ADOdb is a database abstraction library for PHP

PHP

PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...

 and Python

Python (programming language)

Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...

 based on the same concept as Microsoft's ActiveX Data Objects

ActiveX Data Objects

Microsoft's ActiveX Data Objects is a set of Component Object Model objects for accessing data sources. A part of MDAC, it provides a middleware layer between programming languages and OLE DB...

. It allows developers to write applications in a fairly consistent way regardless of the underlying database system storing the information. The advantage is that the database system can be changed without re-writing every call to it in the application.

Supported Database Systems

ADOdb supports the following databases:

• ActiveX Data Objects
  ActiveX Data Objects
  Microsoft's ActiveX Data Objects is a set of Component Object Model objects for accessing data sources. A part of MDAC, it provides a middleware layer between programming languages and OLE DB...
  
  *
• DB2
  IBM DB2
  The IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition is a relational model database server developed by IBM. It primarily runs on Unix , Linux, IBM i , z/OS and Windows servers. DB2 also powers the different IBM InfoSphere Warehouse editions...
  
  
• Firebird
  Firebird (database server)
  Firebird is an open source SQL relational database management system that runs on Linux, Windows, and a variety of Unix. The database forked from Borland's open source edition of InterBase in 2000, but since Firebird 1.5 the code has been largely rewritten ....
  
  
• Foxpro
  FoxPro
  ' has two meanings:*Visual FoxPro, an object-oriented programming language and RDBMS, published by Microsoft, for Microsoft Windows*FoxPro 2, a text-based procedural programming language and DBMS, originally published by Fox Software and later by Microsoft, for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh,...
  
  
• FrontBase
  FrontBase
  FrontBase is a relational database for Others Mac OS X, MS Windows, Unix to the SQL92 standard support.FrontBase is a robust commercial, scalable database server that can operate virtually maintenance free...
  
  
• Informix
  Informix
  IBM Informix is a family of relational database management system developed by IBM. It is positioned as IBM's flagship data server for online transaction processing as well as integrated solutions...
  
  
• Interbase
  InterBase
  InterBase is a relational database management system currently developed and marketed by Embarcadero Technologies. InterBase is distinguished from other DBMSs by its small footprint, close to zero administration requirements, and multi-generational architecture...
  
  
• LDAP
  Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
  The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is an application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol network...
  
  
• Microsoft Access
  Microsoft Access
  Microsoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a relational database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of...
  
  
• Microsoft SQL Server
  Microsoft SQL Server
  Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
  
  
• MySQL
  MySQL
  MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
  
  
• Netezza
  Netezza
  Netezza designs and markets high-performance data warehouse appliances and advanced analytics applications for uses including enterprise data warehousing, business intelligence, predictive analytics and business continuity planning....
  
  
• Oracle
  Oracle database
  The Oracle Database is an object-relational database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation....
  
  
• PostgreSQL
  PostgreSQL
  PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...
  
  
• SAP DB
• SQLite
  SQLite
  SQLite is an ACID-compliant embedded relational database management system contained in a relatively small C programming library. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain and implements most of the SQL standard...
  
  
• Sybase
  Sybase
  Sybase, an SAP company, is an enterprise software and services company offering software to manage, analyze, and mobilize information, using relational databases, analytics and data warehousing solutions and mobile applications development platforms....
  
  
• Teradata
  Teradata
  Teradata Corporation is a vendor specializing in data warehousing and analytic applications. Its products are commonly used by companies to manage data warehouses for analytics and business intelligence purposes. Teradata was formerly a division of NCR Corporation, with the spinoff from NCR on...
  
  
• Valentina
• generic ODBC
  Open Database Connectivity
  In computing, ODBC is a standard C interface for accessing database management systems . The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems...
  
   and ODBTP

ADOdb uses SQL

SQL

SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....

. Since each database system implements SQL slightly differently, the developer will need to be aware of the database-specific features and functions to avoid if they want to maintain portability. ADOdb provides date conversion functions so that you can create dates in any format and insert them into your SQL in the correct format for your database; which is one step toward database system independent SQL.

a null value, null can be replaced with the ADOdb variable that contains the correct SQL definition for null and the check for null will work in every database.

See also

• ADOdb Lite
  ADOdb Lite
  ADOdb Lite is a very small, fast ADOdb-compatible database abstraction library written in PHP.It uses less than 100 kB of system RAM for each HTTP access compared to over 640 kB for ADOdb...
  
  
• PHP Data Objects
• ADODB_SQL for PHP
• ADOdb4PHP

External links

• ADOdb home page
• comparison of the database abstraction layers, including ADOdb