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<!DOCTYPE preface PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
<preface>
  <title>Preface</title>

  <section>
    <title>What is Teiid?</title>

    <para>Teiid is runtime for executing queries against a Virtual Database or
    VDB. Before you can access your data in a federated manner, user can use
    Teiid Designer or the Dynamic VDB feature to build a VDB. This picture
    shows the relationship between the tools involved.</para>

    <figure id="lifecycle">
      <title>Lifecycle of Events</title>

      <graphic align="center" fileref="../images/steps.png" scale="100" />
    </figure>

    <section>
      <title>What is a Virtual Database?</title>

      <para>A Virtual Database (VDB) is an artifact that combines one or more
      physical data sources to provide for easy data integration. Integration
      is encapsulated through view and procedures that Teiid will process in
      an optimized way against their respective sources. The physical sources
      can be JDBC sources, delimited text files, spreadsheets, or even Web
      services.</para>
    </section>

    <para>The Teiid Designer tool lets you define physical data sources by
    importing the required metadata (schema) from these sources. Once the
    metadata is imported, Designer can assist in building additional view
    layers. The collection of physical and view models will form a VDB.</para>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>What is This Guide About?</title>

    <para>This guide takes you through an introduction to the concepts
    important to Teiid, downloading the software, and building and deploying a
    virtual database in 60 minutes. There is a lot to cover, so let's
    begin!</para>
  </section>

  <note>
    <para>Please read <ulink
    url="http://www.jboss.org/teiid/basics.html">Federation Basics</ulink> to
    understand different terminologies used, resources needed, and artifacts
    to be generated before developing a successful application. This example
    takes advantage of only a minimal set of features from Teiid for the sake
    of simplicity and time.</para>
  </note>

  <para>Commercial development support, production support, and training for
  Teiid is available through JBoss. Teiid is a Professional Open Source
  project and a critical component of the JBoss Enterprise Data Services
  Platform.</para>
</preface>
