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$Id: README 66 2012-09-30 18:02:58Z hschletz $

Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is,
without any warranty.
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ABOUT NADA
==========

NADA ("Not Another Database Abstraction layer") is a high level SQL abstraction
library for PHP. It operates on top of a conventional database abstraction layer
(currently supported: PDO, Zend_Db and MDB2), allowing easy integration into
existing applications.

NADA provides SQL abstraction methods for different database backends (currently
supported: PostgreSQL and MySQL) that are not available in typical database
abstraction layers which (with the notable exception of MDB2) just provide a
unified interface to a database connection. In contrast, NADA supplies a unified
interface to some SQL operations which would otherwise require DBMS-specific
workarounds in the code.

NADA's modular and extensible design make it easy to add support for other DBMS
and database abstraction layers. The files Database.php and Link.php contain
instructions for this.


USAGE
=====

The NADA directory does not need to be in the include path. Once the script
Nada.php is loaded, the factory method will find and include all required files.

Example for PDO:

require_once 'path/to/NADA/Nada.php';
$pdo = new PDO($dsn, $user, $password);
$nada = Nada::factory($pdo);

From that point on, $nada will provide high-level abstraction methods matching
the DBMS in use. Available methods are documented in Database.php, Table.php and
Column.php.


REQUIREMENTS
============

- PHP 5 or later (http://php.net)
- Supported DBMS, one of:
  - PostgreSQL (http://postgresql.org)
  - MySQL (http://mysql.org)
- Supported database abstraction layer, one of:
  - PDO (part of PHP, http://php.net/manual/en/book.pdo.php)
  - Zend_Db (part of Zend Framework, http://framework.zend.com)
  - MDB2 (http://pear.php.net/package/MDB2/)


LICENSE
=======

NADA is released under a revised BSD license. You can find the full license in
the LICENSE file in the same directory that contains this file.
