Purpose: discuss Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and its connection to Tcl.
http://www.dataaccess.com/ChangePage.asp?PageCode=SUP_G_26WP appears to be a technical overview white paper on ODBC.
Short overview
ODBC is a database API. ODBC is actually an implementation of the standard SQL/CLI API. [Note: ODBC itself does not contain any networking functions. Individual database drivers often do, though.]
The best known ODBC implementation is the one by Microsoft that comes with Windows, but MacOS X also comes with its own implementation and there are several implementations on other Unixes and Linux.
ODBC implementations consist of a middleware layer with which applications link and a driver layer that is implemented by individual database drivers. In addition the middleware layer implements a configuration repository (often with a GUI) where the drivers are configured and so-called "data sources" can be defined.
A data source is a database access definition. Such a data source commonly contains the hostname, database instance name and sometimes user and password. While such database accesss parameters can be used by the applications directly, it is usually easier to setup a data source and have the application only specify the data source name (DSN).
What: Helga
Where: ftp://ftp.cmh.on.ca/pub/helga/
Description: Reduce code length and complexity for applications mixing
CGI HTML, ODBC, and Tcl. Comes with both 16 and 32 bit Windows
NT and Windows 95 versions.
Updated:
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (Richard Maw)
What: moodss
Where: http://jfontain.free.fr/moodss-16.1.tar.gz
http://jfontain.free.fr/moodss-8.27.tar.gz
http://jfontain.free.fr/nmicmpd-0.99i-2.i386.rpm
http://jfontain.free.fr/nmicmpd-0.99i-2.spec
Description: The Modular Object Oriented Dynamic SpreadSheet (moodss)
package is implemented in Tcl/Tk 8 and displays tabular data
defined in independant modules. Complete help is provided.
Graphically can display graphs, side and stacked bar charts,
2 and 3d pie charts, summary tables,
and supports multiple element drag and drop.
Has multiple module concurrent support, help, summary tables.
Makes use of ghostscript to do print previewing.
Uses Tcl/Tk 8.3.1, tkTable 2.x, tkpiechart 5.2, BLT 2.4i.
Some modules are provided as examples which show graphical displaying
of apache/apachex, arp, cpustats, core trace, diskstats,
kernmods, memstats, moomps (Modular Object Oriented
MultiPurpose Servce),
mounts, MySQL, netdev, odbcquery, pci, ping, ps,
random, route, SNMP/snmptrap,
system. and trace modules, etc.
It can even keep track of all of this info on multiple servers.
Supports use of ssh for secure remote invocations.
Modules can be written in Tcl, Perl, Python, or C.
Complete HTML documentation is also included.
Tested with Unix and Windows 95.
A Redhat rpm with moodss, BLT, and TkTable is available.
Version 8.x corresponds to the Tcl/Tk 8.0 based releases.
Revisions to Version 8.x will cease to occur when Tcl/Tk 8.2
or newer becomes part of the main Linux distributions.
Version 9.x corresponds to Tcl/Tk 8.2.x.
Version 16.x corresponds to Tcl/Tk 8.3 and newer.
Updated: 05/2002
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (Jean-Luc Fontaine)
mailto:[email protected]?subject=subscribe
with "subscribe"
What: odbcisql
Where: ftp://ftp.procplace.com/pub/tcl/sorted/databases/odbcisql/1.0/
Description: Windowing SQL processor for ODBC connected databases,
using Tcl/Tk/Tclodbc.
Updated: 02/2000
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (Tom Poindexter)
What: extension to SOLID database server
Where: http://www.solidtech.com/market/products/web/
http://www.solidtech.com/market/products/web/odbc.tgz
Description: The ODBC tar file is a Tcl extension for the SOLID database
server.
Updated: 06/1998
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (Arttu Huhtiniemi)
What: odbctcl
Where: ftp://ftp.procplace.com/pub/tcl/sorted/packages-7.6/databases/odbctcl-0.2/odbctcl-0.2.zip
Description: Tcl interface to ODBC.
Binary distribution for Tcl 7.6 or Tcl 8.0a2 for Windows.
It was compiled with Borland C++ 4.5 using Win32 API, so it should
run under Windows NT, Windows 95, and Windows 3.1 (with Win32s),
as well as Linux 2.0.6.
This is an alpha release (meaning that interfaces may change).
Updated: 10/1998
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (Jose L Porcayo)
What: pgsql
Where: http://www.pgsql.com/
ftp://ftp.procplace.com/pub/tcl/sorted/packages-7.6/distrib/neoscript/webtcl/OLD/pgsql6.0/pgtcl.tar.gz ???
http://www.askesis.nl/AskesisPostgresIndex.html
http://aldev.8m.com/
http://aldev.webjump.com/
http://www3.bcity.com/aldev/
http://members.spree.com/technology/aldev/
http://www.insightdist.com/psqlodbc/
http://www.mutinybaysoftware.com/
Description: Enhanced interface library to Postgresql 6.0 backend.
Derived from Postgresql's libpgtcl. Intended to be used
by NeoWebScript, but should be generally useful.
Provides additional features such as postgres connections
via Tcl channels, IO routines defined for the connection
handles, Currently at v642-6.
Updated: 07/1999
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (Randy Kunkee)
mailto:[email protected]
What: PostgreSQL
Where: http://www.postgresql.org/
http://www.ids.net/%7Ebjepson/freeODBC/
http://www.openlinksw.com/
http://www.demon.co.uk/finder/postgres/
http://www.ucolick.org/%7Ede/tcl_syb/wisql.html
ftp://rocker.sch.bme.hu/pub/mirrors/postgreSQL/
http://www.illustra.com/
http://aldev.8m.com/
http://aldev.webjump.com/
http://www3.bcity.com/aldev/
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/
http://www.pgsql.com/
http://www.askesis.nl/AskesisPostgresIndex.html
http://members.spree.com/technology/aldev/
http://field.medicine.adelaide.edu.au/%7Ecolin/libtclpq/
ftp://field.medicine.adelaide.edu.au/pub/libtclpq/libtclpq.tgz
Description: PostgreSQL is a derivitive of POSTGRES 4.2, converted to ANSI C.
POSTGRES is a database management system. It is compliant with
ANSI SQL92 and SQL89. It supports a number of enhancements,
such as inheritance, declaritive queries, optimization,
concurrency control, transactions, mult-user support, user defined
operators, types, functions, and access methods.
APIs exist for C, C++, Java, Perl4, Perl5, Python, SQL and Tcl.
Free versions of drivers for ODBC and JDBC are under development.
A commercial version of PostgreSQL is available via Illustra, Inc.
The most recent version is 6.4.2-5.
Updated: 04/1999
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (PostGres95 mailing list)
What: tcl dbi
Where: http://rrna.uia.ac.be/dbi/
Description: Generic Tcl interface for accessing different SQL databases.
Presents a generic API to open/query/change databases. Currently
supports Interbase, Postgres, and ODBC, but is written in a way
that makes it possible to add other back ends.
Updated: 03/2002
Contact: mailto:[email protected]
What: TclDBI
Where: From the contact
Description: Based on the MODDBC project, contact has put the code
into a namespace, updated the drivers, added a driver for ODBC.
It also supports Postgres, Sybase, and msql.
Updated: 09/2000
Contact: mailto:[email protected]
What: Tclodbc (bgi-sa)
Where: http://www.bgi-sa.com/
Description: Tcl to ODBC interface in dll form for win95/NT. Works with Tcl 8.0
A sample query wizard using both tclwin and tclodbc is provided.
Updated: 12/1998
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (N.Frankinet)
What: Tclodbc (nurmi)
Where: http://sf.net/projects/tclodbc/
http://jfontain.free.fr/tclodbc-2.2.1-1.i386.rpm
http://jfontain.free.fr/tclodbc-2.2.1-1.spec
http://www.solagem.fi/%7Ernurmi/tclodbc.html
http://www.solagem.fi/%7Ernurmi/tclodbc.zip
http://www.ccp.uchicago.edu/%7Esteva/mactclodbc
http://tcl.activestate.com/software/tcltk/netcvs.html
http://tcl.activestate.com/live/keyword?keywords=tclodbc
http://www.unixodbc.org/
Description: Object oriented ODBC database interface for Tcl.
Supports multiple simultaneous connections, transaction
handling, precompiled SQL statements and SQL argument
handling. As of 2.1, supports Tcl 7.6, 8.0 and 8.1. When
using Tcl 8.1, Unicode support is available. The
version 8.1 DLL also supports Tcl 8.2.
The uchicago site is a port of the extension to MacTcl.
Currently at v2.1.
Updated: 11/2001
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (Roy Nurmi)
mailto:[email protected] (Steve Aronson)
What: tclodbc (thomas)
Where: From the contact
Description: Contact porting a portion of tclodbc to use the CLI interface
to DB2. He stopped work on it once he got things to work
for himself.
Updated: 07/1999
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (Vince Thomas)
What: Windows NT Extensions Set
Where: http://zazu.maxwell.syr.edu/nt-tcl/
ftp://ftp.maxwell.syr.edu/tcl/tcl82/nt-tcl82.zip
ftp://ftp.maxwell.syr.edu/pub/tcl/stubs/nt-tcl82stubs.zip
http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Espencer/guraldi/gdtcl.html
ftp://ftp.maxwell.syr.edu/pub/tcl/tcl76/ntext-prelim.zip
Description: Extensions specifically for managing x86 Windows NT. The
ntsys extension handles adding, enumerating and deleting users,
local and global groups, retrieving user account info, retrieving,
modifying and setting file and directory permissions.
The ODBC extension provides basic support.
The registry extension is a port of Gordon Chaffee's work in TkNT with
some enhancments.
The gdtcl is a port of gdtcl and gd for doing GIF creation and
manipulation. The gdtcl extension includes a safe entry point and
thus can be used with the Tcl plugin.
tclping provides access to the icmp echo protocol.
shortcut is an extension to create and maintain Windows 95/NT
shortcuts.
The entire package has been built with MSVC++ 5.0.
The author mentions that none of these have been tested with
Windows 95. Some may work - the NT specific ones obviously won't.
Updated: 09/1999
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (Christopher M. Sedore)See also Tclodbc, Excel, Database Interface, Interacting with databases .