Overview

Microsoft Open Data Services (ODS) provides a server-based application programming interface (API). The API consists of C functions and macros used for creating two types of server applications: applications that are initialized as Open Data Services servers and that support user connections and user queries, and applications called extended stored procedures that are added directly to SQL Server and accessed by making procedure calls to SQL Server. Applications created with Open Data Services can interact with SQL Server database clients, with SQL Server database servers, and with any other elements of a network environment that you define.

This interaction allows you to create powerful applications that can:

• Provide extensions to SQL Server by integrating features from your network environment whenever certain events occur within SQL Server.

  For example, you can create extension functions that take specific actions based on updates to SQL Server tables, launch programs that are external to SQL Server, or exchange data with an application external to SQL Server. You can even make these functions transparent to SQL Server users.

• Provide gateways to non - SQL Server database environments.

  Open Data Services server applications can connect to relational databases to perform general-purpose data access, or to non-relational data sources to perform application-specific tasks.

For Open Data Services server applications that provide extension functions, you can generally make the application available as a set of extended stored procedures that you add to SQL Server itself.

For Open Data Services server applications that provide gateway functions, you might not need to involve a SQL Server database at all; your application can accept connections from multiple local area network (LAN) clients directly, access an external data source on their behalf, and then return responses to the clients.

With the Open Data Services Library (ODS Library), an application runs as a server software process on the network, just like other server software processes such as SQL Server. The ODS Library automatically handles network communications with other elements of the SQL Server environment. Client communications are based on client connection requests. Server-to-server communications take place via SQL Server remote stored procedures.