Migration to FairCom DB SQL ODBC

With more and more traditional c-tree users leveraging the power of FairCom DB SQL, FairCom has labored to keep this transition as easy as possible. While we strive for the utmost in compatibility, we occasionally find areas where it is possible to encounter unexpected situations. The c-tree ODBC and FairCom DB SQL ODBC drivers are both fully standards compliant, however, subtle differences do exist. We have summarized these differences here.

• All table names returned by the FairCom DB SQL ODBC Driver are as ‘owner.tablename’ without regard to the server configuration option SQL_OPTION OWNER_FILE_NAMES
• The SQL_OPTION OWNER_FILE_NAMES only affects the name of the table created on disk. It determines whether the owner name is pre-pended to the physical table name or not. Table names returned by the ODBC driver are not affected by this FairCom DB SQL option.
• Using the c-tree ODBC driver it was common practice to represent the symbolic table name in uppercase. You can use uppercase table names in FairCom DB SQL as long as you do not wrap them in double quotes.

Another option is to use the SQL_OPTION DB_CASE_INSENSITIVE keyword before creating the template database and the FairCom DB SQL databases.

Troubleshooting

FairCom DB setup error 126 during ODBC installation phase

Issue:

When you are installing your FairCom DB package you get an error 126 during the ODBC Installation Phase.

Note: This issue may happen on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Cause:

The needed Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package was not installed properly because of missing Windows dependencies.

Solutions:

Solution 1: Make sure your Windows operating system is up-to-date. Please use Windows Update to get all the latest updates.

Solution 2: Manually download and install the Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable Package from the Microsoft website.

Glossary

add [an ODBC data source]

Make a data source available to ODBC through the Add operation of the ODBC Administrator utility. Adding a data source tells ODBC where a specific database resides and which ODBC driver to use to access it. Adding a data source also invokes a setup dialog box for the particular driver so you can provide other details the driver needs to connect to the database.

ADMIN

The default owner name for all system tables in a FairCom DB SQL database. Users must qualify references to system tables as ADMIN.tablename.

client

Generally, in client/server systems, the part of the system that sends requests to servers and processes the results of those requests.

FairCom DB SQL environment

An open database created by the combination of FairCom DB SQL layered on top of the FairCom DB Server.

data source

See ODBC data source

delete [an ODBC data source]

Remove information about an ODBC data source through the Delete operation of the ODBC Administrator utility. Deleting a data source does not delete the database it corresponds to, but removes information about the database's location from the ODBC.INI file or registry key.

delimited identifiers

Names in SQL statements enclosed in double quotation marks (“”). Enclosing a name in double quotation marks preserves the case of the name and allows it to include reserved words and special characters. Subsequent references to a delimited identifier must also use enclosing double quotation marks.

ODBC Administrator

Microsoft-supplied utility to add and delete ODBC data sources and drivers. The Administrator maintains two files (or registry keys).

• ODBC.INI details all the ODBC data sources an application can access from a system, and specifies which driver ODBC should use to access each data source.
• ODBCINST.INI details all the drivers that have been installed on a system.
  
  The installation procedure installs the Administrator if it is not already present on a system. To invoke it, click on the ODBC icon in the Control Panel applications of the Windows Program Manager.

ODBC application

Any program that calls ODBC functions and uses them to issue SQL statements. Many vendors have added ODBC capabilities to their existing Windows-based tools.

ODBC data source

In ODBC terminology, a specific combination of a database system, the operating system it uses, and any network software required to access it. Before applications can access a database through ODBC, you use the ODBC Administrator to add a data source -- register information about the database and an ODBC driver that can connect to it -- for that database. More than one data source name can refer to the same database, and deleting a data source does not delete the associated database.

ODBC driver

Vendor-supplied software that processes ODBC function calls for a specific data source. The driver connects to the data source, translates the standard SQL statements into syntax the data source can process, and returns data to the application.

ODBC driver manager

A Microsoft-supplied program that routes calls from an application to the appropriate ODBC driver for a data source.

query expression

The fundamental element in SQL syntax. Query expressions specify a result table derived from some combination of rows from the tables or views identified in the FROM clause of the expression. Query expressions are the basis of SELECT, DECLARE CURSOR, CREATE VIEW, and INSERT statements

result set

Another term for result table.

result table

A temporary table of values derived from columns and rows of one or more tables that meet conditions specified by a query expression.

SQL engine

The core internal component of FairCom DB SQL. The SQL engine receives requests from the FairCom DB SQL ODBC driver, processes them, and returns results.

view

A virtual table that recreates the result table specified by a SELECT statement. No data is stored in a view, but other queries can refer to it as if it were a table containing data corresponding to the result table it specifies.

FairCom Typographical Conventions

Before you begin using this guide, be sure to review the relevant terms and typographical conventions used in the documentation.

The following formatted items identify special information.