Intersolv/ODBC

[Per E. Johannessen]

Some time ago I bought the Intersolv DataDirect ODBC Pack and I got it in unopened condition.
The software came on three diskettes and they turn out to be for Windows only!
On the box it is clearly stated "OS/2 2.x " under "System Requirements".

Does anyone know where I can obtain the ODBC drivers for OS2?

[Sean Casey]

I made the same mistake.  I purchased the Intersolv DataDirect ODBC Pack that's currently for sale on eBay.   System requirements identifies OS/2.

I recall reading somewhere (Douglas Clark?) that Intersolv never sold retail an OS/2 ODBC Pack.  The OS/2 ODBC Pack was bundled with the Q+E/Intersolv Developer's ToolKit.   If you did have the drivers, you would still have the challenge of obtaining the required client software, such as the impossible to find 32-bit dblib.dll needed for the Q+E SQL Server driver. 

I have been using Rexx/SQL ODBC with the demo Intersolv SQL Server ODBC driver.  Has been working well for me.

[Per E. Johannessen]

Do you know if the demo Intersolv SQL Server ODBC driver is available somewhere?

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

I have some interest to document what exists, demo, patches, fixes, etc.
The only thing I have is that "Vincenzo Venuto" used to work there and the EDM/2 Wiki page.

I also found this on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224235945557
It says it runs on OS/2 2.0 but maybe it is the Win16 version that runs on it.

Regards

[Per E. Johannessen]

The one you found on ebay is the same as the one I bought and it contains no os/2 software,
despite listing OS2.x under system requirements.

[Sean Casey]

Do you know if the demo Intersolv SQL Server ODBC driver is available somewhere?

The Intersolv Microsoft SQL Server ODBC driver was not available in version 3.01, only in version 2.11.

Intersolv 2.11 SQL Server IVSS08.DLL  9/27/95
Intersolv 2.11 SQL Server IBSS08.DLL 7/15/96

The driver is included in both the DAX11.ZIP (IBSS08.DLL) and ODBCDEMO.ZIP (IVSS08.DLL) files on Hobbes.

I have been using the Sybase OS/2 Client SYBOS2.ZIP with SQL Server v.6.5 and v.4.2x

You can use the ODBC Installer ODBCINST3.ZIP to install the Intersolv driver.  This can also be found on Hobbes.  You must have ObjectRexx installed and enabled on your machine for the Installer to work.

[Per E. Johannessen]

Found a link to ODBCINST3.ZIP at http://www.os2ezine.com/20010916/page_7.html but the link does not work anymore.
Not found at Hobbes either.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

- ODBCDEMO.ZIP - Is now - DataDirectODBC_2-11.zip - INTERSOLV DataDirect ODBC Pack 2.11 Demo (1996-03-14)
- odbcinst2.zip - Is now - ODBC_1-03.zip

But I can not found any reference to a "ODBCINST3.ZIP" file that used to be in hobbes yet.

ODBC_1-03.zip Readme says:

The ODBC Installer is an application for installing ODBC
Database Drivers, ODBC Administrator and ODBC Driver Manager.

To use the ODBC Installer unzip the file ODBCINST.ZIP into a directory.
That directory must be in your LIBPATH - OR - you LIBPATH must have the
path .; somewhere it it

example  LIPATH=.;C:\OS2;C:\OS2\DLL ......

The application was developed for a series of articles on ODBC
in OS2eZine - the OS/2 on line magazine  www.os2ezine.com

[Sean Casey]

If you already have an ODBC manager and administrator installed, and have an ODBCINST.INI file, you can always use an INI editor to clone/edit any new entries.

I can't seem to find ODBCINST3.ZIP, but I have attached the ODBCINST2.ZIP file which automates the installation of the same demo ODBC drivers.

If someone has ODBCINST3.ZIP, it would be nice to have this uploaded to Hobbes.

[Doug Clark]

The intersolv ODBC drivers were sold for OS/2, but I haven't been able to find retail versions for a couple of decades.  I also bought a set, probably from the same place Per E. Johannessen did, and they also were only windows.

As Sean Casey noted, you can use evaluation versions of Intersolv ODBC drivers with VIO/Command Line programs, such as Rexx/SQL ODBC.  This is because the evaluation versions put up a PM dialog box every 10 rows when fetching data to remind users to purchase the retail version.  If you aren't running in a PM session the dialog box never appears, although on older systems you might get a beep from the system speaker.  If you are running a PM program, such as StarOffice, with the Intersolv drivers you will get the reminder dialog box every ten rows.

As for other sources of ODBC drivers - commercial database vendors generally bundled ODBC drivers with their products.  These include Oracle, DB2, Watcom and SQLAnywhere.  In addition to those there are drivers that have been ported from the Linux world to OS/2, such as PostgreSQL, Sqlite, mySQL, etc.  Normally these are bundled with a ODBC Driver Manager/Administrator that have also been ported from Linux, such as from the UnixODBC or iODBC projects.  I have tested some drivers that were bundled with a Driver Manager from UnixODBC and what I found was the drivers work with either the Intersolv Driver Manager or the UnixODBC driver manager (as long as you respect version limitations), but the UnixODBC ODBC Administrator cannot administer Intersolv drivers - however the Intersolv Administrator can administer the UnixODBC version drivers.

ODBC version limitions
The ODBC API went through multiple versions - the major ones of concern to OS/2 are versions 2.x, 3.0, and 3.5.  The API specifies the functions that must be provided by a driver and how those functions operate.  Version 3 changed the names of many of the functions to align with standards, version 3.5 added functions for Unicode.

I should note that the version of the ODBC API that a driver, driver manager, and administrator is written to is not the same as the version number of the driver, driver manager or administrator.  For example the UnixODBC driver manager that is written to the API version 3.5 has many different release versions - as they discovered bugs or completed more of the driver manager they released new versions.

The ODBC API version restrictions are:  an application must connect to a driver written at its API version or higher.  A driver must connect using a driver manager at its API version or higher.  For example, an application written to the ODBC API version 2.x can connect to a driver written to ODBC API version 2.x or 3.0 or 3.5.  But an application written to ODBC API version 3 cannot connect with a driver written to ODBC API version 2.x

[Jan-Erik Lärka]

The ODBC Admin maintain odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini that contain the paths to the drivers and settings.
If so, one could write a new one that look and behave well.

Is it odbc.dll that does major parts of the work under the hood then, or...?
Is it the different calling conventions used that cause problems with certain applications written with gcc or vac/wat?

JDBC to ODBC bridge would close the gap and enable us to connect to more databases.

A gui sql query tool with syntax higlightning would be very welcome as well.

[Per E. Johannessen]

What about porting? Does anyone know about some open source package that could be used?
The old unixodbc 010 included a query tool which, at least for simple queries, worked with the provided samples  and the supplied odbc driver.
(Tried to use that odbc driver with VX-Rexx and VP-Rexx but could not make it work.)

I'd be happy to sponsor a project that would include an odbc driver that works with dBase files.

[Jan-Erik Lärka]

i'd also sponsor work on an updated version that work with as many tools (e.g. office and development) and databases.

[Dave Yeo]

Is this what you need? https://www.unixodbc.org/
Also https://sourceforge.net/projects/unixodbc-gui-qt/

[Paul Smedley]

I built unixodbc many years ago, but our toolset wasn't as mature back then, so I'm not sure the modules ever actually worked. Happy to have another look at it.