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Data
Architect Professional database modeling |
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There are several ODBC sub-systems
availible for Linux. The two most popular are; iODBC and unixODBC. One
or both of these are probably in your favourite Linux distribution but
may not be installed by default. unixODBC is recommended because
development is done using unixODBC, and because it has
several drivers to get things started. We provide a setup binary
in order to chnage between iODBC and unixODBC. |
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MS Windows has been shipping with
an ODBC sub-system for years. It is well documented and fairly complete.
MS even includes several drivers. |
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Apple has never had very good
support for ODBC. iODBC installed by default may be required to be patched
with fixes from www.iodbc.org. OSX 10.5 is required. |
An application can access
the data source by talking directly to the driver but most
applications expect to use a DSN. A DSN is a name (used to refer to
the data source) and a few settings such as; server name, database etc.
The settings vary slightly between drivers so you may want to check
with the drivers documentation for details.
Most ODBC sub-systems have a graphical tool to aid in creating a DSN. Some ODBC sub-systems have command-line tools for advanced Users.
The ODBC Administrator is
a graphical tool which aids the User in configurating the ODBC
sub-system. Common tasks are;
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Linux machines running the
unixODBC sub-system have several methods to register an installed driver
and manage data source names. They are listed here in order of ease
of use; ODBCConfig, odbcinst, and a text editor. Refer to the
unixODBC (www.unixodbc.org) documentation for details. Note: Some Linux
distros (such as RedHat) have several RPM's for unixODBC - if possible
install all of them. |
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MS Windows Users should use the
ODBC Administrator to manage drivers and data source names. This program
can be found in the 'Control Panel'. |
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ODBC Administrator that cames with the driver manager(iODBC). |
Data Architect has a menu
item and toolbar button to quickly access your systems ODBC Administrator. This
allows the User to quickly and easily manage drivers and data source
names with a familiar tool. Figure 1 shows the ODBC Administrator.
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figure 1 ODBC Administrator |
Data Architect contains an ODBC Browser. This feature can be used to browse the ODBC sub-system on your machine. This can be helpful when debugging problems with your ODBC sub-system or just to learn more about what is availible in your ODBC sub-system and data sources.
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figure 2 ODBC Browser |