Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system ideally suited for use in Windows® DNA. It uses the same code base to scale database applications ranging from laptops running Windows 95 or Windows 98 to terabyte symmetric multiprocessor clusters running Windows NT® Server, Enterprise Edition. For more information about SQL Server, see the site http://www.microsoft.com/sql.
N-tier applications discussed in the BackOffice Developer's Guide tend to access SQL Server using the high-level Automation interface, ActiveX® Data Objects, which calls into OLE DB, the system-level data interface.
SQL Server does far more than simply warehouse data. For example, SQL Server provides stored procedures, precompiled Transact-SQL statements that are executed as a unit. It also provides extended stored procedures, which dynamically load and execute functions within a dynamic-link library (DLL). Stored procedures and extended stored procedures provide a great deal of SQL Server's functionality, often making calls outside of SQL Server itself and into other applications. One group of stored procedures, for example, allows SQL Server to operate as a workgroup post office for a MAPI-enabled e-mail system.
In addition to stored procedures, SQL Server implements a number of features designed to make data more useful and meaningful. Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) track and analyze data to reveal trends that users can interpret. Microsoft Repository, which consists of a set of ActiveX interfaces, enables the sharing of metadata among different products and components in a system or application. SQL Server can participate in transactions that include multiple SQL Server databases as well as third-party databases. SQL Server includes a Web Assistant Wizard that quickly guides users through the process of generating HTML pages from SQL Server data and posting SQL Server data to HTTP and FTP locations. Full-text search capabilities increase the usefulness of SQL Server.
Fully integrated with the Windows NT Security Model and performing all updates to databases transactionally, SQL Server protects the integrity of its databases, and functions as a robust and reliable component of large-scale distributed applications. For a full description of SQL Server, how to use its features, how to access it programmatically, and how to program to its native interfaces, see the SQL Server Books Online that ship with the product and the "Microsoft SQL Server Programmer's Toolkit" in the "Data Access Services" section of the Microsoft Platform SDK.