Product Review: PointBase Mobile Edition

By Clayton Crooks

If the name Bruce Scott sounds familiar to you, it's because it probably is. One of the cofounders of Oracle (along with Larry Ellison, Bob Minor, and Ed Oats) and later Gupta Technology (now Centura) where he created the first PC and PC server-relational databases, Bruce left Oracle in 1984 to begin additional business ventures. In 1998, fourteen years after leaving Oracle, he founded Pointbase, a San Mateo, California based company that supplies small footprint Database Management Systems (DBMS) for portable devices like PDAs and mobile phones.

In a relatively short period of time, Pointbase has gone through several revisions, and currently at 3.4, is a product to consider if you are looking for a database that can connect to enterprise-class data management systems like Oracle, IBM DB2 or Sybase.

Java Compatibility is the Key

Pointbase Mobile Edition, which is fully written in Java, is an object-relational database specifically designed for mobile client applications, Internet appliances and wireless devices. Through the use of Java and adherence to mainstream industry standards including SQL, JDBC, TCP/IP, and HTTP, Pointbase Mobile Edition delivers platform independence and a set of functionality useful in any data management solution. Pointbase can be deployed on any computer or device with no dependency on the operating system, version, or hardware. This outstanding deployment capability allows developers to deploy a single version of the database on virtually any system without porting or writing system specific code.

Pointbase, again because of its pure Java implementation, can be used with the majority of Java Integrated Development Environments (IDE) including VisualCafé, Microsoft Visual J++, IBM Visual-Age, and Inprise JBuilder. Additionally, KeyLabs has certified Pointbase for 100% Pure Java compatibility. As a result, customers can use most existing Java development environment with Pointbase. Developing applications using technologies like Personal Java Application Environment (PJAE), JDBC API, Java Development Kit (JDK), Java Native Interface (JNI), and Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) will also be supported, again because of the pure Java implementation.

The Market

The majority of the Pointbase market is the handheld PC and PDA arena because the majority of mobile users rely primarily on handheld devices to access data. That being said, Pointbase is becoming increasingly involved in the mobile phone market, which will supply the largest growth area in this segment. The compact size of Pointbase's DBMS footprint enables it to work with any Java enabled mobile device.

To optimize its use on small memory and small processor systems, Pointbase Mobile Edition is designed with a dynamic footprint architecture, which allows modular deployment of only the database functionality needed for a given application. In return, this optimizes use of memory and processor resources. After an application is developed, Pointbase Point-Configure allows developers to configure the deployed jar file based upon the DBMS functionality required.

Pointbase can also be used in Internet appliances. They share many of the same traits as mobile applications as they are remote computing devices with limited functionality. They have similar requirements for their applications as well: they need to utilize a very small footprint, provide zero administration (or very close) and they must be easily deployable on a wide range of platforms. Pointbase provides all of the necessary ingredients in this market as well.

Projections in market growth vary, but according to a research survey conducted by Forrester, approximately 23% of the workforce connect to the corporate network from a remote location, a number that is fully expected to rise to about 35% by 2002. Another study, this one completed by Jupiter Communications, has estimated the number of Internet-capable PDA devices will continue their phenomenal grow from 5.2 million today to approximately 12 million by 2003. Regardless of the accuracy of these projections, the actual number of mobile workers will be tremendous. With a market growing nearly exponentially, the future for Pointbase looks increasingly bright.

The Internet

The mention of mobile applications will almost always include at least a mention of the Internet. Pointbase takes full advantage of the distributive power of the Internet and the cross-platform independence of Java to provide "anonymous" deployment, a term Pointbase has trademarked. Anonymous deployment describes the feature of being able to download their database onto any platform and have it run flawlessly as long as Java is supported on the target machine.

Pointbase provides an add-on product called UniSync that provides bi-directional data synchronization between Pointbase databases and with enterprise data sources located anywhere on the Internet. UniSync allows enterprises to extend the reach of corporate data across the Internet, enabling new services and products for customer service, field operations, supply chain management, and more. The UniSync option adheres to the design standards of 100% Pure Java, near-zero administration, and has an ultra-small footprint.

New Features

As was previously mentioned, Pointbase is now in release 3.4. In addition to a number of advanced new features, this release includes many bug fixes, performance improvements, and user interface enhancements. Of the enhancements and new features in Pointbase, the Footprint Manager is the most noticeable addition but not the only improvement. The performance enhancements are almost as impressive and include enhancements for queries, enhancements to Conflict Resolution introduced in Release 3.3, Improved scalability and reduced memory use when re-using connections.

Requirements

The Pointbase Mobile Edition has very simple requirements and needs one of the following Java Virtual Machines for installation:

• SUN JDK 1.1.8 or later
• Microsoft Java 5.00.3165 or later
• IBM JDK 1.1.8 or later
• Linux Blackdown JVM 1.1.7 or later.
• Macintosh MRJ 2.1 or later

Conclusion

Because it is written in pure Java, Pointbase Mobile Edition coincides with the Java IDEs you are already accustomed to and add-ons such as UniSync provide additional functionality making it a product that is quick to learn. The market in the mobile segment is becoming increasingly strong, and Pointbase Mobile Edition can run on a wide variety of platforms such as PDAs, mobile phones and Internet Appliances. Because of these and many other factors, if you're in the market for an all-encompassing solution, you should download the evaluation version and give it a try!