Re: IDL interface to Oracle

[Dick Jackson <djackson(at)dfanning.com>]

David Fanning wrote:
> 
> Mark Rehbein (mrehbein@aims.gov.au) writes:
> 
> > has anyone been able to use IDL to query an oracle database?  Is it
> > possible?
> 
> Dick has been working on a very interesting application for one
> of our clients that involves accessing an Oracle database. We
> use the IDL DataMiner and have been pleased with the results.
> For the same project we have accessed Microsoft Access databases
> as well, with similar good results.
> 
> The bottom line for us is that we have been successful without
> being much in the way of database experts. :-)

I guess David won't be printing new business cards for me with "DB Expert"
on them yet. :-)

But he's right, it's been pretty painless. You have to get an IDL DataMiner
license, then if you're using Windows NT, just use the ODBC Control Panel to
set up an ODBC System Dataset (on other platforms it should be easy enough
as well). Then you should be able to walk through the examples in the Online
Help DataMiner Guide -- Using the IDL DataMiner section to get an idea of
how it works.

You can send any SQL query to Oracle, and it returns a RecordSet object from
which you get records and fields. One point that may not be clear from the
documentation: if the query failed due to an SQL or other DB error, you get
a null object -- watch for error messages.

Cheers,
-- 
-Dick

Dick Jackson             Fanning Software Consulting, Canadian Office
djackson@dfanning.com    Calgary, Alberta   Voice/Fax: (403) 242-7398
    Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/