ODBC and Sequential Mainframe files

[TomDx]

I have a User who says ODBC drivers exist that allow MS ACCESS to read Mainframe sequential files. I thought ODBC only accessed data bases. Can someone please comment?..

Thanks

Tom

 

[GhostWolf]

Yes, there are such ODBC drivers. I currently have several VB and Access applications using the ODBC drivers that shipped with Client Access/Personal Communications running over AS/400 files. Since the drivers are IBM-supplied, I'd suspect that it would work just as easily with a mainframe.

All I had to do was install the drivers and create a DSN to point to the 400's IP address.

 

[k5tm]

I thought ODBC only accessed data bases.

Hmmm.... While they may not be a fully implemented relational database, those sequential files are a database.

Tom Morrison

http://www.liant.com

 

[TomDx]

GhostWolf, could you give me some specifics about the driver(s) that you are using..? Maybe where or how to get them? I've managed to connect MS-ACCESS to the DB2 SubSystem on our mainframe, but I'm not making any headway in accessing a VSAM or sequential file. I know very little about ODBC, and unfortunately it is not widely used at my Company.

Thanks


Tom

 

[k5tm]

Tom,

CONNX is probably the most well known of the ODBC drivers for VSAM. connx.com

Is it possible that the DB2 subsystem has any mechanism to use the VSAM files?

Tom Morrison

http://www.liant.com

 

[GhostWolf]

Tom,

The drivers I'm using originally came from our Client Access install disks. Setting up a DSN with that driver was only slightly more difficult than pointing to our AS/400's IP address and defining the library list, (and a few other parameters).

Once it was set up, all I had to do was link files to Access, (Get External Data, Link Tables, Files of type: ODBC Databases), using that DSN. When the DSN is selected, the dialog opens a list of files in your library list and you just select the one(s) you need.