Many applications of SQL Anywhere involve static data sets that are then used in conjunction with the "dynamic" part of the database - examples are things like product lists and increasingly with the support of spacial data - large geographic data sets. It would be very useful in these circumstances to be able to ship users a replacement dbspace containing the tables, indexes etc required; rather than having to truncate / load tables etc as at the moment (or use a separate remote database). Clearly there would have to be some restrictions especially as regards referential integrity between objects in different dbspaces - but these could be fairly strict - (eg if you replace a dbspace all RI pointing to it is dropped and you have to re-create it - or you can't replace the dbspace until all RI pointing to it from outside has been dropped). |
Would that suggestion include a "BACKUP DATABASE without dbspace ..." feature?