Chapter 1: Introduction

Component Integration Services extends Adaptive Server® capabilities and provides enhanced interoperability.

It also provides location transparency and functional compensation.

Location transparency means that Component Integration Services allows Adaptive Server to present a uniform view of enterprise data to client applications. Enterprise-wide data from heterogeneous sources can be accessed as if it were local.

Functional compensation allows Component Integration Services to emulate all features of Transact-SQL, and interact with a data source only when actual data is needed. With this capability, the full range and power of Transact-SQL can be applied to any data source, whether or not the data source provides support for a particular feature of Transact-SQL. Examples of this capability are built-in functions and Java functions. Component Integration Services allows statements to use these functions even though the data on which these functions may operate is derived from external sources that cannot support the functions.

Component Integration Services, together with Adaptive Server Anywhere, Adaptive Server IQ and various DirectConnect interfaces, extends the reach of Adaptive Server by enabling transparent access to database management systems anywhere in the enterprise. This transparent, extended reach of Adaptive Server Enterprise makes it easy for Enterprise Portal components to:

• Access data from anywhere, and present it as dynamic content to Web pages

• Execute transactions that span heterogeneous boundaries

• View an entire enterprise through a single view provided by the global metadata stored in the Adaptive Server/Component Integration Services system catalogs

Component Integration Services allows users to access both Sybase® and non-Sybase databases on different servers. These external data sources include host data files, tables, views, and RPCs (remote procedure calls) in database systems such as Adaptive Server and Oracle.

Using Component Integration Services, you can:

• Access tables in remote servers as if the tables were local.

• Perform joins between tables in multiple remote, heterogeneous servers. For example, it is possible to join tables between an Oracle database management system (DBMS) and an Adaptive Server, and between tables in multiple Adaptive Servers.

• Transfer the contents of one table into a new table on any supported remote server by means of a select into statement.

• Maintain referential integrity across heterogeneous data sources.

• Access native remote server capabilities using the Component Integration Services passthrough mode.

Component Integration Services can be used by anyone who needs to access multiple data sources or legacy data. It can also be used by anyone who needs to migrate data from one server to another.

A single server is often used to access data on multiple external servers. Component Integration Services manages the data regardless of the location of the external servers. Data management is transparent to the client application.

Component Integration Services, in combination with EnterpriseConnect™ and MainframeConnect™, provides transparent access to a wide variety of data sources, including:

• Oracle

• Informix

• Microsoft SQL Server

• Adaptive Server Enterprise

• Adaptive Server Anywhere

• Adaptive Server IQ

• Mainframe data, including:

  • ADABAS

  • IDMS

  • IMS

  • VSAM

To start Component Integration Services: