RE: ODBC FROM iSeries - huh?

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Walden H. Leverich
>
> IIRC the JDBC to ODBC bridge is a type-1 JDBC driver (it's
> machine specific,
> not pure Java) so you can run it on a windows box, but not on the
> iSeries.

Actually, there are type 1 and type 3 JDBC-ODBC bridges available.  The type
3 drivers in particular are designed for inter-machine communications over a
network.


> Of course you could use the pure-java drivers for Oracle or SQL Server or
> ... On the iSeries, but that wasn't the original questions.

Actually, the question was how to access data on other machines from the
AS/400. A pure-java driver would adress this, wouldn't it?


> People have said
> you can use ODBC on the iSeries and I'm trying to understand that.

I said it, when I was actually thinking "JDBC".  I guess I'm trying to
understand what "ODBC" means.  If what you are saying is that by ODBC you
mean calling a service program on the AS/400 that can directly access an
Oracle database on another machine, then I guess you would have to have an
Oracle database driver on the iSeries.

Let's say you have a network with five different platforms (NT, Solaris,
iSeries, Linux and Macintosh).  In your definition of ODBC, that would mean
for any database you would need to have native drivers for all of those
machines, right?  So the issue in this case is whether someone has written
an ODBC driver for that database for the iSeries.

But isn't this the same issue for every DBMS/OS combination?  If you're not
talking about a platform-generic protocol (such as type 3 JDBC) then you
seem to be, by definition, talking about a DBMS/OS specific driver.  If
that's the case, then is the issue that there are no native ODBC drivers for
the iSeries?

This is soooooooo confusing.  I thought the big advantage of SQL was that it
was just "plug and play".  Write once, run anywhere.  Pick your acronym.

ODBC support seems to be a little more problematic than I thought.  Sure,
you just change your driver, but first you have to HAVE a driver.
Interesting.

Joe