Neoview ODBC Drivers Manual (R2.5)

2 HP Neoview ODBC Drivers Overview for UNIX
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a widely accepted application programming interface
(API) for database access. It is based on the Call-Level Interface (CLI) specifications from X/Open
and ISO/IEC for database APIs and uses Structured Query Language (SQL) as its database access
language.
ODBC is designed for maximum interoperability — that is, the ability of a single application to
access different database management systems (DBMSs) with the same source code. Database
applications call functions in the ODBC interface, which are implemented in database-specific
modules called drivers. The use of drivers isolates applications from database-specific calls in
the same way that printer drivers isolate word processing programs from printer-specific
commands. Because drivers are loaded at run time, a user only has to add a new driver to access
a new DBMS; it is not necessary to recompile or relink the application.
The HP Neoview ODBC driver for 32–bit drivers provides two libraries. One library is the ODBC
driver (libhodbc_drvr). The other library (libhpodbc) provides the driver manager
functionality along with the ODBC driver in a single library.
The HP Neoview ODBC driver for 64–bit drivers provides two libraries. One library is the ODBC
driver (libhpodbc64_drvr.x) and the other library (libhpodbc64.x) provides the driver
manager functionality along with the ODBC driver in a single library.
If you use the 32-bit driver, libhpodbc.drvr, or the 64-bit driver, libhpodbc_drvr64.x,
you will need to use a third-party driver manager. Commonly used driver managers include
Data Direct, iODBC, and unixODBC. For information about using third-party driver managers,
see “Using the Driver With a Third Party Driver Manager” (page 39).
The packaged driver manager supports only the HP Neoview ODBC driver.
This section describes:
• “Driver Components”
• “Data Sources”
• “Connections”
• “Object Naming and Mapping”
• “Passwords and Server Certificates” (page 34)
• “Release Considerations and Restrictions”
• “Traces”
• “Using the Driver With a Third Party Driver Manager”
• “Neoview Platform Specific Extensions and Attributes” (page 40)
• “INFOSTATS Command ”
• “Unsupported ODBC API Functions and Data Types”
Driver Components
To configure ODBC client access to the HP Neoview database, the HP Neoview Database
Connectivity Service (NDCS) requires data source definitions on both the Neoview database and
client workstation.
Driver Components 31