Applibase Server Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Applibase Server?
   Applibase Server is an Enterprise Information Integration (EII) server, designed to bring the power of web services mashups and other new  technologies to address data integration needs in the enterprise.  Applibase Server makes it easy to collect, manage and use real-time, integrated information from a diverse set of data sources.  Applibase Server uses a loose-coupled Java distributed database designed for sharing relational (SQL) and other data across web applications.  
   
   
2. Why would I want to use Applibase Server?
   Applibase Server is aimed at bringing together data from disparate sources and enabling integrated applications built around integrated queries and views of this data.  Such integration enables new ways for enterprises to create new dashboards, reports and integrated applications for end-to-end business views.  Combining data from multiple databases, applications, files and other repositories allows enterprises greater visibility into different business functions, and helps with decision support, business intelligence, and improving operational efficiency, customer service, etc.
   
   
3. How does this compare with other data integration efforts?
   Applibase Server makes it easier to address the needs of enterprise information integration using new enterprise mashup techologies, including AJAX and web services.  And Applibase Server uses a distributed database technology to more easly create materialized views and distributed queries across integration servers, and allow enterprises to create operational data stores used by multiple applications across the enterprise. 
   
   
4. What are Enterprise Mashups?
   Enterprise mashups are integrated business applications that combine data from two or more data sources, including enterprise data sources such as web services, and possibly external web services.  The nature of mashups is to provide an quick return on investment using high-productivity tools and techniques.  These include AJAX, browser-based tools, and reusing existing web services and web components.
   
   
5. What is different about database distribution in Applibase Server?
   Applibase Server is focused on data distribution across diverse sources, including across administrative boundaries on the web.   To achieve that it supports a loose-coupled messaging model for data exchange, so sites do not need much co-ordination.  And it offers the ability to address remote database objects directly in SQL and application code with URL identifiers, e.g. every remote SQL table has a URL. It supports anonymous and authenticated access, with built-in usage control to prevent remote queries from consuming too many resources.   These and other features make Applibase Server more suited to sharing data over the web, so shared data is available directly and easily in the database.  The other side of the coin is that it is not designed for distributed applications where a high level of synchronization is needed.
   
   
6. What is the development status of Applibase Server?
   Applibase Server is at a pre-beta stage, and will not be in full release for a few months.  It is being made available for early feedback and to give some users a chance to influence the first release.  Applibase Server is still under development, and functionality continues to be added on a daily basis.  So users should expect some churn in the functionality, which we do try to minimize.  A lot of the functionality required by applications is stable, and Applibase Server is actively being field tested with large databases, processing hundreds of thousands of updates per hour on a sustained basis.  However, many aspects will continue to evolve rapidly.  Documentation is not complete, and many features are not fully documented. In addition, a number of the advanced features have been developed but have not been fully tested, or are difficult to use and administer. 
   

1. Is Applibase Server a single product?
   Applibase Server will be offered in a Community Edition and an Enterprise Edition. 
   
   
2. Is Applibase Server a free product?
   The Applibase Server Community Edition is an open-source product that is completely free to use and redistribute.  An enterprise edition of the product  will be offered shortly, and will not be free for commercial use.
   
   
3. Does Applibase Server require a license to redistribute with other products or services?
   The Applibase Server server (Community Edition) and client are free for use and redistribution.  The Applibase Server Enterprise Edition will require a license to use and redistribute for commercial purposes.
   
   
4. Is Applibase Server source code available?
   Source code for Applibase Server Community Edition, including AppliBuilder are available here.
   
   
5. Is Applibase Server support available?
   Applibase Server support will be available for purchase when the product is released.  During this pre-release period, Applibase will provide technical support to all users on a best-effort basis, but cannot provide any assurances on support.  And we will continue to support all users on a best-effort basis.
   

1. Does Applibase Server include a web application framework?
   Applibase Server includes a full version of Apache Tomcat 5.5 which provides a complete web application framework.  In addition, the Velocity Java-based template engine is included with the Applibase Server distribution.  The Tomcat server can also be used with an Apache web server as the front end if desired.
   
   
2. Does Applibase Server support other web application frameworks?
   The Applibase Server server can be used with other web frameworks.  However, depending on the specific framework, some of the functionality may require changes in the Applibase Server software.  Explicit support for other frameworks will be added in future.
   
   
3. Does Applibase Server support J2EE applications?
   Applibase Server supports J2EE applications, which can use Applibase Server as the application database.  However, only very limited testing and use of Applibase Server with J2EE has been done so far.  Applibase Server is currently more suited to simpler data-driven J2SE web applications that use Tomcat as the application server.
   
   
4. What level of JDBC support does Applibase Server provide?
   Applibase Server includes a good level of support for JDBC 3.0. While JDBC support is not 100% complete, most applications will find the level of support sufficient for their needs.
   
   
5. What level of SQL support does Applibase Server provide?
   Applibase Server provides complete SQL 92 entry-level support, including a good portion of the required support for the transitional and intermediate levels.  This level is more than adequate for most SQL applications.  However, one word of caution is that support for a query does not necessarily translate to good performance for a query.  Applibase Server optimizes many frequently used user queries, but other queries are not optimized.  Hence, it is often important to test and try variations of queries for good performance with Applibase Server.
   
   
6. Does Applibase Server support web services?
   Applibase Server provides Web services SOAP and REST support.
   
   
7. Does Applibase Server provide REST APIs to access data?
   Applibase Server provides REST API support for executing any SQL query in the database and returning results in XML.  Applibase Server include a REST API web application with source code to help developers put together APIs for specific needs.
   
   
8. Does Applibase Server support scripting?
   Applibase Server includes the Jython distribution and allows scripting with Jython of the User and Admin APIs, as well as allows stored procedures in Jython.  It also enables server-side Javascript using Mozilla server Javascript.
   
   
9.  How does Applibase Server authenticate remote database users?
   Applibase Server allows user-level or server-level access between servers.  Server-level access permits any authenticated user on one server to access another server.  Authentication in both cases uses password hashes sent over the network for authentication.  The password has to be separately and identically configured at both ends.
   
   
10.  How does Applibase Server prevent remote queries from choking my server database?
    Applibase Server provides usage control in the database to prevent any remote user queries from overusing resources and choking a server.
    
    
    

1.  What OS platforms does Applibase Server support?
   Applibase Server is a Java application and should work on OS platforms supporting J2SE 1.4.2 or later.  However, we have so far tested only with Windows and Linux platforms.
   
   
2. What is Applibase Server's memory requirement?
   Applibase Server memory varies considerably depending on the application.  Applibase Server uses memory based on the size of the open databases and the configured caches, as well as the active application activity.  By default each open table uses a cache size of 100 pages (about 1 MB) , which does not include memory usage in case of some special data types, e.g. TEXT/LONG VARCHAR where each value can be up to 1 M characters, or 2 MB since strings are stored as Unicode.  Therefore, the memory requirement needs of be calculated based on the application using the database.  The minimum value is quite small, but that does not indicate the real requirements for almost any application.
   
   
3. What is Applibase Server's disk requirement?
   Applibase Server disk requirement is dependent on the database size.   The Applibase Server install is about 20 MB, not including the Java Virtual Machine.  An empty database uses about 5 MB for the system catalogs, but for most databases the data content will be much higher .  Index files are often not fully packed, and character data is stored as Unicode, resulting in up to a factor of four storage requirements compared to the actual data inserted into the database.  The disk size required for transaction logs, temporary tables, and other needs can vary considerably as well.  In other words, this database is not designed for disk-constrained environments and liberally uses disk space for many purposes.
   
   
4. Do any performance benchmarks exist for Applibase Server?
   No benchmarks are currently available.   Applibase Server performance has not been fully optimized, and work remains to be done in this area.  Based on preliminary comparisons with a few other databases, Applibase Server provides good insert performance, but is relatively poor on table scans (iterations).  Table scan performance is poor due to NIO Buffer allocation costs, and buffer pooling will be implemented soon to fix this.  More detailed information on performance will be provided soon.
   
   
5. How many simultaneous users does Applibase Server support?
   Applibase Server is a multi-user system with transaction support, and there is no fundamental limit on how many users are supported.  The limits for any system will be determined by available memory, application usage, and performance requirements.