Solutions for the Information Project Team • www.dbta.com Volume 22, Number 2 • June 2008
PowerSQL Aids Application Developer Productivity
Embarcadero Technologies launches Eclipse-based professional SQL integrated development environment.
Embarcadero Technologies is known for its allows application developers to leverage strokes.
multi-platform tools that assist database the powerful productivity features to devel- Nerpouni: The other benefit is that some
administrators and developers at every point op high quality SQL code. We have built in organizations have 5, 10, 15 application devel-
in the database lifecycle. In March, the the usability to which they are accustomed opers to each DBA. Since DBAs are increas-
company took a bold new step when it as well as the strong capabilities around ingly being measured on availability and per-
debuted PowerSQL, a professional SQL productivity and quality. We want to build formance of production databases, the fewer
development tool that dramatically improves velocity into the lifecycle they are living in. times a DBA has to revise or reject poorly
productivity for application developers devised SQL the better. PowerSQL empowers
charged with SQL development. DBTA: What do you mean "build application developers to write quality SQL in
Embarcadero PowerSQL, the company's velocity"? a highly productive manner, creating opportu-
fourth tool built on the Eclipse framework, is Nerpouni: We have features that really nities for significant efficiency gains in the
a SQL IDE (Integrated Development hone in on productivity and the concept of development lifecycle.
Environment) that can be installed as a velocity. One is SQL Code Assist. As you
standalone application (Eclipse RCP) or as are typing in SQL code, SQL Code Assist DBTA: Are application developers
an Eclipse plug-in. It ready to write SQL
offers native support for code?
Oracle, Microsoft SQL PowerSQL is a SQL IDE that delivers true Nerpouni: There is a blur-
Server, Sybase and DB2 ring of lines between the
for LUW, as well as JBDC productivity benefits to application developers. roles. Application devel-
support for other promi- opers are working on SQL
nent DBMSs such as development. We make
MySQL. The idea behind the product is this: checks for syntax in the background in real them SQL experts without having to fully
with the growing sophistication of J2EE, time. We have database-specific parsers at understand SQL and the database itself.
Ruby on Rails and other development frame- work, so if you are working in Oracle or SQL We are removing the complexity based on
works increasingly dependent on databases, Server, Sybase or DB2, we are looking at our 15 years of experience being the single
application developers require more depth that database SQL type and making sure view into all of your databases.
in knowledge and tooling for the underlying you are writing syntactically correct code.
DBMS technologies. In fact, a recent survey DBTA: How significant is it that
revealed that SQL is the second most popu- DBTA: That is dynamic. PowerSQL is integrated with Eclipse?
lar language among Eclipse users. Database Nerpouni: At the same time we have the Nerpouni: This is the first serious commer-
Trends and Applications talked to Greg notion of semantic validation. When you cial SQL development tool for Eclipse. We
Nerpouni, senior product manager at are coding in the editor, you can hit "CTRL" have great Eclipse expertise. Our program
Embarcadero, to learn more. + "Space" to see the available databases manager, Wassim Melhem, was an Eclipse
and then the available tables and the avail- project leader at IBM. We have invested to
DBTA: PowerSQL represents an able columns. SQL Code Assist validates bring in top-notch Eclipse experts and have
important new step for Embarcadero. the existence of each referenced object made a large investment in R&D. This is
Nerpouni: It allows us to reach out to a against the database and flags any errors in true innovation on top of what has been
new audience. People who are coding in real time. We are saving developers key- built into Eclipse and the Eclipse platform
Java and C++ have some of the best devel- strokes while building quality directly into lets us be very creative in how we leverage
opment IDEs built around true productivity development. components. We have a new level of flexi-
benefits and quality. PowerSQL is a SQL bility. This is unique and gives us a massive
IDE built around the same paradigm. It DBTA: Developers like saving key- competitive advantage.
1 Database Trends and Applications June 2008 Subscribe today at www.dbta.com/subscribe

PowerSQL Aids Application Developer Productivity
DBTA: PowerSQL became available DBTA: For version 1.0, this is a very developing SQL code. We are building opti-
this spring. What has been the powerful product. mization right into the lifecycle. We are
response? Nerpouni: There is an open beta of 1.1 this accelerating development.
Nerpouni: We have standard and profes- June. You can play with it on our Web site.
sional editions sold through our direct sales 1.1 has a feature called Explain Plans,
organization, and a personal edition avail- which will tell you the performance impact
able through our ecommerce store and thus your SQL will have. We also have Quick C O N TA C T I N F O R M AT I O N
have received a lot of feedback through var- Fixes, which will evaluate code from an
ious channels. They particularly like SQL optimization perspective and suggest
Project Insight, which allows them to import improvements. We are building optimization
SQL files, break them into logical compo- into the lifecycle, taking quality beyond syn-
nents and present them in an outline view. tax and semantic validation. It is a truly 100 California Street, 12th Floor
Click on the outline and you jump to that unique capability. San Francisco, CA 94111
Phone: 415.834.3131
part of the SQL file, making large and Fax: 415.434.172
daunting files easily manageable. And it DBTA: So what is the real market need Email: info@embarcadero.com
validates the SQL files and checks them for this addresses? www.embarcadero.com
SQL syntax. It makes for a very easy and Nerpouni: We are empowering the applica-
collaborative workflow. tion developer to become self-sufficient in
2 Database Trends and Applications June 2008 Subscribe today at www.dbta.com/subscribe