TurboDB is a family of powerful and reliable database engines and tools.
At the basis, there are two database kernel implementations. One is for native Win32 and therefore compiled to machine language, the other is for .NET and consists of 100% managed code. When programming on the .NET platform, you can use either one with different advantages:
| • | The Managed Engine is more secure due to the features of the Common Language Runtime and does not require special execution rights. |
| • | The Managed Engine runs also on .NET Compact Framework, which includes mobile devices like PDAs and smartphones. |
| • | The Managed Engine supports user-defined functions, stored procedures and user-defined aggregates. |
| • | The Native Engine supports multiple concurrent users like Access and Paradox do. |
| • | The Native Engine includes features like sub-queries and full-text indexes, which the Managed Engine does not have. |
| • | The Native Engine supports also former database formats while the Managed Engine just works with single-file databases and the current table level 5. |
This manual refers to both engines as far as .NET applications are concerned, i.e. it covers the ADO.NET Provider related side of the above picture. VCL Datasets are used for the Borland development tools and described in another manual.
This document serves as the manual for two TurboDB products, TurboDB 5 for .NET, which is based on the native engine and TurboDB Managed, which is based on the managed engine. Both of them contain the database engine, an ADO.NET data provider and a set of tools for managing TurboDB databases.
TurboDB for .NET requires the .NET framework and can be used in any .NET development environment with any .NET enabled programming language like C#, VB.NET, Delphi for .NET, Jscript, J# etc. Some visual design features might however not be available in each environment. Note that TurboDB Managed currently only runs on .NET 2.0, while TurboDB for .NET also supports .NET 1.1.
This documentation is divided in four parts. After some instructions installation, upgrading, licensing etc, the respective database engine is described in "Database Engine", this book includes the reference of the TurboDB SQL dialect called TurboSQL and explains many database related aspects. The third part "Developing with TurboDB" describes typical development tasks and how they are solved with your TurboDB product. The forth part, "ADO.NET Data Provider Reference" is the reference for the native ADO.NET provider of TurboDB.