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EnterpriseDB: Enterprise
Compatibility
Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting
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The goal of
EnterpriseDB is to provide Oracle compatibility and give their, and
your, customers more choices. EnterpriseDB does this by providing
Oracle SQL syntax and PL/SQL compatibility via the EnterpriseDB
Superset Procedural Language (SPL).
An application
that cannot compile due to the use of DECODE, SYSDATE, a REF CURSOR
or other Oracle specific syntax would not be very compatible. Later
chapters of this book provide highly detailed descriptions of where
EnterpriseDB is compatible and where it differs with Oracle. I
provide workarounds in some cases.
Almost as
important as SQL and PL/SQL compatibility, is Oracle Call Interface
(OCI) compatibility. There are many applications currently written
in C and C++ that connect to Oracle and perform operations.
EnterpriseDB is currently working to provide OCI support.
While
providing compatibility with Oracle, EnterpriseDB also maintains
compatibility with PostgreSQL and the ANSI SQL standards. By
maintaining this kind of compatibility, EnterpriseDB protects your
investment in skills while opening up new avenues for your software.
EnterpriseDB
can run on Windows, Linux, and Solaris. By providing this kind of
platform support, you get to choose how and where you take advantage
of EnterpriseDB.
Providing
syntax compatibility is important but it is not the only criteria to
measure compatibility. Your database must be able to support all of
your critical functions to truly be portable.
If your
application requires data replication, EnterpriseDB provides this in
the Replication Server. Replication in EnterpriseDB is currently
master-multi-slave but multi-master is coming. EnterpriseDB also
supports replication with Oracle as a master site.
For larger
databases, EnterpriseDB via PostgreSQL provides table partitioning
and bitmap scans. While the implementation of these features vary
from the implementation in Oracle, the resulting functionality and
performance improvements are the same.
EnterpriseDB also provides, again
via PostgreSQL, user and role-based security that Oracle
practitioners are familiar with. Current best practices in Oracle
development are to provide as little access as possible and never
give grants directly to a user.
This
is an excerpt from the book "EnterpriseDB:
The Definitive Reference" by Rampant TechPress.
