Sybase SQLAnywhere jConnect routines?

Question

I have a database which is part of a closed system and the end-user of the system would like me to write some reports using the data contains in a Sybase SQL Anywhere Database. The system doesn't provide the reports that they are looking for, but access to the data is available by connecting to this ASA database.

The vendor of the software would likely prefer I not update the database and I am basically read-only as I am just doing some reporting. All is good, seal is not broken, warranty still intact, etc,etc..

My main problem is that I am using jConnect in order to read from the database, and jConnect requires some "jConnect Routines" to be installed into the database. I've found that I can make this happen by just doing an "Alter Database Upgrade JConnect On", but I just don't fully understand what this does and if there is any risks associated with it.

So, my question is does anyone know exactly what jConnect routines are and how are they used? Is there any risk adding these to a database? Should I be worried about this?

Answer 1

If the vendor wants you to write reports using jConnect they will have to allow the installation of the JConnect tables.

These are quite safe, where I work the DBA team install these as a matter of course and we run huge databases in production with no impact.

There is an alternative driver that you could use called jTDS. Its open source and supports MS SQL Server and Sybase. I'm not sure if they require the JConnect tables or not.

I think that the additional tables are a bit of anachronism in this day and age.

Answer 2

Looking at ASA 10 docs, there is another driver: the iAnywhere JDBC driver which seems to be going through the ODBC driver, and as such, probably will not require an alteration of the database.

On the other hand, installing the "jConnect system objects" is done by running the script scrits/jcatalog.sql... You can show it the DBAs, if you want to reassure them. It creates some procedures, tables, variables.

The need for this script probably comes from the fact that jConnect talks to both ASE (Sybase) and iAnywhere databases, so it needs a compatibility layer installed in the database...