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The SDL Contenta Database

SDL Contenta is an object layer on top of an Oracle or MSSQL database.

The database provides the underlying storage technology—the SDL Contenta objects’ content is stored in binary large object (BLOB) space while information about the content (metadata) is stored in database tables.

SDL Contenta manages the access to the objects and content from the delivered SDL Contenta application and tools or through the use of custom tools or applications developed using the SDL Contenta Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

SDL Contenta communicates with the database through a socket or portal running on the database server. The SDL Contenta clients communicate with the database through API and a portal. The portal could be running anywhere on the network—it doesn’t have to be installed on the database server.

On UNIX, the portal is a process (or daemon). On Windows systems, the portal is a service. Client applications and tools access the portal through a TCP/IP socket interface or command line interface.

Using the SDL Contenta command utility, pcmcmd, you can connect to a portal, specify a database, and execute commands on the database; pcmcmd returns data in predefined field names.