SDB Creator Tool Overview

Purpose

The Symbian Database (SDB) creator tool is used to create or update DBMS, SQLite and Comms database files. The SDB is a standalone tool that helps to generate database files without using an emulator. The database files are used in storing contacts, messages and network configuration settings.

Required Background

In order to work with the SDB creator, you must be familiar with the following:

  • Structured Query Language (SQL). For more information, see SQL tutorial for SQL introduction.

  • SQLite. For more information, see www.sqlite.org.

  • Extensible Markup Language (XML). For more information, see Wikipedia entry for XML.

  • Comms database configuration file. For more information, see » Symbian OS v9.5 » Symbian OS Tools And Utilities » Emulator » Emulator guide » Comms database configuration tools » Comms database configuration file format.

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Concepts

DBMS

The Database Management System (DBMS) is a database that can be used to store address books, call logs and message stores. DBMS is well suited to applications with small to medium-sized datasets, where the total record count is less than 10,000 and the database size is less than 512KB. DBMS database files are supported from Symbian OS v9.1 onwards.

SQLite

The SQLite database is a non-proprietary file format that can be used in many applications. SQLite database files are supported from Symbian OS v9.4 onwards. For more information, see www.sqlite.org.

Comms Database

The Comms database is used to store Symbian platform network configuration settings. The SDB tool creates a Comms database file using the CommDB Configuration Editor (CED). For more information, see Symbian OS v9.5 » Symbian OS guide » Communications Infrastructure » Configuring Comms Database.

CED

CommDB Configuration Editor (CED) is a command line tool that allows you to modify the Comms database systematically and securely. The SDB tool invokes ced.exe to create a Comms database.

How the SDB creator tool works

The SDB creator tool operates in SQLite, DBMS and CED modes. The SDB tool generates a SDB file as output.

A configuration file (in XML format) and SQL files can be used to configure and provision SDB databases. The SQL file contains the database schema definition and data in the form of standard SQL statements. The configuration file contains the security settings and database configuration settings.

In the CED mode, the SDB tool creates a Comms database, which is a .cre file. In this mode, you must specify the Symbian OS version so that the SDB tool invokes the corresponding ced.exe. The input file required to create a Comms database file is a configuration file in either text format (.cfg) or in XML format.

Creating SQLite, DBMS and Comms Database...


Creating SQLite, DBMS and Comms Database Files

Typical uses

The database files created by the SDB tool can be used by any application that requires a data store. The following are the typical use cases: