ODBC requirements

There are a number of requirements that must be satisfied if you intend to use USoft for ODBC. See your USoft Definer Guide for a description of USoft for ODBC and its use.

USoft for ODBC is a normal USoft application that connects to an (R)DBMS to retrieve and store data. The connection is made via an ODBC Driver. This could be useful when you wish to work with an RDBMS other than those directly supported by USoft (e.g. Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server). A restriction is that there must be an ODBC driver for this external (R)DBMS and that ODBC driver must support at least the requirements listed here.

USoft for ODBC could be particularly useful when used in combination with a stand-alone RDBMS on a Notebook or Laptop computer for demonstrations, presentations, on-site development, and so on.

ODBC driver requirements

A USoft for ODBC application requires an ODBC driver and a DBMS to access data. There are many ODBC drivers available on the market. Not all ODBC drivers can be used with USoft. Refer to your USoft DefinerHelp or USoft Definer Guide for full details of the minimum ODBC driver functionality required by a USoft ODBC application. A brief description of the ODBC conformance requirements is given below.

A USoft ODBC application does not check that all requirements are satisfied at start-up. Instead, it just activates the ODBC functions and sends SQL-statements to the driver at run-time. If the connected ODBC driver is not capable of executing the request it will return an error. USoft will retrieve the error message, show it to the user and cancel the requested action. This way it is possible to use an USoft ODBC application in combination with an ODBC driver that does not support the complete SQL syntax and all SQL data types and scalar functions.

As a work around you might need to change the application by changing or removing the error producing SQL or data type definitions. Whenever possible use an ODBC driver, which does support at least all the requirements. A list of DBMSs and ODBC drivers tested for use with USoft for ODBC will be provided with future releases.

ODBC conformance

ODBC drivers conform to certain conformance levels. There are conformance levels for ODBC functions (API) and SQL grammar. USoft Production for ODBC requires the following minimum conformance levels from the ODBC driver:

Functions

SQL_ODBC_API_CONFORMANCE must be >= 0

Grammar & Data Types

SQL_ODBC_SQL_CONFORMANCE must be >= 1

The ODBC driver MUST support transaction processing (Commit and Rollback) and transaction isolation level: SQL_TXN_REPEATABLE_READ or higher (SQL_TXN_SERIALIZABLE or SQL_TXN_VERSIONING).

The ODBC driver must be capable of having two or more connections active:

SQL_ACTIVE_CONNECTIONS >= 2

(three when creating application tables from within USoft Developer) and must be capable of having two or more active statements per connection:

SQL_ACTIVE_STATEMENTS >= 2

A USoft ODBC application conforms to the ODBC version 1.0 specification. It can therefore be used with ODBC version 1.0 and 2.0 drivers and driver managers (ODBC.DLL).

SQL_ODBC_VER must be >= 1

CONFRMNC.EXE (ODBC)

An example program called CONFRMNC.EXE is available. The program lists the conformance and capabilities of an ODBC driver.

To run the program, open a DOS command shell. Go to the BIN subdirectory of the installed USoft Series product set, e.g. C:\Program Files\USD8\BIN. Then type:

confrmnc.exe <outputfilename>

Where <outputfilename> is replaced by a filename for storing the retrieved information.

You are then prompted to enter the Data Source Name, User ID and password that will be used to make a connection. If the connection fails an error message will be displayed and the program stops.

If the connection to the ODBC driver succeeds, the following information will be written to the output file you specified when starting the program:

•Connection parameters

•Supported ODBC functions (Version 1.0 and 2.0)

•General driver information

•DBMS product information

•SQL support information

•Supported SQL data types

•Supported SQL scalar functions, divided into:

oNumeric functions

oString functions

oSystem functions

oTime & Date functions

oConvert functions