Universal Data Access Technology Blog

DataSpaces Bulletin: December issue now online!

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:09:00 GMT

The highly anticipated December 2008 issue of the DataSpaces Bulletin is now available!

This month's DataSpaces contains material of interest to the Virtuoso developer and UDA user community alike —

Introduction to Virtuoso Universal Server (Cloud Edition).
Links to Virtuoso and Linked Data mailing lists.
UDA license management tips and tricks.

IBM Flexes XML Muscle

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 17:19:09 GMT

Here is another article titled "IBM Flexes XML Muscle" that covers the same general theme: IBM's appreciation of Unified Storage.

As indicated in an earlier post: IBM is clearly validating what we have done with Virtuoso (as was the case initially with their Virtual / Federated DBMS initiative ala DB2 Integrator). Here is an excerpt from today's eWeek article supporting this position:

To achieve maximum XML performance, bolstered indexing attributes in the technology will enable advanced search functions and a higher degree of filtering. IBM is also adding support for XPath and XQuery data models. This will allow users to create views that involve SQL and XQuery by sending the protocol through DB2's query optimizer for a unified query plan.

Read on..

Virtuoso has been doing this since 2000; unfortunately a lot of

Preventable SQL DBMS Vulnerabilities

Tue, 18 May 2004 00:41:39 GMT

Here are some excerpts (inlined) with my comments (outlined)

Creating RSS Using SQLX

Tue, 11 Nov 2003 23:33:50 GMT

Here is a practical example of how to create RSS on the fly from SQL data sources leveraging Virtuoso 3.2's SQLX implementation.

This is further illuminates the content of my earlier post on this subject.

XML Development Hindered by Lack of Conformity to Data Connectivity Standards ?

Tue, 11 Nov 2003 23:14:55 GMT

I've just read an

HOWTO: Apache-PHP-ODBC on Mac OS X

Fri, 24 Oct 2003 15:39:28 GMT

There is a new HOWTO document that addresses an area of frequent confusion on Mac OS X, which is how do you build PHP with an ODBC data access layer binding ( iODBC variant) using Mac OS X Frameworks as opposed to Darwin Shared Libraries.

A Virtuoso of a Server

Thu, 23 Oct 2003 21:58:31 GMT

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MARK GIBBS ON WEB APPLICATIONS

Today's focus: A Virtuoso of a server

By Mark Gibbs

One of the bigger drags of Web applications development is that building a system of even modest complexity is a lot like herding cats - you need a database, an applications server, an XML engine, etc., etc. And as they all come from different vendors you are faced with solving the constellation of integration issues that inevitably arise.

If you are lucky, your integration results in a smoothly functioning system. If not, you have a lot of spare parts flying in loose formation with the risk of a crash and burn at any moment.

An alternative is to look for all of these features and services in a single package but you'll find few choices in this arena.

One that is available and looks very promising is OpenLink's Virtuoso (see links below).

Virtuoso is described as a cross platform (runs on Windows, all Unix flavors, Linux, and Mac OS X) universal server that provides databases, XML services, a Web application server and supporting services all in a single package.

OpenLink's list of supported standards is impressive and includes .Net, Mono, J2EE, XML Web Services (Simple Object Application Protocol, Web Services Description Language, WS-Security, Universal Description, Discovery and Integration), XML, XPath, XQuery, XSL-T, WebDav, HTTP, SMTP, LDAP, POP3, SQL-92, ODBC, JDBC and OLE-DB.

Virtuoso provides an HTTP-compliant Web Server; native XML document creation, storage and management; a Web services platform for creation, hosting and consumption of Web services; content replication and synchronization services; free text index server, mail delivery and storage and an NNTP server.

Another interesting feature is that with Virtuoso you can create Web services from existing SQL Stored Procedures, Java classes,

C++ classes, and 'C' functions as well as create dynamic XML

documents from ODBC and JDBC data sources.

This is an enormous product and implies a serious commitment on the part of adopters due to its scope and range of services.

Virtuoso is enormous by virtue of its architectural ambitions, but actual disk requirements are

Universal Data Access and Security

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 15:39:02 GMT

There is an old adage that states, "there are no free lunches".

This cannot be more true than in the case of universal data access (ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, and OLE-DB) and security. There is a recently published article on our web site that sheds light on how we have engineered our data access technology to enable our customers enjoy secure and high-performance database connectivity when utilizing any of our Multi-Tier Database Connectivity drivers.

It is no secret that technologies such as ODBC, and to a fair degree JDBC, have generated a good share of undeserved criticism over the years in relation to their fundamental value propositions (providing transparent access from compliant applications to backend databases via seperation of application and database connectivity APIs), and that one of the unfortunate offshoots of this negative press is the contradictory perception that these components are valueless (i.e. they are worth $0.00). Thus, the emergence of the "free is good enough" syndrome which is predicated on the misconception that data access drivers (data source connectivity API implementations) simply provide connectivity and that's it.

If you want to open up your organization (whatever your variation internal, external, internet, extranet, intranet etc.) for the worst of all worlds (deliberate or inadvertent attacks on your data) the FREE is GOOD. Otherwise, when dealing with data access drivers you have to bear the following in mind (covered in detail in the data access security article):

Can I control