Re: DBI and DBD::ODBC and MS Access

From: Aaron Craig (mercutio_at_pobox.com)
Date: 11/22/03 

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2003 10:10:53 GMT

<ignoring questions I don't know the answers to>

ZafT wrote:
> Thanks for the reply, but now I'm feeling a little less confident. I have
> to make this work somehow. I guess I have several questions that I can't
> seem to find any real answers to:
>

> 2) How do I set up ODBC? Do I have to point it to the database?
>
On a Windows 2000 machine, you do this through Control Panel >
Administrative Tools > ODBC and configure a System DSN. That entails
selecting the driver (in your case mdb), the .mdb file that is the
database and optionally setting a user name and password.

I've only ever done this with a local file. If the file is on another
server, there are options to configure a network drive (through a LAN,
http or ftp) and apparently you can access a remote mdb file in this
way. I've never tried it, though.

> 3) Is there any special config in IIS to allow this?
>
The server software doesn't matter for ODBC, as far as I know. I run
Apache on my local windows machine and I have a number of dirty Access
databases connecting to Perl through ODBC that I access with various CGI
scripts.

> 4) Using ActivePerl, do I need any other modules than the DBI and DBD::ODBC
> ones?
You shouldn't do.

> 5) Has anyone here ever done this before?
>
Again, I haven't done it remotely, but I do have
Win2K/Apache/DBI/DBD::ODBC and Perl (not ActiveState, I built it myself,
but this shouldn't make a difference) all quite happily running a number
of CGI scripts.
>
> Also, I have heard conflicting information on wether or not Access actually
> needs to be _Running_ on the server. The guy who pointed me in this
> direction has never done it before, but he swears it's easy. That's usually
> the problem.. It's sad when I can set up MySQL to handle it for free, but
> being in a MS certified environment forces me to use either MS SQL
> (expensive and beyond budget) or Access.
>
Apparently, the Access driver is freely available and distributable.
Check with MS for confirmation. That should mean that the computer
hosting the ODBC connection should have the Access drivers installed,
but does not necessarily need to have the entire Access application
installed. This is heresay, but comes from a fairly reliable source.
At least it should get you hunting in the right direction.

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