Re: backsql/OpenLink include files (ITS#801)

[mitya@seismic.geol.msu.ru]

Here's summary of our correspondence on this matter:

DK> Hello Jerry!
DK>
DK> Didn't quite catch you ;)... You can download those libraries and includes
needed
DK> to build back-sql for free, as they are part of either iODBC or unixODBC
DK> open-source driver managers...  But you have to find ODBC drivers for your
RDBMS
DK> to work with those driver managers, and that is where Openlink may help you
(but
DK> there is only trial version free). Also you could check Merant drivers and
DK> EasySoft ODBC-ODBC bridge...
DK> If this is not what you asked about  - please be more specific ;)
DK>
DK> WBW, Dmitry

Worth noting that there's a work in progress to test back-sql with unixODBC and
OOB, which will hopefully be committed upon completion

JA> More specifically, I was trying to compile using the OpenLink SDK library and

JA> includes, but was getting errors about missing sql.h and sqlext.h files
during the
JA> "make depend" step.
JA>
JA> I've installed iODBC and the compile worked fine. I'm more familiar with
OpenLink
JA> products so I tried it first. Thanks for the response, though...


DK> Could you please tell more about OpenLink SDK? I'm not at all familiar with
it, and
DK> when I tested back-sql it seemed that their solution is based on ODBC driver
manager
DK> (they provide a driver that use their mid-tier broker and DBMS-specific
agents to
DK> provide access)...
DK> Does this SDK replace full-fledged driver manager to reduce number of "hops"
a request
DK> goes through?

JA> As it turns out, I was confused and going in the wrong direction. OpenLink
SDK does not
JA> contain the proper includes (sql.h and sqlext.h, for example) to compile
OpenLDAP
JA> back-sql. I had to install the iODBC Driver Manager. Which seems odd to me
because I'm not
JA> using it to 'manage' any 'drivers', but oh well...

Well, it comes from Openlink's architecture. Instead of supplying just plain
simple drivers for each supported RDBMS, they supply one driver which acts as a
bridge to their broker, which uses RPC & internal protocols to communicate with
RDBMS through "agents". This gives cross-platfrom bridging capabilities, but also
adds one more tier... So with OpenLink's solution iODBC 'manages' only one driver
;)
What I asked was - maybe they have an option to link some their library with
standard driver manager API that directly communicates with broker, to eliminate
need for that fake driver. As far as I know, something like that can be done in
EasySofts OOB solution (though it also can work with general driver managers).

DK> Anyway, supporting universal driver seems like more general solution, because
it
DK> allows working with different vendors (such as Merant and EasySoft)...

JA> Agreed.

Note that on Win32 standard MS ODBC manager (odbc32.dll) is used instead of
iODBC, but this does not make any difference back-sql itself, of course.

DK> If you have any thoughts on this, please mail, and I will post them as
summary on your
DK> ITS and close it.

So I did ;)

WBW, Dmitry