Connect to Windows ODBC from Linux

mdixon

I want to connect to an ODBC data source on a Windows XP machine from PHP on a Linux machine (over a LAN). I assume I need to do:

$odb = odbc_connect("ODBCDSN", "name", "passwd") ;

But I don't know what format to code that ODBCDSN in order to refer to a resource on another host on the network. Is it possible? How is it done?

tsinka

Hi,

which odbc library is installed on the Linux machine ?

EDIT: Which database do you want to connect to ?

Thomas

mdixon

Thanks for responding Thomas.

The ODBC database I want to access from Linux is on a networked Windows box. It is actually the database from the MYOB database accouting package. MYOB supply an ODBC driver to query that database, but both MYOB and the ODBC driver for it only run on Windows. My PHP and Apache server are on a Linix (Fedora) box where I have unixODBC installed. There are no ODBC databases on the Linux box, just mySQL.

tsinka

Ok,

I'm not completely sure but I think that you need a odbc bridge in that case since there's no unixODBC driver available for MYOB.

Have a look at e.g. www.easysoft.com

They have a odbc-odbc bridge. I already had to do with that bridge. There is a unrestricted demo version available. Basically, you need to install a server component on the Windows server and the client driver on the Linux server. That bridge enables you to transparently access any ODBC target with ODBC libraries like unixODBC if they don't have a native driver for a given target ODBC resource.

Thomas

doublezeta

Sorry for digging up old threads, but I'm now in the exactly same position as mdixon.

Just wondering if anyone does know the DSN connection string to connect to a MYOB database on a Windows box from a Linux box? Or is a bridge the only way?

mdixon

Thanks for resurrecting this thread.

I am also still interested in finding a clean solution. I ended up doing a kludge - running a PHP ap on the Windows box to do the ODBC stuff - something I really didn't want to do because I would really prefer that Windows machine was not accessible to external network requests. I would re-do the solution if I could make ODBC requests from Linux of the ODBC MYOB connection on the LAN connected Windows.

doublezeta

http://myob.com/us/odbc/pdf/how_to_read.pdf

Closest thing I've found for a connection string but it seems to be all local :mad:

mdixon

Originally posted by doublezeta
http://myob.com/us/odbc/pdf/how_to_read.pdf
Closest thing I've found for a connection tring but it seems to be all local :mad:

Thanks Doublezeta. That looks pretty good, and I can imagine setting up a connection string database parameter something like: DATABASE/mount/winbox/myob/myobfile.dat; so I am referring to a file which is on a windows box, but mounted on the Linux Box.

Then I would also specify the HOST_EXE_PATH to point to a mounted windows location, eg. HOST_EXE_PATH/mount/winbox/program%20files/myob/myob.exe But the big question is: will the executable attempt to run on the host calling the ODBC connection string (Linux) or will it run on the host where it is stored (Windows). My guess is that it will execute on Linux and promptly crash.

Still, its worth a try. There may be some Wine settings that would permit the windows .exe and .dlls to run on Linux. ???

developerdave

FYI -

Little Systems has created an Open Source MYOB ODBC Bridge to Linux.
See: http://www.littlesystems.com.au (Downloads)

The problem with MYOB's ODBC driver is that it is slow, Windows only, and has limited SQL syntax.

The bridge is one way of overcoming these problems, and may be suitable for some people's purposes. In short, the bridge still uses MYOB's ODBC driver, but only to reestablish the MYOB database on a Linux database server (e.g. PostgreSQL).

The Open Source bridge comprises a server and a client. The server runs on the Windows machine (with MYOB ODBC installed, and with the company file); and the client on Linux.

Technically, the server (presently written in PHP) reads from the MYOB database via ODBC and renders it as XML. Then, the Linux client (presently written in Perl) periodically connects to the server, reads the XML, and recreates the MYOB database on a Linux database server. And then, the Linux database server can be integrated with Linux applications, such as an open source CMS.

The bridge is suited to reading from the MYOB database, not writing to the MYOB database. To install the bridge, some systems administration knowledge is required. The presently supported Linux database server is PostgreSQL, though the bridge can be extended by a programmer to support other databases (e.g. MySQL).

The bridge could also be used to establish the MYOB database on a Windows SQL server.

Other developers may wish to translate the bridge server or client to other programming languages, or establish support for other Linux databases. Per the Artistic License 2.0, developers are encouraged to please make their modifed version available to Little Systems for inclusion and redistribution.

mdixon

Thanks DeveloperDave. I'll give that a look sometime soon. Sounds ingenious. Cheers, MD.