Why POET?

Object-oriented database management systems (also known as OODBMSs)are better suited than relational databases (such as SQL Server) for many oftoday's new information types. Relational databases excel at storing andretrieving large numbers of relatively small pieces of structured data (such ascustomer names, addresses, dates, and numbers) and managing relatively few(typically fewer than a dozen) relationships to other tables of data.

Object-oriented databases characterize complex relationships among datastored as objects. The stored object contains information about its relationshipto other objects: It knows its place in the data hierarchy. Object-
oriented databases are equally adept at handling large, unstructured pieces ofdata (Binary Large Objects­BLOBs) such as bitmaps, audio clips, andmultimedia clips. And, with object-oriented databases (unlike with somerelational databases that also support BLOBs), you can store the applicationcode to manipulate the object directly in the database, rather than in aseparate application. So you can store both a video clip and the software youneed to play the clip in the database. The application doesn't need to have thelogic necessary to display the object's data; the object contains the necessarycode.

Object-oriented databases can also reference and interact with data infiles outside the object database, so an OODBMS lets you store meta-data(information about information) and create an interactive data catalog. Thesefeatures increase flexibility at a time when new data types and formats arebeing developed almost daily.

CompuServe and POET
CompuServe needed an object-oriented database to handle the complexities ofits forums. The solution was POET Software's POET (Persistent Objects andExtended database Technology) database. POET lets CompuServe improvemanageability (the creation, storage, and retrieval of message threads) in itsuser forums. The most apparent attribute of these messages is that they containmostly free-form text and relate (as replies) to other messages in the messagethreads.

CompuServe chose POET Software because it has a very clean object model, itis committed to the Open Database Management Group standard, it providesstandard interfaces, and it is easy to work with. POET was eager to work withCompuServe's inhouse developers and satisfy their requirements.

POET's Technical Features
POET version 4.0 offers many advanced features, including support forODMG-93 (including Object Query Language, a SQL-like language for objectdatabases), Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), Object Linking and Embedding(OLE), symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP), and more.

POET's database is portable because it uses a binary-independent format;the engine automatically converts between CPU formats on differentmanufacturers' systems. This automatic conversion lets POET run on a variety ofoperating systems, such as Windows 3.x, Windows 95, NT, Novell, OS/2, Macintosh,and UNIX (Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, SGI IRIX, SunOS, and SCO).

POET runs as language extensions to most popular C++ compilers fromBorland, Microsoft, and the native compilers of most operating systems. You canconstruct user interfaces to POET databases with Visual Basic, Delphi, CASEtools, or other front-end builders. To download a working demonstration ofPOET's C++ SDK or a beta version of POET's Java SDK, visit the POET Web site.