The following topics contain information about accessing solidDB databases by using different application programming interfaces (APIs), with or without Shared Memory Access (SMA), Linked Library Access (LLA), or HotStandby (HSB).

solidDB supports ODBC and JDBC interfaces that enable application developers to write applications with C or Java languages. The applications can call ODBC functions or JDBC methods and write or generate SQL strings at the application level.

solidDB also provides two proprietary interfaces, solidDB Application Programming Interface (SA API) and solidDB Server Control API (SSC API). These allow C programs to directly call functions inside the database server. These proprietary interfaces are provided with the LLA and SMA libraries.

To use the APIs, it is assumed that user has the following knowledge:

Multiple ways exist to raise the abstraction level from the ODBC or JDBC level. You can enable database access from various programming or scripting languages, such as Visual Basic, Perl, and PHP. You can also enable database access directly through application level objects that are able to load or save themselves without the application programmer having to be aware of database connections, transactions, or even SQL strings.

Database access from higher level programming environments is usually based on a middleware component that translates the higher level language calls to regular ODBC or JDBC calls. In these conditions, the middleware component is seen as an application from the database perspective. If a middleware vendor does not explicitly list solidDB as a supported database product, there is usually an option to choose a generic ODBC database or generic JDBC database that works with solidDB drivers.

Certain programming environments do not have a direct counterpart in solidDB applications, such as Embedded SQL or Java-based stored procedures. Applications designed to run on these programming environments must be redesigned to work with solidDB.