We have had a lot of questions regarding ODBC drivers and I want clarify
what the situation is with the use of non ODBC 3.0 drivers with Witango
Server 5.0.1.062.
Put simply there are several layers and interface versions to ODBC. The
witango applications communicate with the ODBC Driver Manager. This is the
library that presents our applications with a standard interface across all
platforms. It is the ODBC driver manager that loads the ODBC driver for
your database. The Witango Server does not access the ODBC Database Driver
directly, but through calls to the ODBC Driver Manager like this:
Witango ODBC3 ODBC ODBC3 ODBC ODBC3 --
Server <=======> Driver <=======> Database <=======> |DB|
Manager ODBC2 Driver ODBC2 --
Witango 5.0.1.062 is now what is known as a "pure ODBC 3.0 application"
which means that it is a 32-bit application that is compiled with 3.0
headers, calls ODBC 3.0 functions and expects ODBC 3.0 behavior for
features. This was necessary to fix issues with blob and clob data types
that are not supported in earlier versions of the ODBC interfaces.
What we have done in the 5.0.1.062 server is to make the server communicate
with the ODBC Driver Manager using the 3.x specification. Depending on how
well your ODBC Driver Manager is written the ODBC Driver Manager should
recognize that the ODBC database driver is using a version 2.x interface and
translate the ODBC 3 calls from the Witango Server to ODBC 2.x calls to the
ODBC database driver.
Witango ODBC3 ODBC ODBC2 ODBC ODBC2 --
Server <=======> Driver <=======> Database <=======> |DB|
Manager Driver --
It will then return the results to the Witango Server packaged in an ODBC
3.0 structure.
You will need to test your ODBC Driver Manager and ODBC database driver to
verify if they work. Most drivers should continue to work without
modification if the ODBC Driver Manager does a good job of translating the
calls and the ODBC database driver implements the full ODBC 2.5 interface.
If you find that the ODBC driver you are using does not work, check with
your database vendor on if/when a ODBC 3.0 driver will be available or
whether a JDBC driver is available.
Incidentally ODBC 3.0 was released back in 1996 so it has been around for a
while.
Phil
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