Connecting to Oracle from iOS App

Question

I know this has been asked a few times, but there seems to be no clear answer ... am searching on this for the past 3 days or more.

There seem to be 2 ways to connect to an Oracle database from an iOS App :

1. ODBC Client I need to compile ODBC (which ODBC?) using gcj for ARM. I think this is the hard way, wrought with errors, but possible with quite an effort.

2. USING WEB SERVICE Connect from App to webservice and from web service to Oracle DB.

Are these the 2 methods available or any other?

Few questions on the two methods: a. Which is more secure? b. Will my company's security department oppose to any of the above? c. Which is more performant? d. Which of the above does one normally use?

Answer 1

Webservices are the answer, you do not want people connecting directly to the database from a mobile device. A Webserver will add one extra layer of security as well as the ability to handle simultaneous request without stressing the database directly

a. Which is more secure? Webservices as explained above

b. Will my company's security department oppose to any of the above? Yes, security department will insist not to open the oracle port to connect directly, unless they have it already open.

c. Which is more performant? Webservices, setting up the right cache policies in a webserver can save resources to the database.

d. Which of the above does one normally use? Webservices, because they offer you great advantages in security and performance, not only that, webservices are reusable and can be accessed by many different platforms, think on the future you might want to serve your application later on Android devices and Webservices will save you a lot of development time.

Many of today's top applications in the market use webservices, think about it.

Google Maps is a great example of how powerful webservices are!