seen (at least on the web), MySQL and PostgreSQL are the most ubiquitous free database systems. If you're considering learning one of them, check this comparison out.
You may also want to consider learning SQLite, a "self-contained, embeddable, zero-configuration SQL database engine." It's really easy to get up and going, stored in a single file, and as its description says, has no complicated configuration. SQLite has proved enormously popular as a persistent data store for local apps on the desktop/iPhone. If you're going down this route on a Mac/iPhone, you may also want to check out Core Data, which is an abstraction layer Apple developed on top of SQLite(but can work with pretty much any DB), to simplify working with a database. As a bonus, Core Data includes a nice GUI for forming relationships and entities. You can check out this tutorial for more information.
If you really, truly, want to "learn from scratch", then theory is the first thing to learn. And that means : NOT products, not any. Not DB2, not MySQL, not oracle, not any-of-them.
Hugh Darwen has a freely available e-book entitled "An Introduction to Relational Database Theory". The material is quite "accessible" and quite unlike most other theory textbooks. It's also the accompanying textbook for his university course on database technology.
Chris Date has several books, of which "Introduction to database systems" is the most comprehensive, also the standard textbook in the field, but maybe a little too abstract for some.
If you think that all you need is "just to know a product" and that you can do equally well "without all that theory", then in that case, please disregard this response, because the wording of your question is dishonest.
Sad thing about databases is that each and every one works bit differently. I would most likely pick MySQL first and play with it a bit. Then get PostgreSQL and do the same.
If you need to use databases in corporate environment then I would aim to test also Oracle and SQL Server which both have express versions that can be installed free for yourself.
http://www.microsoft.com/express/sql/download/
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/index.html
At start all databases are more or less confusing but I would pick MySQL as first because it can do most of the basic functionalities and has a lot of help available.
I'd go with mysql. It's easy to setup, easy to mess around with via with mysql client, and it's well documented. If you're just starting out, you probably won't need most of the features offered by other databases, like stored procedures and the like.
First of all, MySQL is both ubiquitous and modern.
ANSI SQL is more or less the same in all RDBMs, so you can learn any of them and you'll be good.
Once you've mastered ANSI SQL, then all you've got left is the localized solutions for each one of them, which won't be portable to other systems - and so, totally discouraged to use, unless they simplify your tasks in a way justifying it.
MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite - pick one. PostgreSQL is more like Oracle, and in my opinion a bit more mature. It's had stored procedures, triggers, and referential integrity longer than MySQL has. I'll admit that I have both installed, but I use MySQL more often because it's quick and easy.
But do be aware that non-SQL alternatives are out there and growing in importance. BigTable, object databases like db4o, are worth being aware of. "No SQL" is out there.
If you are just getting your feet wet, MYSQL is a great one to start with. Easy install on any platform, great community support and lots of free tools to work with (SQLYog is a favorite of mine).
I agree that theory is very important. Depending on how you learn best, digging in and tinkering may be the thing to do before you try to absorb 40 years of thought on relational systems.
Codd and Date are legends in the field and can help you understand the broader points of relational theory, but are hard to absorb before you have context for the topic.
If you are looking for more pragmatic/immediate guidance, I'd suggest a book like "Databases for Mere Mortals" and anything written by Joe Celko.
Once you get comfortable with the basics, there are lots of other platforms to explore as well. As mentioned above, SQLLite and PostGres are two other great choices for the Mac OS.
If you want to learn SQL : the best way is to choose database who implement more features of the SQL standard. So I would recommand Firebird or PostgreSQL
I might be "sidetracking" a bit with this answer, but I think we're in the same situation!
Check out the "The Manga Guide to Databases"! I haven't read it myself yet, but it's on the way in the mail as we speak! I've heard good things about it from friends and colleges, and it's got some good reviews as well. Albeit a bit "controversial," it's supposed to be a fun and surprisingly in-depth introduction to fundamental techniques and principles!
Alex wrote: "Reading a textbook without incrementally testing your knowledge on an actual database is not going to produce good results for the majority of people."
My book and my university course both use Dave Vooorhis's Rel for that very purpose.
Hugh
A database in the cloud: Amazon EC2, Google App Engine or Microsoft Azure
Sorry for the dumb question as I'm a newbie. If I wanted to build a commercial Windows application (one I'll sell for $), what are my options in terms of an embedded datastore? Would I use MSDE? Is this something that I'd bundle with my app? Are there other options (both from MS as well as other vendors)? Do you have to pay a fee to the datastore vendor for each copy of their product that you include with each copy of your application that you sell?
Thanks.
One of the great choices for this is SQLite. It's completely public domain, so you can use it for any purpose whatsoever (including commercial software sold for profit) without any worry about licensing. There are bindings available for many different platforms and languages.
How embedded does your data need to be? If it's in-process then SQL Server Compact Edition would be a good option.
Following-on to #Matt's answer, if it does not need to be in-memory, but does need a small footprint and a server dedicated to your application, then you should consider SQL Server Express Edition, which is free.
Firebird can be a good choice too.
It have more features than SQLite
I am quite happy to code out tables by hand when making a database but it's not the easiest way to convey information about a database to someone else, especially someone that's not so comfortable coding the tables via a script and would instead use something such at phpMyAdmin.
Is there thus a free program (for me to use it it'll have to work on a Mac but feel free to suggest PC apps for others with the same Q) or script (preferably in PHP or Python) that allows you to design database structure and will then output either a basic diagram or the code as chosen by the user?
Well on the PC you can use MS Visio to produce a DB Entity diagram.
It will even reverse engineer one from an existing Database.
A pain to set-up the first time you use it, but quite handy thereafter.
Open System Architect has some potential. Its very similar to Visio.
I'm a big fan of ARGO UML from Tigris.org. Draws nice pictures using standard UML notation. It does some code generation, but mostly Java classes, which isn't SQL DDL, so that may not be close enough to what you want to do.
You can look at the Data Modeling Tools list and see if anything there is better than Argo UML. Many of the items on this list are free or cheap.
Also, if you're using Eclipse or NetBeans, there are many design plug-ins, some of which may have the features you're looking for.
I use the aptly named Database Design Tool. It's extremely simple and unfortunatly it's developed any more, however. It's the best tool I've come across that is free and at the end of designing your tables, it generates the T-SQL for you. It's also language independent.
You could try out MySQL Workbench which originates in the open source dbdesigner. There's a free community edition available. You can design the database via er-diagrams or reverse engineer an existing database.
MySQL Workbench is the best DB design tool that I've tried
I'm currently checking out SQL Power Architect (both w/ PostgreSQL and Mysql - but it also supports other vendors) and it definitely seems promising. Does both forward and backward SQL engineering. The Community Edition is open source and cross platform (Java). You can check it out yourself: http://code.google.com/p/power-architect/
When strictly dealing w/ MySQL so far I've otherwise used MySQL Workbench, http://wb.mysql.com/ which performed reliably.
I always have enjoyed Eclipse. There are a few plugins for it that look like they will do what you want.
SchemaBank (a web-based SaaS vendor) can turn your ER design into SQL statements for MySQL and PG. Can't do graphics export yet though. The nice thing is you don't need to install anything ('cos its browser-based) and it costs virtually nothing. You should be able to share your design to other people too.
SQLDeveloper from Oracle can work with Oracle and MySQL database.
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/020861