Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome to August Software's 32-Bit ODBC OverDriver for Windows. This software allows you to access Network Data Sources through standard ODBC drivers installed on an ODBC ROUTER in your enterprise network.

To use this ODBC OverDriver on your PC, you must have already installed Windows ODBC 2.5 or 3.X (included with Windows 2K/XP and Microsoft Office97 or later, as well as many other Windows applications). Also, your PC must be running a 32-bit Microsoft operating system such as Windows⁹⁵ or later or Windows^NT/2K/XP

Other ODBC OverDrivers are available for use with PowerMacintosh computers.

ODBC OverDriver also requires some kind of TCP/IP (Ethernet, Dial-up, Wireless, etc..) network connection to your enterprise ODBC ROUTER.

Installation

Installation of ODBC OverDriver on Windows is a simple one step process. Simply run the provided ODSETUP.EXE program (from the START->Run menu or an MS-DOS window) and follow the default prompts through the automatic installation program.

Configuring Network Data Sources

With your trusty new ODBC OverDriver safely installed you are ready to tell your PC about the network data sources you plan to use inside of your ODBC-aware applications (Excel, PowerBuilder, Visual C++, etc..)

STEP 1: Open your PC's Control-Panel and double-click on an icon labeled ODBC. If you can't find this icon, then repeat your ODBC installation (from within Microsoft Office Setup, Visual C++ Setup, etc..) After clicking the icon, you'll be greeted with Microsoft's ODBC Administrator dialog:

STEP 2: The above dialog is attempting to list all User Data Sources available to ODBC-applications on your PC.

Click Add to setup some network data sources for your applications.

STEP 3: Double-Click on AUGSOFT Network OverDRIVER list entry. If you can't find it in your list, then you may need to re-run the installation utility (see the section Installation).

After selecting the ODBC OverDriver, you will be greated with a dialog looking very similar to:

STEP 4: 

• Start by entering the name of the Network Data Source that you want to use in the Data Source Name field (capitalization, punctuation and spacing in the name are important) -- this name must exactly match the name of an entry in the System DSN property-tab of the ODBC32 control panel on the NT/2K/XP server hosting your ODBC ROUTER.

• Next, enter a valid IP address or domain name in the ODBC ROUTER field. You usually will not need to adjust the default Port number (unless directed to do so by your Administrator.).

• Next, you may elect to disable the OverDRIVER's username and password "pop-up". If your application does not supply a username and password, then the "pop-up" may appear (if not disabled) when connecting to this Network Data Source. For databases such as MS-Access that lack username/password security, it is a good idea to check this. For multi-user databases, you will not want to check this.

• Next, you may also enter a "default" value for the Username field in the OverDRIVER's username and password "pop-up". (This is ignored if you disabled the "pop-up".) For security reasons, you cannot specify a default value for the Password field.

• Certain Network Data Sources or Macintosh applications that you may encounter might require database-specific connection options. Under the direction of your Network Administrator, you may enter these options (of the form KEYWORD=VALUE;) into the "Connect Options" item, as desired. If you are using FileMakerPro 4.1 (but not later releases), you may choose to enter II=1 into this field when working with SYBASE or SQLServer data sources.

• When you're done filling out this dialog, click OK and repeat STEP 2 through STEP 4 for each additional Network Data Source you want to use on the NT server hosting your ODBC ROUTER.

Use with Microsoft's Office

The focal-point for integrating data from your Network Data Sources with the Microsoft Office productivity suite is an application called MS-Query. For example, Microsoft Excel will launch MS-Query when you select Get External Data... from the Data menu.

The process of retrieving or updating your database in MS-Query is called a "query". To create a new query, select New from the File menu. MS-Query will prompt you to select a network data source to work with.

Because MS-Query keeps its own list of data sources (apart from the ODBC control panel), you would double-click on the list-entry New Data Source.

Another dialog box will appear asking you to name the new data source (type in a descriptive name for the network data source you are defining and Tab to the next field).

Next, you will select the AUGSOFT Network OverDRIVER and then click on the button labeled Connect.

At this point, the AUGSOFT Network OverDriver will bring up the list of available network data sources you had previously defined in the UserDSN panel of the ODBC Administrator dialog (see Using Network Data Sources). (If desired, you can conveniently click on our Admin button to reactivate the ODBC Administrator panel and Add, Remove, or Modify additional data sources with the AUGSOFT Network OverDriver.)

Once you have selected the network data source you wish to use within MS-Query you're set to transparently access your enterprise data (through your network's ODBC ROUTER) and return it to MS-Excel.

Notes on Microsoft Access

Presently Microsoft's Access application has facilities for connecting to local Access-format database-files (.MDB files) as well as external ODBC data sources. Access-format database-files may also be used by other applications through Microsoft's Access ODBC Driver. However, the Microsoft Access application itself will not allow a user to open an Access-format database-file through ODBC.

Using an ODBC ROUTER in combination with the Microsoft Access ODBC Driver, many applications on MacOS and Windows may gain multi-user client/server access to Access-format database-files; however, due to the stated restriction, Access itself must continue to map the Access-format database-files using standard Windows file-sharing techniques.

Programmer's Reference

ODBC OverDriver 2.5.0 implements the following interfaces on all supported platforms, as defined by Microsoft's official ODBC 2.5 specification. In this way, full interoperability is achieved between 2.5 and 3.x drivers installed on your network's ODBC ROUTER (MS-Access, etc..).

NOTE: Some bizzar ODBC drivers for Windows NT might make use of special driver-specific extensions to the official ODBC specification, for example, to define non-standard datatypes. The ODBC OverDriver and ODBC ROUTER make every effort to support such drivers in a networked environment; however, compatibility may vary. If you encounter such a driver, ask its manufacture to get in touch with support-at-augsoft.com so that we can quickly resolve any compatibility issues for you.