Introduction

Aqua Data Studio 9.0

Aqua Data Studio 9.0 (ADStudio) updates our world-class database development environment, replacing many single purpose tools with a unified consistent interface that can manage all major database environments simultaneously. We’ve also included many of our most requested features and enhancements in order to handle the requirements of our diverse user base. The most significant enhancement revolves around our Open APIs (Application Programming Interface), which provides programmatic access to the full functionality of the product, and allows for automation and scripting of tasks.

→ What’s New in 9.0?

Open APIs & AquaScripts

Introduction

ADStudio breaks new ground for Relational Database tools with the introduction of the Aqua Open APIs, a JavaScript based language called AquaScript and a full-fledged Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Users will now have API access to nearly all of ADStudio's built-in functionality and be able to create fully automated end-to-end solutions.

Open APIs enable developers to write scripts that access the functionality of ADStudio to create custom solutions and tasks that fall outside of the product's GUI restrictions. This includes current functionality around database access, database schema DDL generation, compare tools, version control, data pivoting, charts and much more. We have also introduced new functionality, including random data generation, statistical functions, local file system and Hadoop file system.

Technical Overview

The Aqua Open APIs are a set of programming interfaces exposing the inner functionality of ADStudio. These APIs may be accessed by writing and executing an AquaScript, which is essentially a JavaScript written inside of ADStudio that has the ability to invoke the Aqua Open APIs. For a seamless development experience, ADStudio also provides an embedded IDE enabling developers to write, execute and debug AquaScripts inside of ADStudio.

AquaScripts are executed within ADStudio using the Mozilla Rhino engine.  The AquaScript language itself is standardized by Standard ECMA-357 ECMAScript for XML (E4X): A general purpose, cross-platform programming language.  Any script executed has full access to the Java API in addition to the Aqua Open API.  Scripts may also access any other proprietary or Open Source Java libraries included in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) classpath.

AquaScript for ADStudio is similar to Visual Basic for Applications in MS Office.  If you are familiar with Visual Basic for Applications, learning AquaScripts will be a simple learning experience.

Next Steps

• Learn more about our Aqua Open APIs
• Learn about our feature rich IDE. Developing, executing and managing AquaScripts are on par with other modern development environments.
  • AquaProjects
  • ADStudio Editor and Debugger
  • AquaScript Generator

Additional ADStudio Enhancements

• New Database Support: Netezza
• Charting Enhancements
• ER Model Enhancements
• Table & Index Partitioning Enhancements
• Even more Enhancements