Paradox connecting to DB2 back end using ODBC

[dwelch35]

Howdy everyone,

After looking through this forum I haven't seen a clear answer to the question of connecting to a database via ODBC. Posts like the following...

thread177-75168 ...seem to indicate that it's easy to connect to another database using ODBC & the BDE, but I'm still struggling with it.

Here's where I'm at: I'm using Paradox 8. I'm connecting to a DB2 back end, located on an AS400, using the Client Access 32 bit ODBC drivers. I've looked at the BDE and verified that I can connect to the ODBC server on the AS400, but I'm having trouble using the Alias Manager in Paradox to setup the Alias for the ODBC connection. I've tried setting up the Alias using the following parameters:

Database Alias: AS400
Driver Type: MSACCESS
(Note: Standard only asked for a directory where the database was located, so I assumed I couldn't use that DB Type)
Database: AS400
(This is the name I set it up with under ODBC administration)
Username: Dwelch35
Open Mode: READ/WRITE
Langdriver: [blank]
Password: [Tried both blank and my actual password]

When I first setup the alias, the Connect button became active. After trying to connect, it said it couldn't connect to database AS400. The Connect button has been inactive since this happened.

I've tried using the help built into Paradox. I've tried looking online for a HOWTO or FAQ that can describe this and haven't been successful in finding the solution.

If anyone has knowledge of any resource I can get a hold of (book, online FAQ, etc) that covers this, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know about it. It must be a simple solution, those are the most irritating when you don't have them.

-DW

 

[dwelch35]

Ok, as luck would have it, I discovered the solution not long after posting my original question. Here's what I found:

http://kb.corel.com/kbdocs/paradox/PX70WIN/PX70WIN_10770.htm

This page details the steps for setting up Paradox to work with ODBC connections. My problem was I was confusing the BDE Setup Utility and the BDE Administrator. I've got an icon for the Administrator and not the setup utility. After digging into my HD for a short while, I came up with the file:

C:\Program Files\Borland\Common Files\BDE\Bdecfg32.exe

This is actually the configuration utility. Once I realized this, the process was extremely simple and matched exactly the instructions given in the link above.

Hopefully this will help someone else who runs across the same problem I had.

Should this be a FAQ?

-DW