| Related
products and tools |
ActiveX
Pack1
Core of the AXPack1 family - SQLite COM needs it. About 30
components for CE and desktop.
NetStreams
Networking addition to ActiveX Pack1 family.
Active Local Pages
Write desktop applications in ASP and CGI. (the pack is also included
with it).
AXGate
Script any ActiveX in Pocket IE
CE App manager Inovker
You may need this for your Pocket PC installations.
Script service
If you want to build Windows NT/XP service in script.
NDL
newObjects Development Library - combined documentation.
ASP Compiler
Compile scripts in DLL through VB or/and Create active projects to
generate static content. Uses ActiveX Pack1 as run-time library. |
Fully functional in-process SQL database engine
SQLite COM (or precisely SQLite2 COM) is a zero-configuration,
in-process, SQL database engine which is implemented in a single DLL. It
is a member of the newObjects ActiveX Pack1 Family and depends on the
AXPack1 core DLL only.
The SQLite COM is based on the source code of the version 2.8.15 of the
popular SQLite database engine (see www.sqlite.org
). However SQLite COM contains not only the engine but also the COM
interface to it and set of added features making it more convenient for
Windows environments.
The key features in short
Because SQLite COM is based on a public domain source code the features
specific to SQLite COM (not inherited from the SQLite original source
code) are marked in the list below.
- The databases are single file - all tables, views,
triggers and other DB objects are kept in a single file.
- No static configuration is needed. The application
just opens a database, optionally adjusts the behavior of the
interface and executes SQL queries over the opened database.
- Fairly good level of SQL92 support. Support for
triggers, views, indices.
- Autorun ready. (SQLite COM specific) The library is
compatible with the ALP autorun specification - can be used on-the-fly
not without need of registration with the system.
- Common database file format on all the platforms. No
matter where your application works - on a Pocket PC, on a desktop or
on a smartphone the database file has the same format and can be
copied without conversion between the platforms and used
immediately.
- Transactions support. While nested transactions are
not supported the one-level transactions can pack unlimited number of
SQL statements.
- Faster than most of the other embedded databases.
- Active scripting compatible DB interface. (SQLite COM
specific)
- Independent of ADO, Jet, OLEDB. No compatibility and
version issues if the both DLL are with your application nothing else
is needed.
- OLE Date/time types internal support. (SQLite COM
specific) A set of DB functions provides text-to-date and reverse
conversions, date based calculation and comparison.
- UTF-8 internal format. All the national characters are
preserved in the database and there is no need to specify code pages!
- Supports: Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT4/2k/XP/2k3 and later,
Windows CE 3.0/CE.NET 4.0 and later including Pocket PC and
Smartphone.
The database interface
Although most developers are used to recordsets SQLite COM deviates
from that popular practice. The results are unexpectedly
convenient! Combined usage with Sprintf/SCprintf and SAprintf
from the StringUtilities object from AXPack1 core the simple SQLite COM
database interface allows all the database operations to be implemented
in 3 to 4 times less code with drastically reduced memory and temporary
file usage (compared to the recordset based interfaces).
The SQLite COM interface resembles features from recordsets and ADO's
GetRows method in a fashion that preserves the most useful features, but
eliminates the need of additional operations and simplifies the access
to the database fields. It is simple and easy to learn. See the
illustration of SQLite COM usage.
Type-less but aware of the field types
SQLite is by default type-less database. This implies, for instance,
that each field can be treated as MEMO and as short text field as
appropriate. This is almost unique among the databases and may look
strange to those who meet it for the first time. However it takes
nothing from the functionality and yet provides some otherwise
impossible opportunities. This means that the application may or may not
obey field size limitations depending on what is more convenient for it.
On the other hand SQLite COM is type aware. The COM interface
can be adjusted through a few simple properties to perform automatic
type conversions when the data is fetched from the database and thus
serve the application with ready-to-use values converted to the types
implied by the field definitions and the SQL expressions. As the SQLite
DB engine is not interested in the details each application can define
its own field type names and their meaning. This is particularly useful
when porting SQL from another database engine - where porting to another
database engine may require re-definition and conversion of the database
structure SQLite COM can be configured at run-time to resemble the types
of the another database engine.
Can it be used on servers?
Yes, of course! It can be employed on a WEB server or you can even
build a small database server with TCP/IP connectivity using the
NetStreams member of the AXPack1 family in a few hours. Still the SQLite
COM is primarily designed to serve as embedded database and it is not a
replacement for a database server that services thousands of concurrent
clients, but for small offices and databases not used too intensively it
can do fairly good job for zero price!
Licensing
As like the entire newObjects ActiveX Pack1 Family SQLite COM is freeware.
Support is offered for all the customers who have a development oriented
license for one or more of our products that include the ActiveX Pack1
family as run-time library.
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