ASA Database Administration Guide
Connecting to a Database
Microsoft Corporation defines the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) interface, which is a standard interface for connecting client applications to database-management systems in the Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT/2000/XP environments. Many client applications, including application development systems, use the ODBC interface to access a wide range of database systems.
You connect to an ODBC database using an ODBC data source. You need an ODBC data source on the client computer for each database you want to connect to.
The ODBC data source contains a set of connection parameters. You can store sets of Adaptive Server Anywhere connection parameters as an ODBC data source, in either the system registry or as files.
If you have a data source, your connection string can simply name the data source to use:
Data source Use the DataSourceName (DSN) connection parameter to reference a data source in the registry:
DSN=my data source
File data source Use the FileDataSourceName (FILEDSN) connection parameter to reference a data source held in a file:
FileDSN=mysource.dsn
For Adaptive Server Anywhere, the use of ODBC data sources goes beyond Windows applications using the ODBC interface:
Adaptive Server Anywhere client applications on UNIX can use ODBC data sources, as well as those on Windows operating systems.
Adaptive Server Anywhere client applications using the OLE DB or embedded SQL interfaces can use ODBC data sources, as well as ODBC applications.
Interactive SQL and Sybase Central can use ODBC data sources.
Creating an ODBC data source
Configuring ODBC data sources using the ODBC Administrator
Using file data sources on Windows
Using ODBC data sources on UNIX
Using ODBC data sources on Windows CE