Product Documentation

c-treeACE V10.0 Update Guide

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Introduction to Virtual Tables

As a proven high-performance database technology, c-treeACE has allowed application developers to craft their data handling needs precisely for their application needs for many years. Using only the necessary features required for a specific application task allows for very high-performance applications. Relational aspects of the database were maintained by the application greatly simplifying the persisted information required. As database technology has evolved, relations over the data are becoming more common and complex, and are now generally assumed to be persisted with the data. SQL is an excellent example of this, where tables are organized into databases, and columns comprise a data row within a table.

A common technique in many early c-treeACE applications was to combine multiple types of records into a single physical data file. With c-treeACE’s direct record access and ISAM technology, this was very easy to implement and maintain. Many of these applications have been very successful for many years and are maintained yet today. As a successful application, developers are looking at adding more complex features and interoperability over their data with new technologies such as web access and Windows .NET support. This has proven to be a challenge when the data is not of a consistent schema due to multiple record types in a single table.

With extensible c-treeACE database technology this is no longer a challenge. c-treeDB offers a flexible and powerful relational architecture over your existing c-treeACE data files. A feature within c-treeDB called Virtual Tables allows an easy path to full relational support, including SQL, over these types of existing tables—all without changes to the underlying application and data.

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