Omnis 7 ODBC connection problems

[Hotchkin]

Hi,

I'm trying to hook up my application to data being maintained in an Omnis 7 data file. I've downloaded and installed the Win32 ODBC drivers from the Raining Data website and created myself an Omnis ODBC DSN.

I can connect to my Omnis df1 file using ODBC, but when I try to open some (not all) tables, I get “Omnis ODBC Driver - unexpected call to stub crbtype::initlist” error. Of course, the tables that generate this error are precisely the tables I want to use!

Unfortunately, information on all things Omnis seems to be patchy at best and I can't find any reference to this error anywhere. I did find one post from a user with the same problem on the RainingData forums, but his post received 0 replies and their "superb" website won't let me reply to try and found out if he ever got a resolution.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
Richard.

 

[CragHeyder]

Unfortunately, you and I seem to be in the same boat and about all I can do is commiserate with you. I think OMNIS has to be about the most ill-conceived and least supported database in existence and unfortunately, I have to deal with this.

If I can find out anything, I'll repost here, but from the last 3-4 months of research, I wouldn't hold my breath...

 

[Hotchkin]

Eventually, in desperation I tried to see if I could get any support from RainingData by making out I was reporting a bug...they didn't buy it, but it did provoke a response at least. Here's what they said,

"Richard

Thank you for your mails on this matter.

I have read these many times and I am still unclear as to exactly what your architecture is here. Our ODBC Driver is a read-only tool. From my understanding you are attempting to use the driver in order to write data, clearly this is not possible.

Please could clarify exactly what you wish to achieve? Are you only attempting to read data using the driver or not?

Thanks and regards
Raining Data Development Support "

This didn't help me but it might help you! As I recall, my dataset was set up with Read only access so his explanation didn't really hold water. I did reply and query it, but he didn't respond any further. In any case I wanted my application ultimately to have Read/Write access (because I wanted to write back to the data).

I've had to put this project on ice because there just doesn't seem to be a way to get at the data in a sensible way. I share your views about Omnis. The last time I had the mis-fortune to try and work with their "database" was about 10 years ago. I remember encountering similar problems back then...I just can't believe they've made no progress in all that time. Maybe I'll give them another 10 years and revisit the project then!! Good luck...I'd be interested to hear if you make any progress!

 

[WayCoolSW]

Guys:

Did you get any help with this anywhere else? I agree that Omnis support stinks. I am going to have to kill a project as well because their ODBC driver will not allow me to read data. Any new insights?

Thanks!
Mike

 

[genomon]

Although you created the DSN, it sounds like the driver is not fully ODBC compliant (like that is any help).
Is there a different version (maybe newer) of the driver that might be compatible? Any way to work it with OLE?

Silence is golden.
Duct tape is silver.

 

[Hotchkin]

Thanks for your posts Mike and genomon. Unfortunately, I still haven't managed to achieve any meaningful access to my Omnis data (either reading or writing). Being only "Read Only" capable, the ODBC Driver (remember ODBC stands for "Open Database Connectivity") certainly isn't fully ODBC compliant.

I haven't found any other way to access the data at all...if ODBC doesn't work properly then I'd be amazed if OLE connectivity works, but I might be wrong. I haven't investigated what support is offered for OLE access. If anyone manages to get it to work please let me know!

I have a theory that RainingData are deliberately restricting access to the data to force people to develop using the Omnis environment rather than their prefered development environment or the development environment that suits their application the best. In my view this strategy is ultimately doomed to failure. It's only likely to restrict the number of people who use their system.

Thanks for your continued interest.
Richard.