SQuirreL SQL Client uses the JDBC API to interact with a database, which for the most part makes it database implementation-agnostic. However, it can be extended to support implementation-specific features by writing a plugin that uses the Plugin API. For example, JDBC doesn't specify a generic way to obtain the source code that can be used to re-create database objects such as triggers, stored procedures, functions, views, etc. Yet this information is usually available in some data dictionary view that can be queried by object name. Although the SQL standard specifies a special optional schema (INFORMATION_SCHEMA) to store this information in, only a few database vendors have implemented this, while others have chosen a different schema to store this information in. A plugin can be written with the implementation-specific queries that are required to retrieve the source code for each type of database object. Additionally, other plugins that are not implementation-specific have been written using the Plugin API to implement features not available in the base SQuirreL software installation (for example, code completion, syntax highlighting, Look and Feel, query favorites, etc.)
Famous quotes containing the word client:
“A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)