Introduction to Database Wrappers

Overview

Databases are important pieces to building applications. There are many types of databases, but all databases are collections of data, organized in a specific way. For Unqork to connect to a database, you need a tool that can connect to third-party endpoints as a RESTful API. That’s where wrappers come in. A wrapper is an interface that allows a program or service to access and communicate with another program or service. This article discusses database wrappers and how they work with Unqork.

What You'll Learn

In this article, you'll learn:

• What a database wrapper is.
• How database wrappers work with Unqork.

Database Wrappers

Unqork allows creators to pull information from many different data sources for use in applications. In some cases, a database might not have an existing or suitable interface for presentation to Unqork.

A database wrapper is an application that can access a database indirectly instead of directly interacting with the database. The primary way to connect to a database is a database connectivity schema like Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) or Java Database Connectivity (JDBC). The main difference between the two is ODBC is programming language agnostic while JDBC relies on Java. There are many third-party wrappers that use ODBC or JDBC connectivity schemas. For a database wrapper to work with Unqork, it only needs to expose a RESTful web service and translate anything sent through a RESTful API to a SQL query.

How Database Wrappers Work With Unqork

Because Unqork needs to communicate with your database wrapper, you need connectivity to and from endpoints in your database and database wrapper. You can use the third-party database wrapper application of your choice and configure it according to the specifications of the vendor so it can connect to your database. Once you configure your wrapper application, you need to make note of the endpoints exposed. Next, you'll create the service in Unqork in Services Administration. After you create the service, you'll use a Plug-In component to retrieve the data from the wrapper application and return it to Unqork. From this point, you can add any additional functionality you need to view, add, and manipulate the data in your database using Unqork components.

TIP  For more information on connecting applications to external services, search our In-Product Help for External APIs.