[ensembl-dev] relationship between api and database release

[Andrea Edwards]

Hi

I don't fully understand how the perl api is related to different 
releases of the ensembl database.

Is it correct that if I want to use, for example, release 59 of the 
database then I need to use release 59 of the perl API?

If so, how can I find past versions of the api. I looked on the ftp site 
and could only find the database releases and not the api releases. I 
need to use release 58 of the database but I currently have release 59 
of the perl API and a local copy of the version 59 database.

If i was using version 59 of the perl api to make remote database calls, 
would the api automatically query version 59 of the database?

What would happen if i was using version 59 of the perl api against a 
local database installation of say version 57?

Is there a Java version of the Perl API? Does it have equivalent 
functionality?

Thanks for your help