Product Overview

Conforms to the Microsoft OLE DB 2.7 specification.

The OLE DB Data Provider supports the mandatory interfaces, many optional interfaces, and the Enterprise Database Server features that are consistent with the Microsoft OLE DB specification.

General Features

The Enterprise Database OLE DB Data Provider includes the following features.

The OLE DB Data Provider is qualified to work with the following OLE DB-compliant tools:

How the OLE DB Data Provider Works

The OLE DB Data Provider is a two-tiered application that consists of four components shown in the following figure. The data provider object and the transport object reside on the client platform; the worker and the server library reside on the MCP server. To connect these components across a network, the transport object and the server library marshal data for transmission across a TCP/IP network. The data provider object allows client applications to access remote databases.

The Windows platform can be a client PC running Windows, or it can be a Windows server that can be either a remote system or the Windows node of a ClearPath server. The data provider object and the transport object must run on the same Windows platform as the client application, which can be Web enabled.

Distributed Transactions

Distributed transactions enable the Enterprise Database Server to participate in transactions that span multiple databases. This feature uses Transaction Internet Protocol (TIP), which is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) proposed standard for efficient communication.

Enterprise Database Server Accessibility

Enterprise Database Server accessibility enables PC applications to access Enterprise Database Server databases through logical database definitions.

Access to Enterprise Database Server LINKS

Access to Enterprise Database Server LINK items is provided through the standard OLE DB rowset interfaces and methods that take OLE DB bookmarks as parameters. LINK items appear as the OLE DB data type DBTYPE_BYTES and can be used as bookmarks to the referenced tables.

Data Filtering

Data filtering is exposed in the OLE DB Data Provider for ClearPath MCP by using views. Data providers that do not support full command syntax can expose simple operations such as sorting and filtering. Rowset sorting is provided if an existing index satisfies the sort criteria. Data filtering provides significant performance improvements during data retrieval because of the filtering process on the MCP server. This process reduces the amount of data traffic between the MCP server and the Windows environment.

FileView Utility

The FileView Utility provides an interface to the MCP Environment data file for OLE DB schema mapping.

Large Objects (LOBs) Support for Enterprise Database Server

Enterprise Database Server databases can store large objects. The OLE DB Data Provider supports large objects stored in Enterprise Database Server databases. Sample programs are provided to demonstrate OLE DB Data Provider usage of binary large objects (BLOBs) and character large objects (CLOBs) stored in Enterprise Database Server databases.

MCP Accessibility

MCP accessibility enables OLE DB PC applications to access MCP Environment data files.

Microsoft .NET Framework Environment

The OLE DB Data Provider is qualified to run in the Microsoft .NET Framework environment.

Normalization of Embedded Structures

Embedded data sets can be represented in OLE DB either as OLE DB chaptered rowsets or as independent rowsets that have been normalized. The OLE DB chapter interface allows Visual Basic and C++ applications to access Enterprise Database Server embedded structures.

Microsoft SQL Server, however, cannot interpret the OLE DB chapter interface. For SQL Server to access Enterprise Database Server embedded data sets, the software must be able to view them as independent tables. The normalization option dynamically performs this remapping for SQL Server. The default setting is chapter representation as defined in the OLE DB specification.

OLE DB Data Retrieval Utility

The OLE DB Data Retrieval Utility provides a convenient interface to retrieve selected data from an Enterprise Database Server database or an MCP file and place the data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. You can then use the data manipulation features available in Excel to create reports or analyze the data.

Schema Utility

The Schema Utility enables Enterprise Application Environment user data names to appear in the OLE DB schema instead of the internal Enterprise Application Environment data names.

Test Connection Utility

The Test Connection Utility assists in the verification of OLE DB installation and connection to particular databases or MCP files.

New Features/Enhancements

Network communications between the client and server components are now secured using TLS encryption.

Ordering Information

ClearPath MCP servers that do not have user-based licensing

OLE DB is included in the operating environment.

ClearPath servers with user-based licensing

A ClearPath Client Access License (CAL) is required to use OLE DB. To determine the proper style for adding Client Access Licenses to your system, contact your Unisys representative.

Source code is not available for this product.

Product Information

Refer to the following documents for more information: