Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Data Management:
DataServer for Microsoft SQL Server

DataServer components

The DataServer is a set of software components that allows OpenEdge and WebSpeed applications to access data in the data source. The DataServer enables access by translating standard Progress 4GL and WebSpeed code into calls appropriate to the data source. The application can thus manipulate the data as though it were OpenEdge-based data.

The DataServer consists of the components described in Table 1–1.

Table 1–1: DataServer architecture components 

Component	Description
DataServer for MS SQL Server (Windows platforms only)	An OpenEdge software module that allows you to use Progress 4GL or WebSpeed Speedscript.
ODBC Driver Manager (Windows platforms only)	A software module that manages the connection between an application and ODBC drivers. It is implemented in Windows by default as a Microsoft-supplied dynamic link library (DLL) module.
Schema holder	A repository for foreign data definitions.
ODBC driver (Windows platforms only)	A software module that implements the ODBC Application Programming Interface (API) specification. The driver interfaces between the ODBC Driver Manager and the data source.
ODBC data source (Windows platforms only)	A name that identifies a specific set of data and how to obtain it. You must register a MS SQL Server database as an ODBC data source.
ODBC Administrator (Windows platforms only)	A Microsoft program for registering and configuring data sources. You register a data source by providing information that the ODBC driver needs through the ODBC Administrator. Note that this registration method is used only in Windows platforms.
DataServer MSS utilities	A set of utilities that allows you to perform certain tasks related to the DataServer. You access them from either the Data Administration tool or the Data Dictionary.

Figure 1–1 illustrates how the DataServer components are organized.

Figure 1–1: Architecture for DataServer for MS SQL Server

As shown in Figure 1–1, the components for the self-service DataServer for MS SQL Server are organized similarly to the client-server configuration except that the DataServer is embedded in the client rather than executing separately. With a client-server configuration, the components can be deployed so that the DataServer resides on the same machine as the client (loop back), on the server for efficiency and close proximity to the database, or distributed to a separate third tier.

The ODBC driver manager must reside on the same machine as the DataServer “server.” To ODBC, the “server” half of a client-server configuration, or the self-service DataServer appears as an ODBC client. In either case, an OpenEdge or WebSpeed application uses the DataServer to work with the ODBC Driver Manager, which accesses the desired ODBC driver. The driver then accesses the SQL Server database.

Some of the DataServer components are linked with elements of the standard OpenEdge architecture, as described in the "DataServer configurations" section.