Success!
It is possible to interface ColdFusion MX (CFMX) running on OS X
10.2.1 (Jaguar) to a MS-Access database running under VirtualPC
emulated WinXP on the same machine.
This should also be possible on a Linux Box using VMWare.
Everything seems to work well (limited testing, so far).
A similar setup could be used for SQL-Server or any other db which
runs on Windows.
MS-Acces is particularly important because:
It is so ubiquitous
the cost of ownership is low
What this (potentially) means is that CFMX developers, using a
non-Windows platform, for the first time can directly interface
MS-Access databases.
As a Mac user this means that for the first time I can run CFMX native
and manipulate MS-Access database -- not for production, but as a means
to capture information from an existing MS-Access db.
I am pretty excited about this!
Dick
Scenario 1:
1) You walk into a client's office, connect your laptop to the client's
network and copy his .mdb database to
your * non-Windows* laptop.
2) Ad Hoc, you specify a few datasources, and a simple CF Template.
<cfquery name="getMSAccessDB" Datasource="MSAccessDB">
SELECT * FROM MSAccessTable
</cfquery>
<cfdump var="#getMSAccessDB#">
3) You demonstrate a prototype of the client's Intranet/Internet
application using his data on your * non-Windows* laptop.
Scenario 2 :
1) You FTP download the MS-Access db in advance
2) You setup a more elaborate demo still using the emulated MS-Access db
3) You demonstrate a prototype of the client's Intranet/Internet
application using his data on your * non-Windows* laptop.
Scenario 3 :
1) You FTP download the MS-Access db in advance
2) You use the emulated MS-Access DB to create and populate an more
robust RDBMS that runs native.
3) You setup a more elaborate demo using the native RDBMS
4) You demonstrate a prototype of the client's Intranet/Internet
application using his data on your *non-Windows* laptop.
On Tuesday, October 1, 2002, at 05:32 AM, Dick Applebaum wrote:
> Objective:
>
> Connect a windows machine (emulated with VirtualPC) to a network on the
> host Mac OS X machine.
>
> The CF tie-in is that I want to Use CFMX on OS X to manipulate
> MS-Access databases on the Emulated windows machine. The MS-Access
> databases will not be used in production, rather, the CF programs will
> extract the MS-Access data and put it into a more-robust RDBMS (usually
> validating data, changing the schema, normalizing, etc.). CFML is an
> excellent language for doing this,
>
> This is not just an Mac OS X issue -- A Linux or Unix-based CFMX system
> often needs to get data from MS-Access databases.
>
> Sure there other ways to do this, but they all involve extra steps
> and/or extra hardware & fiddling around -- the elegant way is to write
> a CF program to directly manipulate the MS-Access tables and create and
> populate the real RDBMS tables (normalizing and creating relationships
> in the process).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4
Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists&body=lists/cf_talk
FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq
Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in
ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm
