Interoperability for Accessing DBs by E-Commerce Applications

E-commerce applications cannot dictate the content of databases (DBs) or how the data services are provided. Thus the problem of interoperability arises when accessing existing data stores. A generalized version of this problem is called an impedance mismatch problem that arises when object oriented programs store objects in relational DBs. We describe a framework that hides the complexities associated with creating and accessing distributed objects that access DBs through SQL queries. An application programmer (developer) needs only to specify the SQL query and select the DB and its driver. Access to the data is provided through an automatically generated Application Program Interface (API) in the selected language. Access to a DB server is through a distributed object implemented using either CORBA or DCOM, as specified by the developer.