Easysoft JDBC-Access Gateway User's Guide - Glossary

Terms and definitions

Application Programmer Interface

    Stands for API, a collection of programming routines and functions that an application can use to access low-level machine services.

Authorization code

You must have an authorization code for the Easysoft product you wish to license in order to obtain a purchased license. When you purchase a product your authorization code is emailed to you. You do not need an authorization code to obtain a trial license.

Column

    A column defines the data type, size, and other attributes of one field of a row (record) of data. All columns taken as a set define a row (record) in the database. An individual column contains data related in type and purpose throughout the table; that is, a column's definition does not change from row to row.

Data type

    An attribute that specifies what type of information can be stored in a column, parameter, or variable. The Jet database engine has 13 primary data types and several synonyms recognised for these data types.

Exclusive

    A type of access that helps protect data in a database shared over a network. When you open a database in exclusive mode, you prevent others from opening the database.

License key

    A string that is provided by Easysoft for use in the licensing process.

Java

    An object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. Java is an interpreted language that runs on any platform for which the interpreter, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), is available.

Jet

    Stands for Joint Engine Technology, a database engine technology used in various Microsoft products, including Microsoft Access. Since Windows 2000, the Jet database engine has shipped with Windows.

Jet database

    A database created with the Jet database engine. The file name extension for a Jet database is .mdb.

JDBC

    JDBC is a Java API that allows Java to access relational databases (and other tabular data, such as spreadsheets and flat files). The JDBC API specifies a set of Java classes that represent database connections, Structured Query Language (SQL) queries and their result sets, and other objects associated with accessing databases.

JDBC driver

    Software that implements the JDBC API, enabling Java to interact with a database.

    There are four types of JDBC drivers, called Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4. Type 1 and Type 2 drivers use native libraries and therefore are not pure Java.

    A Type 1 JDBC driver uses a native library with a common interface. The native library is not database specific therefore.

    A Type 2 JDBC driver accesses a database-specific driver through a native library.

    A Type 3 JDBC driver is pure Java and has a client/server architecture.

    A Type 4 JDBC driver is pure Java and communicates directly with the database.

JDK

    Stands for Java Developer's Kit, the collection of Java classes, runtime, compiler, debugger, and usually source code for a version of Java that makes up a Java development environment for writing Java applets and applications.

JNI

    Stands for Java Native Interface, a programming interface that lets Java code use code and code libraries written in other languages, such as C and C++.

JRE

    Stands for Java Runtime Environment (JRE), the Java virtual machine (JVM), runtime class libraries, and Java application launcher that are necessary to run programs written in the Java programming language.

JVM

    Stands for Java virtual machine, the Java interpreter that converts the compiled Java bytecode into the machine language of the platform and runs it.

ODBC

    Stands for Open Database Connectivity, an API that enables applications to access data in databases that use Structured Query Language (SQL) as a data access standard.

ODBC driver

    Software that implements the functions in the ODBC API. Each driver is specific to a particular database type. For example, Microsoft produce an ODBC driver for MDB format Access databases. This ODBC driver, which accesses the database through a seperate database engine called Jet, processes ODBC calls and passes SQL statements to the Jet engine for processing.

Primitive

    In programming, a fundamental element in a language.

Query

    To extract data from a database and present it for use.

Read-only

    A type of access to data whereby information can be retrieved but not modified.

Row

    A set of related columns or fields used to hold data. A row is synonymous with a record in the Jet database engine. A table is composed of zero or more rows of data.

SQL

    Stands for Structured Query Language , a language used to query, update, and manage relational databases. SQL has the following components:

Synonym

    An alternative label for a Jet SQL data type. For example, the MONEY data type has a synonym named CURRENCY.

Type

    In programming, the nature of a variable. For example, integer, text character, or floating-point number.

Unicode

    A 16-bit character encoding standard developed by the Unicode Consortium between 1988 and 1991. By using 2 bytes to represent each character, Unicode enables almost all the written languages of the world to be represented using a single character set.