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How does ODBC work?

April 26, 2017ODBC

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How does ODBC work?

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Quick answer: Just like printing! Install the database vendor’s official “ODBC driver” on the machine where you are running your web server or desktop application. (The ODBC driver is directly analogous to a printer driver.) This process usually only takes about 2-3 minutes and is fully automated, but if such a machine is running Linux or Mac OS X (or even Classic Mac OS), the database vendor probably has not provided a well-supported ODBC driver, so you’ll have a couple of quick options to consider: • For some popular databases, such as SQLServer or Access, there are freeware hacks where someone stayed up late trying to figure out enough of the database vendor’s protocol to get something working and then uploaded the code onto Sourceforge, or some company such as ORACLE released a free UNIX “developer-program SDK” that was downloaded by a guy in Indiana who Actually sold it for $10-$20 as some kind of ODBC driver. Good luck. • For other databases, an obscure company presumably went to