mdb-sdbc-driver-0.1.0

Note: This driver does not reflect the latest development anymore. If you want to test the latest version, then please download the complete OpenOffice.org snapshot containing the latest and greatest driver.

This snapshot has been taken from CWS mdbdriver02, where the actual development takes place.

If you download it, and want to share your feedback (please do so!), send a mail to users@dba.openoffice.org. Thanks.

Content

• Introduction

• Installation

  • Adding a datasource

  • Url format

  • Using the driver via the API

• Features

• Open questions

• Building from source

• Author

Introduction

Use MDB Tools to read Microsoft  Access files under linux.

Installation

1. download mdbtools 0.5.0 source tarball from mdbtools.sourceforge.net.

2. unpack

3. apply this patch.  Build and install mdbtools. See  MDB Tools Installation Guide for detail.
    Patch for mdbtools cvs HEAD is here.
   

4. Install a OpenOffice.org1.1 or newer if you have not done so already.

5. Download the binary version of the driver.

mdb-sdbc-driver-0.1.0.zip
Copy the zip file in OpenOffice1.1/user/uno_packages folder (Note: USE the zip file as a whole, DO NOT extract it). Open up a shell and switch to the OpenOffice1.1/program directory and start the pkgchk tool. On success, no output is given. Alternatively, you can install the driver for all users of a OpenOffice.org network installation by placing the file into the OpenOffice1.1/share/uno_packages and starting pkgchk --shared You can uninstall the package by deleting the file in the uno_packages directory and starting pkgchk again.

Adding a datasource

You can now add a datasource via the common Tools/Data Sources dialog. Click on new datasource and select mdb from the Database type combobox. You should currently put the file name of your mdb file into url line. 

URL format

Format: sdbc:mdb:mdb_filename

Using the driver via the API

To DO

Supported and missing features

The driver currently is implemented using the patched MDBTOOLS v0.5. It currently has read-only support for Access 97 (Jet 3) and Access 2000/2002 (Jet 4) formats. And it has following limitations:

1. It does not support i18n. It means that you can only use it to access English date in a MS Access MDB file. You can't use it to read Chinese , Japanese data and so on.

2. It is a readonly driver,you can't use to to write data into a mdb file.

3. It only supports a small set of sql language. Such as

   select * from table_name

   select * from ¡°table_name¡± where col1 = 1 and col2 < 10

   select col1 from table_name where col1 = 1

   select ¡°col1¡± from table_name where col1 = 1 and col2 < 10

Open questions

Building from source

To DO

Test

To DO.

Authors

The driver has been implemented and is maintained by Wind Li (yl146652@openoffice.org).