How can I access Scalable SQL data from VB/ASP? 1

[mowog74]

First let me apologize if this is posted in the wrong place. I'm trying to access my company's accounting data from both a VB app and ASP pages, and our accounting package is Solomon IV v2.06, which uses Scalable SQL, which I've found has some connection (?) to btrieve and/or pervasive.SQL.

In case it's not obvious, I have almost no idea what Scalable SQL is or how to use it. To make matters worse, I've had very little luck in finding tutorial-type information about it (i'm assuming because it's somewhat dated).

Can anyone offer a suggestion for an ODBC driver or other method i can use in VB and ASP to get to this data, and/or any informative sites regarding scalable sql? Thanks in advance.

 

[grnelson]

It is made by Pervasive at

http://www.pervasive.com.

They do make an ODBC driver which allows you to get to your data. I use ColdFusion because it's quicker but you can use ASP although I don't have any examples. As far as VB you can use ODBC but I prefer to use the activex controls made by pervasive because it gives you more control and faster speed.
Gil Gil Nelson
Nelson Software Solutions

http://www.nssdd.com

 

[Pervasivite]

ScalableSQL is a fully relational database engine that was made by Btrieve Technologies, Inc. and used the Btrieve record manager and It was preceeded by NetWareSQL (basically the same thing but an earlier version) and it has been replaced in Pervasive.SQL 2000 and 2000i by a new native ODBC/SQL engine that is generally called the SRDE (SQL Relational Database Engine). ScalableSQL was also the base relational technology that the Btrieve ODBC 1.x and 2.x drivers were based upon. Unfortunately by the time ScalableSQL 4 came out the engine had to be a backwards compatible SSQL 3 engine, an ODBC engine, and an SSQL 4 engine so it didn't particularly excel in any of those. This same relational database engine was combined with Btrieve 7.0 to create Pervasive.SQL 7 which was in a way two databases in one, a complete Btrieve 7.0 and a full relational SQL/ODBC engine. In Pervasive.SQL 2000 and 2000i the SSQL engine was replaced by a native ODBC-SQL engine which was combined with Btrieve 7.5 and later (7.51, 7.82, & 7.9) that no longer supported the proprietary ScalableSQL language and syntax so all SQL access is now done through ODBC and ODBC standard SQL syntax for better ODBC performance and much better compatibility.

In any case, because there is not complete metadata in a Btrieve or Microkernel file (basically the same thing, just different ways of referring to it) you cannot easily or effectively get to the data through any relational interface, including ODBC, without DDFs. Because most of this data was created by Btrieve programmers and Btrieve applications which don't need DDFs (because the metadata that is not in the files is hardcoded into the application) there often aren't good DDFs if there are any available at all. I would recommdn the Pervasive.SQL 2000 SDK to find out more about all of this and there is some pretty good info on the pervasive Web site, especially in the RefShelf directory of their FTP site. There is also tutorial material in the SDK and a downloadable HTML course from their site.

http://www.pervasive.com/services/training/index.tml

http://www.pervasive.com/services/training/PervasiveSQL_SDK_Training.ZIP

If you have old DDFs that don't work well with Pervasive.SQL 2000 you might have some success with the ODBC drivers for Btrieve from Merant, though a server edition will cost you dearly. There are one or two other ODBC drivers for Btrieve that are available, but if I was doing much more than just creating WEb based reports against the data I would definitely take the time to upgrade my database engine to Pervasive.SQL 2000i and update or creat good DDFs.

I hope this helps,
Pervasivite

 

[mowog74]

Apparently the DDFs already in place were ok, because the Pervasive ODBC driver is working just fine for my ASP pages. Since I am in fact just writing fairly simple reporting pages, and also since in the next few months we'll be upgrading to the current version of Solomon IV which uses a SQL Server database, I don't think I'll be upgrading the engine. But thanks to both of you for the helpful posts!

 

[MHagan]

I'm not sure if this will help you, but I also use Solomon IV 2.06 and connect to MS Access through an ODBC. I have the ODBC drivers, and I could e-mail the setup to you.

I could also fax the instructions for installing and using. I have found them very helpful.

If you need this info, let me know.