ODBC 2.0 Further Establishes Cross-Product Data Sharing Standard

Jane Richter

With all the attention focused on Chicago, Daytona, OLE 2.0, and Cairo, it's easy to forget another critical Microsoft-driven technology just now coming into its own, the ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) standard. With the widespread release of ODBC 2.0-compliant products this fall, this standard should see acceptance from a wide variety of database vendors and applications developers for interproduct data sharing.

ODBC 2.0 offers full compliance with the standard released in November 1992 by the SAG (SQL Access Group), an organization of leading hardware and software developers committed to universal database access. Developers report that ODBC 2.0 drivers will provide fas ter, more robust performance than ODBC 1.0 drivers thanks to code tuning and support for standard SAG features like SQL primary keys and data arrays.

ODBC allows database programs to share data, and in some cases application code, among differing database products--such as Oracle, Microsoft's Access, IBM's IMS, dBase, or Sybase--while those programs run on different operating systems. The ODBC standard provides interoperability and flexibility that, in turn, translates to more integrated business data at the desktop and better information for decision making.

ODBC not only refers to a SAG-compliant standard but also to ODBC-compliant driver software. The ODBC standard is an open, vendor-independent interface that requires that the data source hears Apples when the application program says Apples. The standard ensures that the minimum level of communication between application programs and data sources conforms to the levels set by the SAG.

ODBC drivers and driver managers control the inte rpretation and implementation of data access and manipulation at the data source level. It falls to the drivers to actually translate and execute the data source-specific commands issued by the application program via the API, while complying with the SAG standards for data access and SQL Grammar. What's more, the ODBC driver must comply with conformance levels within the SAG standard: levels 0, 1, and 2 for the API; minimum, core, and extended for the SQL Grammar. The conformance levels for the API and the SQL Grammar are independent; therefore, it is possible for a driver to provide level 2 API support while supplying extended-level SQL Grammar support.

ODBC inserts a middleware layer (the driver software) between an application program and a data source. This middleware layer handles all data access using the ODBC standard for both the call-level interface and the SQL Grammar. ODBC 2.0 drivers offer full level 2 API-compliance and, if the connecting database products support it, all the extended SQL features of SAG 92.

For developers, Microsoft's ODBC SDK (Software Developer's Kit) 2 adds support for the Win32 API, a cursor library for more consistent support of cursors through the API and in extended SQL Grammar, new sample code, improved testing and debugging tools, and all the data source drivers from their ODBC Desktop Database Driver Pack. PageAhead Software (Seattle, WA) also provides a line of products for ODBC 2.0 driver development.

On the driver side, Microsoft's ODBC Desktop Database Driver Pack 2 includes a driver manager and data source drivers for many of the popular desktop database products. Borland has integrated an ODBC 2.0-compliant ``socket'' into its core database engine, which dBase for Windows and Paradox for Windows use. This allows other programs to access dBase and Paradox data through any ODBC driver. What's more, a number of applications software vendors provide ODBC drivers for their respective database products.

As for recent reports that Microsoft will abandon ODBC in favor of OLE, Greg Norman, senior product marketing manager for ODBC at Microsoft, says that is not true. ``ODBC is still healthy and growing,'' he says. ``Microsoft will continue to advance the definition of ODBC while supporting our ISVs [independent software vendors] and making the development of ODBC drivers and applications a profitable business.''

Brian Reed, product manager at Intersolv, agrees. ``ODBC is not going away,'' he says. ``It's the market standard, and more than 170 application programs are ODBC-compliant.''

Reed notes that reports of a future version of OLE supplanting ODBC are premature at best. ``Microsoft, in terms of [the next OLE] API or specification, hasn't published anything formal. But Microsoft can't expect everyone to drop what they're doing and go a different route.''

---

ODBC 2.0 Driver Sources

-- Information Builders' EDA/Extender for ODBC: drivers for retrieving
   data stored in databases ranging from IBM's DB2 to Hewlett-Pa
ckard's
   Allbase, (800) 969-4636 or (212) 736-4433.
-- Cross Access's Cross Access ODBC Drivers: drivers for accessing
   data in Unix databases and all MVS databases, (708) 954-0500.
-- Intersolv Data Direct ODBC Pack (formerly called Q+E SQL ODBC Pack;
   Intersolv and Raleigh, North Carolina-based Q+E Software recently
   merged): over 30 drivers, including those for most of the popular
   desktop and SQL DBMSes, (800) 876-3101.
-- TechGnosis's SequeLink: drivers for Informix, Oracle, and DB2
   (617) 229-6100.
-- Microsoft's ODBC Desktop Database Driver Pack: includes a driver manager
   and data source drivers for Microsoft Access and FoxPro, Btrieve
   Technologies' Btrieve, and Borland's dBase and Paradox, (206) 882-8080.