Don’t miss out! Benefits abound with easy FairCom DB upgrade: SQL

Latest version provides users with faster performance and valuable new features

Note: c-treeACE became FairCom DB in 2020.

Part 1: SQL
Part 2: Reliability
Part 3: Performance
Part 4: Security
Part 5: Support

Note: This is the first in a series about the benefits of upgrading from a legacy version of c-tree to a current version.

For 40 years, FairCom’s database engine has provided customers with uncompromising speed, reliability and capabilities. In fact, FairCom’s database (which started as c-tree, evolved to c-tree Plus, then to c-treeACE and today is FairCom DB) is so reliable that some of you are using versions that date back to the early 1980s. Our new versions continue a legacy of reliability and have maintained backwards compatibility to ensure you have a quick and easy upgrade process.

Why should you upgrade when your legacy version of c-tree is working? The answer is simple: By remaining on a legacy version, you are missing out on important bug fixes, security fixes, security features, performance improvements and support that make your system even more reliable. FairCom DB’s new features provide more value to developers and users at lower cost.

SQL

Enhanced SQL capabilities is one area that your organization will greatly benefit from by upgrading to the current version of FairCom DB, especially if you are using c-tree V6.11 or older. First, the current version is a full 92 and partial 99 ANSI-compliant SQL database engine, with stored procedures, triggers, user-defined functions, etc. With minimal work to upgrade, your developers and customers can leverage SQL to query the data in your ISAM files, without changes to your existing application. This is because FairCom’s technology seamlessly translates non-standard data types into SQL data types.

One of the best attributes of SQL is that it is the most productive software development language for querying data, and, thus, it greatly increases development speed. However, there is a tradeoff: At times, complex SQL queries become difficult and slow. To enable you to overcome these overly complex and slow queries, FairCom DB provides APIs, such as NAV, ISAM and CTDB, that provide you with the direct control you need for high velocity data processing. This gives you the best of both worlds over the same data: SQL for productivity and FairCom’s APIs for extreme performance.

The current version can be used with 9 of the top 10 development languages* and many others. Its ODBC and JDBC interfaces allow you to use Java, C#, Visual Basic, C, C++, Python, JavaScript, PHP, etc. FairCom also provides advanced SQL drivers for .NET Entity Framework, ADO.NET, LINQ, PHP PDO, and Python Alchemy. FairCom’s database technology also provides a unique multi-platform C-based API called Direct SQL, which makes it easy to embed SQL in C and C++ programs.

ODBC and JDBC enable your application, if you so choose, to expose data in the c-tree Database Engine to all major industry standard tools. With little-to-no extra work, you can allow users of your application to perform data analytics, create dashboards, generate reports, run ad hoc queries and integrate data into other systems. Solutions that FairCom DB works well with include Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Tableau, ThoughtSpot, Qlik, Sisense, Salesforce, SAP, etc. It also works with data integration tools that extract, transform and load data (ETL), such as Informatica, IBM, SAP, Talend, SAS, Oracle, etc.

Here are other SQL-related benefits you can utilize by upgrading to the current version of FairCom DB:

• Use SQL to query and update non-standard or legacy data types of all varieties. The FairCom Database Engine allows you to store any type of binary data in its tables, such as custom date and time formats, COBOL data records, etc. You can tell c-tree to translate this data automatically into standard SQL data types. This allows SQL to transparently and automatically read and write to non-standard data types.

• Use ODBC for UNIX and Linux. It allows the FairCom Database Engine running on Unix and Linux to share data with the vast array of standard SQL tools that use ODBC.

• Run SQL on top of a file that contains multiple record formats. FairCom DB automatically detects each type of record and treats it as a separate SQL table, preventing the need to normalize existing data to comply with the SQL standard.

If you want learn how easy it is to upgrade from a legacy version of c-tree to a current version, please contact us at 1-800-234-8180 or click here for additional contact information.

*TIOBE Index as of June 2019.