First, what is ODBC? As defined by Webopedia,
it is an abbreviation of Open DataBase Connectivity, a standard
database access method developed by Microsoft
Corporation. The goal of ODBC is to make it possible to
access any data from any application, regardless of which
database management system (DBMS) is handling the data. ODBC
manages this by inserting a middle layer, called a database
driver , between an application and the DBMS. The purpose
of this layer is to translate the application's data queries
into commands that the DBMS understands.
You can create DSN (Date Source Name) records to access databases
of different formats under Windows plan. DSN records are created
based on ODBC drivers - one for each database format. H-Sphere
offers several ODBC drivers for you to choose from, including
Microsoft Paradox, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Visual FoxPro,
Microsoft dBase and Microsoft Excel.
ODBC Service is available in Windows 2000 Plan.
To open ODBC service, select the ODBC menu item in
the user control panel:
Typically, ODBC service is not available by default. To enable
it, click the button in the window that appears first:
After that, the ODBC Service becomes available in your account.
Creating a new DSN Record
When you enable ODBC Service, you are brought to the list
of ODBC drivers available on the server:
Click the [CREATE] link for
the DSN you would like to create. After that, a DSN form will
appear. It will be different depending on the DSN type:
- In the DSN field enter the second part of your
full DSN name. The first part of your full DSN name is your
Windows login. In the applications/scripts that you run on
your server you must use the full DSN name, e.g. testvi0-mydatabase
as in the above example.
- Directories and file names must include paths relative
to your home dir, (the SourceDB field should include the
name of the database and the extension).
H-Sphere shows the list of drivers installed at your Win-box,
which may vary for every user. For more details on each driver's
parameters, please refer to the driver specification; e.g.
you can find all information about MS SQL DSN configuration
on the Microsoft Web Site at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odbcsql/od_odbc_c_99yd.asp.
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