A client application, or client for short, is a program that submits requests (SQL queries) to the server and gets results back from the server.
A client program is separate from the server program. In many cases, the client is also running on a separate computer. Using shared memory access or linked library access, you can link the client's code directly to the server's code so that both run as a single process. For more information, see solidDB® Shared Memory Access and Linked Library Access User Guide.
Since the client is a separate program, it cannot directly call functions in the server. Instead, it must use a communications protocol (such as TCP/IP or named pipes) to communicate with the server. Different platforms support different protocols. On some platforms, you may need to link a specific library file (which supports a specific protocol) to your application so that your application can communicate with the server.