Part I: ADS and the Advantage Data Architect

Chapter List

Chapter 1: Introduction to Advantage Database Server

Chapter 2: Creating Tables

Chapter 3: Defining Indexes

Chapter 4: Understanding and Using Data Dictionaries

Chapter 5: Defining Constraints and Referential Integrity

Chapter 6: Working with Views

Chapter 7: Creating Advantage Extended Procedures (AEPs)

Chapter 8: Defining Triggers

Part Overview

Part I of this book shows you how to build and configure the tables, indexes, and data dictionaries that you access from ADS (Advantage Database Server). Chapter 1 begins with a broad overview of ADS, providing you with a detailed understanding of the power, performances, and flexibility of ADS.

Chapters 2 and 3 show you how to create the basic building blocks of a high- performance database. In Chapter 2, you discover how to define tables, the data structures in which your data is stored. And in Chapter 3, you explore indexes, the means to fast and efficient data access.

In Chapter 4, you learn the power of ADS data dictionaries, including the many advanced features that data dictionaries provide. This chapter also shows you how to implement security using a data dictionary, including how to add users and groups to control access to your data.

Chapter 5 provides you with an in-depth look at constraints, record and field-level definitions that improve the accuracy of the data managed by ADS. And in Chapter 6, you discover how to create custom views of your tables. Included in this discussion is how you can modularize your access to data using views, simplifying what would otherwise require sophisticated data manipulations.

The final two chapters in this section provide you with everything you need to know in order to use two of ADSs most advanced features: stored procedures and triggers. Not only do these chapters provide you with a detailed examination of the role that these features play in your applications, but they also show you how to implement these objects using some of today’s hottest development languages, including Delphi, Visual C# .NET, and Visual Basic .NET.