Translations by Tao Wei

The Application communicates with the Driver Manager using the standard ODBC calls. The application does not care; where the data is stored, how it is stored, or even how the system is configured to access the data. The Application only needs to know the data source name (DSN) The Application is not hard wired to a particular database system. This allows the user to select a different database system using the ODBCConfig Tool.

The Driver Manager carries out a number of functions, such as: 1. Resolve data source names via odbcinst lib) 2. Loads any required drivers 3. Calls the drivers exposed functions to communicate with the database. Some functionality, such as listing all Data Source, is only present in the Driver Manager or via odbcinst lib).

The ODBC Drivers contain code specific to a Database System and provides a set of callable functions to the Driver Manager. Drivers may implement some database functionality when it is required by ODBC and is not present in the Database System. Drivers may also translate data types. ODBC Drivers can be obtained from the Internet or directly from the Database vendor. Check http://www.unixodbc.org for drivers

Perhaps the most common type of Database System today is an SQL Server SQL Servers with Heavy Functionality ADABAS-D Empress Sybase - www.sybase.com Oracle - www.oracle.com SQL Servers with Lite Functionality MiniSQL MySQL Solid The Database System may be running on the local machine or on a remote machine. It may also store its information in a variety of ways. This does not matter to an ODBC application because the Driver Manager and the Driver provides a consistent interface to the Database System.