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ESE Tookit: Use Windows' Internal High-Performance Data Store To Build Applications

Posted by Jenni Konrad on Jan 05, 2012

Sections: Architecture & Design,; Development
Topics: C# ,; .NET Languages ,; C++ ,; .NET ,; Data Access ,; Languages ,; Compilers ,; Database ,; Programming ,; Data Storage ,; ESE

London-based Iiobo Ventures has produced a toolkit that aims to make it easier for developers to work with the Windows Extensible Storage Engine (ESE). The offering consists of a library of C++ and C# classes and a sample application. Portions of the toolkit are available for free under a BSD License.

ESE (formerly called JET Blue) is best known as the built-in data store that powers Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory, in addition to several other Windows components and services. It’s an Indexed Sequential Access Method (ISAM) database that allows applications to store data using either indexed or sequential access. ESE was introduced as part of Windows 2000, and the API was made available (as JET Blue) around 2005.

According to Iiobo Ventures:

The database technology offers very high performance, scalability to 16 terabytes of data per database file, enterprise features such as hot backup and a high degree of flexibility supporting for example transactions nested up to 7 levels.

ESE can be used to add lightweight data storage features to Windows applications and is also provides a very attractive foundation for custom database server applications where performance is especially important.

Because the structure of the ESE is highly complex, the ESE Toolkit includes a set of libraries to make it easier to work with. They provide a greater degree of abstraction, and the ability to integrate managed and unmanaged code in ESE data access. Developers can create tables and queries using standard classes and functions in C++ or C#, and take advantage of much higher performance than offered by a standard relational database.

For more information about ESE and the ESE Toolkit, visit Iiobo Ventures.