Installation guide

14. mx.ODBC Driver/Manager Packages

This section includes specific notes for preconfigured subpackages and setups.

14.1 Driver/Manager Subpackage Notes

The following sections provide hints that apply to all mx.ODBC subpackages.

Please read carefully.

14.1.1 Windows Platform Notes

You should always use the mx.ODBC.Windows subpackage and access the

databases through the MS ODBC Driver Manager. The other packages provide

Unix based interfaces to the databases.

14.1.2 Unix Platform Notes

Even though there are many subpackages for specific databases which then

sometimes provide more functionality for that particular database, we would like

to encourage the use of ODBC managers such as the iODBC, unixODBC or

DataDirect ODBC managers, since these provide the best flexibility in terms of

database setup and configuration.

Using ODBC managers also enables you to easily switch from local databases to

cross-network databases by adding additional tiers in-between.

The binary distributions of mxODBC for Unix platforms usually only contain the

mx.ODBC.unixODBC and mx.ODBC.iODBC subpackages. For some platforms, the

mx.ODBC.DataDirect subpackage is also included, e.g. Linux x86 and x86_64.

14.2 mx.ODBC.Manager -- Generic ODBC

Driver Manager

In order to make writing cross-platform application easier with mxODBC, the

package provides a meta-subpackage to access the default platform ODBC driver

manager.

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