RE : HELP! ODBC drivers for VB3-Oracle on HP UNIX

Funny you should ask this question, I'm working at SaskTel Mobility (right in Regina too) and I'm doing the same kind of research.

What I have been doing to date is using Oracle's ODBC driver (the one that is free from Oracle) to do all my database work. I am also using VB 3.0 to talk to our new Oracle 7.1 database on an HP UNIX box.

This is what I have found to date:

• Oracle does not like to support ODBC
• Oracle has contracted out the ODBC to Intersolve
• Oracle does NOT support the ODBC driver and will not exactly answer any questions on how the thing operates.

I think I am going to go for the Intersolve ODBC driver suite. They do have a VB development suite (MultiLink/VB I think it is called). The current release of the ODBC driver (16-b it) from Intersolve is 2.11.

I am also facing the issue of getting the latest ODBC manager from MS. They don't seem to know much about it either (funny they make the thing). The release of it is 2.01 from what I understand.

One thing to note is that I have been doing VB/Oracle 7.X development for some time. I do ALL my database processing as PASSTHGOUGH. There is no other way to talk to Oracle. Non-PassThrough methods don't work worth a hoot.

I have no problems talking to Oracle what so ever, However, I hope to see ASYNC processing become available in the near future (ie VB gets control back from Oracle after executing a stored proc).

Overall, the hunt to find answers to ODBC and Oracle connectivity is poor if you are going to use the Oracle ODBC. If you use one from a company like Intersolve (and there are others) then you will get all your questions answered. EXCEPT when you want to know what ODBC will do when talking to SQLNet 1.X/2.X. This is the Oracle world once again (for example, if you PC reboots and you have SQLNet 1.X, Oracle will not see the connection is lost and will keep processing the ID until the SQL is complete.). So if your ODBC supports one type of feature, REMEBER that you must make sure the SQLNet will allow for this feature to occur (SQLNet 2.X has DeadConnection Detection to remove any lost processes).

I think you and I sould have a talk sometime, especially if you are in Regina!!

Rob Schick
SHL SystemHouse
rschick_at_shl.com Received on Thu Nov 16 1995 - 00:00:00 CET