The GNOME-DB project aims to provide a free unified data access architecture to the GNOME project. GNOME-DB is useful for any application that accesses persistent data (not only databases, but data), since it now contains a pretty good data management API. For information, the http://live.gnome.org/ChooseLibgdaSQLite page lists key points regarding the usage of the Libgda library compared to SQLite, most of the argumentation being relevant for other databases as well.
Starting with the upcoming 4.2 serie, GNOME-DB's production will be the Libgda library which is mainly a database and data abstraction layer, and will include a GTK+ based UI extension (much of what the Libgnomedb was), and some graphical tools (making Mergeant irrelevant):
Libgda depends on the GLib (and integrates with it), and LibXML.
Libgda's UI extension depends on GTK+
Libgda's graphical tools depend on GTK+ and optionally GooCanvas and GraphViz
This site now refers to features which are available in the current V4 series starting with Libgda 4.0.0, except when specifically mentionning upcoming versions.
Features
Libgda
Here is a brief summary of Libgda's features, see also the detailed list of Libgda's features
Libgda is a (relatively small) database access library:
- a wrapper like ODBC but with more features to access several database engines
- a meta data extractor (to know all about database objects in a common way)
- comes with an SQL console application (like mysql, psql or sqlite3 consoles)
- relies on GLib, coded in C, its API is easy to use
- at the moment supports SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSAccess and Bdb, work is in progress for other database types (such as Firebird and Oracle) and to wrap JDBC for more wider usage.
- LGPL licensed
Libgda's UI Extension
Here is a brief summary of Libgda's UI Extension features:
- a set of data bound widgets to show and edit data directly in the database,
- some 'administrative' widgets for example to enter the connection parameters to open a connection.
Libgda's graphical tools
Libgda's UI graphical tools include:
- a data sources administration tool to manage data sources and test them
a database "browser" which allows one to explore a database's structure and, in the future modify its contents. For more information, see the GdaBrowser's specific page.
Links
ScreenShots, also present on the GdaBrowser's page
Code examples and Demo
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