On Sat, 5 Sep 1998, David Maxwell wrote:
> 
> Has anyone managed to use perl on NetBSD to use an
> Access database on an NT server via ODBC?

I think you may need to re-think the problem before you start
using words like 'ODBC'. Do you really need ODBC, or do you just
want some database solution? Why do you want to use Access, the
database which forgets things? Why do you want to use perl? Is
it because you are proficient in perl, or because you have an
existing perl system, or because someone has told you to use perl?

Here is an article from comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix:

begin-----
From: Thornton Prime <thornton@yoyoweb.com>
Subject: Re: web based database
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 20:35:21 -0700

Curt Moore wrote:
>
> Does anyone know of a OBDC client for Access that runs under Linux?
>

The problem isn't an ODBC client for Linux, the problem is a
server for Access.

ODBC is an API, not a client server protocol. It does not define
any method for accessing data over a network, though many ODBC
drivers provide this functionality if such functionality is
available from the database server. MS Access is not a database
server. It is a database file format and a database engine. The
engine only runs on Windows platforms, and the file format has
not been publicly spec'd by MS.

Your only choice, if you are intent on using MS Access, is to buy
middleware. Several companies provide middleware bridges to ODBC
for JDBC (Java), so you could use MS Access, ODBC, the Middleware
product of your choice, JDBC, Java Servlets, the Apache Jserv
module, and Apache.

There is a company that sells "ODBC for Linux." What they are, in
fact, selling is a Linux client (which matches the ODBC API) to
their middleware product. It is, I guess, ODBC, but you will need
the middleware to access any database. They probably offer
ODBC-ODBC middleware gateway services, so you could conceivably
get things to work that way too. (Sorry, the name of the company
slips my mind at this point, but I am not a big fan of most
middle-tier data service applications ... I haven't found one
that doesn't decrease performance, flexibility, and capablity
between the server and the client.)

Personally, I have found MS Access unsuitable for all but the
most primitive of multi-user projects. I find MS Access useful,
but only as a report engine, query prototype builder, and as a
front end to a real database server.

A better solution is to find a database server that runs on
Linux, and then use an ODBC client driver with MS Access for a
front end. You will get better performance, stability, and data
integrity. There are open source databases that might fit the
bill, including PostgreSQL and mySQL.

thornton Prime

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Good luck with your database,
Andrew

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a.robbie@ugrad.unimelb.edu.au