1. Introduction

  
1.1 Documentation Conventions

This documents uses certain conventions to facilitate users in their reading.

• Normal typesetting characters for description text.

• Bold characters for all types of headers. Bold characters are also used for describing computer icons, i.e. buttons and dialog controls, as well as in SQL statement syntax description.

  Example: Press the Add... button.

  Example: INSERT INTO table1 ....

• Emphasized text for term introduction.
  Example: All unique keys are candidate keys.

• SQL keywords are capitalized.
  Example: SELECT * FROM Planets;

• Teletype fonts for text typed in by the user.
  Example: select * from planets;

  Several other items appear also in this text form. For example, file names, user names, table names, column names, database parameters etc.
  Example: Table Salespeople contains column Commission
  

  User dbman is responsible for database administration.

  Parameter CHARSET defines the character set.

• Sans Serif characters for computer output.
  Example: The program responds with the following output:
  Failed login from <host> as username <user>

• When the value of a database parameter is used, it is preceded by the $ sign.
  Example: $USERPOLICY is checked before updating the password.

• The term <Ovrimos root dir> is used to indicate the user-specified directory where the Ovrimos files are installed.

  Similarly, the <> convention is used to indicate that situation specific information is required, e.g. <hostname> indicates the name/IP of the database host computer.

• The letters [R] and [S] are used next to a paragraph or chapter to indicate that the text within pertains to the Replicator and Secure Socket Layer respectively.

  
1.2 Salient Features

• A light-weight product 
  Minimal hard disk and RAM requirements for installation and running.

  See 2.(System Requirements).

• Quick and easy installation 
  Installing Ovrimos is a quick procedure, requiring a few, easy steps. No reboot is necessary.

  See 2.(Installation)

• Easy database creation and management
  User-friendly database manager.

  See 4.(Database Manager).

• Unlimited concurrent connections 
  Several databases may run at the same time. As many connections as the license allows, may run concurrently in the same database.

  See 3.7.(Database connections).

• HTTP Server - HTML-based interface 
  Familiar, visual and functional interface for users, administrators and developers. CGI support.

  See 8.(The HTTP Server), 5.(The SQL Terminal), 6.(The Roadmap), 7.(The Administrator Console), 9.6.(How to produce HTML output from SQL Query Tool).
  

• HTTP persistent sessions 
  Users can take advantage of persistent HTTP sessions to write Web applications using Scheme.

  See 8.5.3.(HTTP Server and Persistent Sessions)

• Effective resource monitoring 
  Resource allocation and fine tuning made easy for the administrator.

  See 7.(The Administrator Console).

• Database Maintenance
  Easy on-line backup and failure recovery.

  See 12.(Database Maintenance).

• Bulk Updates 
  When a large number of updates is required, a bulk update mechanism is provided to speed up execution.

  See B.12.(Bulk Updates)

• BLOB support 
  Storage and retrieval of arbitrary sized pieces of data, without the need for special programming.

  See B.9.(BLOBs and the URI function).
  Also B.9.1.(BLOB Reference Manipulation Functions)

• Unicode support 
  Use of any language by applying string functions to Unicode strings.

  See B.10.(Storage and Retrieval of Unicode data)

• Connectivity  
  ODBC compatible. See 10.1.(ODBC)

  JDBC compatible. See 10.2.(JDBC)

  Allows execution of Perl programs. See. 10.3.(DBI)

  C, C++ API. Contact support@ovrimos.com

  Scheme interpreter embedded in the Ovrimos core. See 8. The HTTP Server.

• Stored Procedures 
  Stored procedures, written in any programming language, can be called during a transaction.

  See 10.5.(Stored Procedures).

• Semantic Integrity Referential integrity enforced automatically.

  See 13.1.1.(Semantic Integrity).

• Data Encryption 
  Data can be stored in encrypted form to ensure protection. Option to encrypt every database, selected at creation time. Even without encryption, data are scrambled to prevent casual inspection.

  See 13.3.(Data Encryption) and E.1.(User-provided ciphers).

  
1.3 New Features

New features have been added and old features have been improved.

• Improved, User friendly Database Manager
  Your well known Database Manager is now improved. New parameters are added and more tests are performed for a fail-safe database creation and management.

  See 4.(Database Manager).

• Improved, ergonomic SQL Terminal
  A more ergonomic user interface makes SQL Terminal better and more powerful than before.

  See 5.(The SQL Terminal).

• Support for user-defined encryption algorithms
  In addition to the previously provided Gost algorithm for data encryption, database managers are now able to define their own encryption algorithms.

  See 13.3. Data Encryption and E.1. User-provided ciphers.

• New security features 
  User dbman (the database manager) is now able to enforce a password policy for better control of password updates.

  See 13.4.2.(Password Policy)
  

  The database user admin is notified by e-mail when an unauthorized login is attempted.

  See 13.4.3.(Unauthorized Logins).

• Enhanced SQL features
  Enhancements, such as a fractional second part in TIME, are added to SQL.

• Triggers and Persistent Stored Modules   Stored procedures and user defined functions may be written in SQL.

  See D.(Triggers) and C.(Persistent Stored Modules)

• SSL Secure Socket Layer  A Secure Socket Layer enforced by the Certificate Manager.

  See 4.5.(Certificate Manager)

• Replicator 

1.4 Coming Soon ...

New features will be added to the upcoming versions of Ovrimos. Among others:

• Servlets

• Checkpoints

1.5 Types of users

  Ovrimos is designed for various types of users, from database management experts to end-users with little working knowledge of RDBMS. Although a specific type of user can fill more than one of the following functions, the basic types supported by Ovrimos are:

User dbman (Database Manager)

: has control over starting/stopping/creating/deleting and tuning a database.

User admin (Database Administrator)

: has control over the contents and users of a database.

Application Developer

: creates customized applications using ODBC, JDBC and Perl drivers or the Ovrimos C client library. Developers may also write Scheme scripts e.g. for producing dynamic Web content.

End-User

: interacts with the database via a user application or via the user interface provided by Ovrimos.

In case separate people do not exist for the roles of the dbman and admin, it is required that all admins know the dbman password for starting/stopping and administering their own databases. As a side effect, they can have administration rights to all databases, but they are forbidden access to the contents of other databases (i.e. databases where some other person is admin).

1.6 Related Reading

The provided documentation assumes that you are familiar with computer operating systems, database concepts and have a basic working knowledge of SQL. Some familiarity with Web browsers and HTTP environment is also required. Therefore, widely acceptable notions are not presented and/or explained here.

The following publications and Web sites provide additional information about topics which are explained but not completely covered here.

Texts

• The SSL Protocol from Netscape

Publications

1.

C. J. Date. An Introduction to Database Systems, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994.

2.

Martin Gruber. SQL Instant Reference, Sybex Inc., 1993.

3.

C. J. Date with Hugh Darwen. A Guide to The SQL Standard, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993.

4.

Silvana Castano, Mariagrazia Fugini, Giancarlo Martella, Pierangela Saramati. Database Security, 1994.

5.

Eric Ladd, Jim O'Donell, et al. Using HTLM4, Java 1.1 and JavaScript 1.2, Que Corporation, 1998.

6.

Richard Karpinski. Beyond HTML, Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1996

7.

Eliot Rusty Harold. JAVA Network Programming, O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., 1997

8.

Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen and Randal L. Schwartz. Programming Perl, O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., 1996

9.

Microsoft Professional Editions. Microsoft ODBC 2.0 Programmer's Reference and SDK Guide, Microsoft Press, 1994.

10.

Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman. Structure and Implementation of Computer Programs, second edition. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1996.

11.

Bruce Schneier. Applied Cryptography, Wiley, 1996.

Web sites

The following are a few Web sites that may provide information about Scheme and JDBC.

1.

http://www.altera.gr/dsouflis/tinyscm.html

2.

ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/
doc/standards/r5rs-html.tar.gz

3.

http://java.sun.com/products/jdbc

1.7 Ovrimos Welcomes your Comments

To help us improve the future versions of Ovrimos documentation, it would be useful to send your corrections or suggestions. With your comments, please include the following information:

• the product's version and feature or component
• the feature or component that caused any kind of problem
• the relevant section
• your contact details

We will carefully review your comments and share them with the staff of Ovrimos S.A. that helped with this documentation.

You may contact Ovrimos S.A. electronically:

support@ovrimos.com for technical information and questions on documentation.

sales@ovrimos.com for sales information

mkt@ovrimos.com for marketing information

Visit the Ovrimos site: www.ovrimos.com

You may also write to Ovrimos S.A at the following address:

Ovrimos S.A
139 Plapouta Str.
14121 Neo Iraklio
Athens, GREECE

Tel:+30 1 8060799, 8060899, 8060669
Fax:+30 1 8060881