Web access to RDBMS using ODBC Open Database Connectivity

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Web access to RDBMS using ODBC (Open Database
Connectivity)
Filbert Minj National Centre for Science
Information (NCSI)Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore - 560 012 (E-Mail filbert_at_ncsi.iisc.er
net.in)
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Web access to RDBMS using ODBC (Open Database
Connectivity)

• ODBC is a standardized API (Application
  Programming Interface)
• ODBC provides a robust set of functions for
  access to a database.
• ODBC is a function set that provides an interface
  that is portable to multiple platforms and RDBMSs
• Web access to RDBMS is basically for Structured
  Database

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Software Requirements (Windows platform only)

• Windows95/98, Windows NT with Web Browser
• RDBMS
• ODBC Driver for that RDBMS
• Web Server
• CGI Program
• Client Server Architecture

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Web access to FoxPro Database

• Basic steps
• Create FoxPro Database
• Create data source using ODBC administrator
• Double click Start/Control Panel/ODBC Data
  Sources (32bit)
• Click System DSN tab then Add button

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• Choose the ODBC Driver and press Finish button

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Give new Data Source Name, Description and path
of the Database then press OK
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To Configure Connection press File DSN tab, Add,
choose Driver and give same data source as System
DSN
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Give the path of the database
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Web access to FoxPro Database Cont

• If no error then done
• Create HTML file with forms where ACTION
  attribute points a CGI program.
• Put HTML file in document root directory of the
  web server
• Write CGI program
• Put CGI program in script alias directory
  (CGI-BIN usually)

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For Demo

• Microsoft Personal Web Server is used
• C\WEBSHARE\WWWROOT is the (default) document
  root directory
• C\WEBSHARE\SCRIPTS is the (default) directory
  where executables (CGI programs) reside
• Active Perl is used for writing CGI program

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For Demo Cont

• It is installed in
• C\PERL\BIN - executables
• C\PERL\LIB and C\PERL\SITE\LIB - library files
• ODBC.pm (perl module) and ODBC.PLL files are
  needed for writing CGI program using ODBC
• These files are in C\PERL\LIB or
  C\PERL\SITE\LIB directory
• Microsoft Visual FoxPro is used for creating
  database

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For Demo

• Table book with the following fields have been
  created
• Title char (200)
• Author char (50)
• Pub_year char (4)
• Publisher char (20)
• Acc_no char (10)
• Language char (10) with Acc_no as a primary key

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Demo Follows
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