ODBC

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	Warning:
	Under construction, some content may be totally wrong and misleading.

Description

Adding support in SME Server for a universal connection to foreign datebase servers using Open Database Connectivity (ODBC).

Used packages

unixODBC.i386 - unixODBC official site

unixODBC-devel.i386

php-odbc.i386 - a module for PHP applications that use ODBC databases.

freetds - a re-implementation of the Tabular Data Stream protocol made by Sybase and Microsoft. FreeTDS official site

Optional: gcc

Installation

Install basic packages via server-manager:

unixODBC.i386

unixODBC-devel.i386

php-odbc.i386

Alt 1: Install precompiled FreeTDS

Install FreeTDS from Dag repository

yum --enablerepo=dag install freetds freetds-devel

signal-event post-upgrade; signal-event reboot

Alt 2: Install FreeTDS from source

wget http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/ALPHA/freetds/stable/freetds-0.82.tar.gz

gzip -d freetds-0.82.tar.gz

tar -xvf  freetds-0.82.tar

yum install gcc

cd freetds-0.82

./configure --sysconfdir=/etc --enable-msdblib --with-tdsver=8.0

make

make install

make clean

signal-event post-upgrade; signal-event reboot

	Warning:
	Leaving gcc on a production server is considered a security risk, if you do not really need it you should not install it, if you need it you should seriously consider uninstalling gcc when you no longer need it. Removing gcc can be done using the following command: yum remove gcc

Test with tsql

Check settings:

tsql -C

Should output someting similar to this:

Compile-time settings (established with the "configure" script)
Version: freetds v0.82
freetds.conf directory: /usr/local/etc
MS db-lib source compatibility: no
Sybase binary compatibility: no
Thread safety: yes
iconv library: yes
TDS version: 8.0
iODBC: no
unixodbc: yes

Test connection to a foreign database, overriding settings in freetds.conf:

tsql -S 192.168.0.112 -U testuser -P testpass

Configuration

freetds.conf

mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/freetds.conf
pico /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/freetds.conf/10xp3c

Add your foreign database server (modify to suit your conditions):

1. SQL Server on Win XP machine

[xp3c]
       host = 192.168.0.112
       port = 1433
       tds version = 8.0  
       instance = db_kalle

expand-template /etc/freetds.conf

odbcinst.ini

mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/odbcinst.ini
pico /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/odbcinst.ini/20sqlserver

Add driver path (modify to suit your conditions):

[FreeTDS]

Description = Ms SQL Server access with FreeTDS driver Driver = /usr/lib/libtdsodbc.so

expand-template /etc/odbcinst.ini

odbc.ini

mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/odbc.ini
pico /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/odbc.ini/20sqlserver

Add text (modify to suit your conditions):

[sqlserver]

Driver = FreeTDS Description = Connection to DB_KALLE on server xp3c Trace = No Server = 192.168.0.112 Database = db_kalle Port = 1433 TDS_Version = 8.0

expand-template /etc/odbc.ini

Check PHP configuration

phpinfo(), section Configure Command, outputs: --with-unixODBC=shared,/usr There should also be a section "odbc".

PHP function odbc_connect should now work.

Additional information

Current forum discussion at http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=44185.0

php.net ODBC

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