'''ODBC''', an acronym for '''Open Database Connectivity'''.  [TDBC] provides
an ODBC driver, whch, as of Tcl version 8.6, is part of the core Tcl
distribution.


** See Also **

   [Excel]:   
   
   [Database Interface]:   

   [Interacting with databases]:   


** Documentation **

   [http://www.openlinksw.com/info/docs/odbcwhp/tableof/|Open Database Connectivity Without Compromise!] ,Kingsley Idehen ,1993:   

   [http://www.openlinksw.com/info/docs/odbcwhp/open/#Connectivity%20Standard%|%ODBC Standard]:   

   [http://www.dataaccess.com/whitepapers/odbc.htm|ODBC: a Technical Overview] ,Ben Weijers ,2001-01-09:   


** Utilities **

   [Odbcisql], by [TP]:   A nice companion to TclODBC is  [http://www.nyx.net/~tpoindex/tcl.html#Odbcisql].  Odbcisql is a Tk-based SQL processor for ODBC databases.

   [Miscellaneous Tcl procs (Dillinger)%|%MOODBC]:   an ODBC-like extension that allows you to connect to Postgres, Sybase, MS SQL Server, and mSQL databases 


** Tcl Interfaces **

   [TDBC]:   an ODBC driver for [TDBC] is included with [Tcl] since version 8.6

   [Tclodbc]:   Prior to [TDBC], the most popular ODBC interface

   [moodss]:   has an '''odbcquery''' module

   [odbcisql]:   Windowing SQL processor for ODBC connected databases.

   [extension to SOLID database server] (defunct):   

   [odbctcl]:   an old [Tcl] interface to ODBC, superseded by [TDBC]

   [pgsql] (defunct):   Enhanced interface library to Postgresql 6.0 backend

   [SnODBC]:   An extension providing access to ODBC 3.0 API in [tclodbc]-like manner

   [TclSQL]:   Another Windows-only [C++]-based SQL 3.0 ODBC extension for reading,inserting,updating, and deleting records from a database.  The source code and nifty starkit on how to use tktable with SQL Server are included at the sourceforge project website. The starkit show's a working example of how to update a SQL table using the tktable widget.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/tclsql
   [HellerTclODBC]:   a rewrite of [Tclodbc] in plain [C].

   [COMPANY: Belgian Graphic Interface]:   at one point, provided [BgiTclodbc] a package of their own called [Tclodbc] which was unrelated [Tclodbc] or the other [ODBC] packages.

   Thomas tclodbc:   in 1999, Vince Thomas, v p t h o m a at u s dot i b m dot c o m, ported a portion of tclodbc to use the CLI interface to DB2.  He stopped work on it once he got things to work for himself.

** Applications **

   [Helga] (defunct):   Reduce code length and complexity for applications mixing CGI HTML, ODBC, and Tcl



** Description **

ODBC is a database API.  It uses [SQL] for the actual queries.  It is an
implementation of the standard SQL/[CLI] API.  [[Note: ODBC itself does not
contain any ''networking'' functions, that is a common misunderstanding.
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 since version
10.2 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 where 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 access 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).

 
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