RE: ODBC traffic

I was trying (in my clumsy way) to point out that I've seen a definite shift
where this method of both master maintenance and transactional upload from
Excel is more common than one might expect. Definitely agree about the
security aspect.
Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Charles Wilt
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 10:28 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: ODBC traffic

I don't think there's anything to disagree about.

I can't imagine allowing Excel to directly edit data ( in a main production
table).

Uploading to a staging table is in my mind another thing.

But the point remains, without object security or a exit point package in
place, you can't even allow direct uploads to a staging table.

Charles

On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 10:03 PM, midrange <franz9000@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<quote>Of course it's not likely that anybody uses Excel directly as a
data entry/maint tool.</quote>

I would disagree about "likely". The world has changed (and we didn't
know it...). I don't agree with the idea of data maintenance this way,
but it's here and becoming more prevalent. They do not wait for a
screen to be built or changed. I'm not working in anything close to a
small shop. This is very large corporate environment, many companies,
many systems, and it is very prevalent for major users, main apps and

financials to use Excel for entry.

However, the database is heavily full of constraints, triggers, event
processing, commits and rollbacks. Unedited data does not get in.
Unauthorized users do not get access. One feature is that users doing
uploads of data are really loading "staging tables" and it is an
event process that updates the main tables.
I would say the one system where database did not keep up with the
others is Power i (mostly our fault (or really mgrs will replace
software, but not modernize existing), not IBM's fault) and we suffer
for it.
I have seen this in other large corporations, especially in finance.
Jim Franz

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Charles Wilt
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 1:28 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: ODBC traffic

Of course it's not likely that anybody uses Excel directly as a data
entry/maint tool.

But reading data into Excel for analysis is quite common, particularly
for MS SQL Server users.

Disallowing ODBC connections to the IBM i would prevent that.

If you DW is on the i, it's not a moot point unless you've got object
security set up and/or exit point programs in use.

Which goes back to my initial response.

Charles

On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 1:03 PM, Monnier, Gary
<Gary.Monnier@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Does anyone allow Excel to be a data entry/maintenance tool for critical
tables in other databases? I suspect not, for the same reasons sites

for

the IBM i.

If you are using a data warehouse the issue is a moot point since a
warehouse is, by definition, going to be read only as far as the
client-side is concerned.

Gary Monnier


-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Charles Wilt
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 9:46 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: ODBC traffic

Sure that's a simple option...

Works right up till the IBM i gets replaced as being outdated for
not having the Excel integration and/or too expensive since a
developer has to be involved for everything.

Charles

On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 12:13 PM, Monnier, Gary
<Gary.Monnier@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

The really simple option is to not allow ODBC/JDBC/OLEDB
connections from spreadsheets.

A user obliterating a critical table is what spawned PowerTech's
exit point technology. A user utilized Excel to upload, if memory
serves, the chart of accounts. They then eliminated everything
they didn't want, made some changes and downloaded to (at the
time) the

AS/400.

You can always have the developers write a client-side extract
program that creates a spreadsheet.

Thanks,

Gary Monnier

IT Software Engineer CSM, CSPO

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