Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere
This section describes how to prepare and define a Sybase
ASA data source in order to connect to it using the ASA ODBC driver.
ASA includes two database servers–a
personal database server and a network database server. For information
about using Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere, see the ASA documentation.
Supported versions for ASA
The ASA ODBC driver supports connection to local and remote
databases created with the following:
- PowerBuilder running on your
computer - ASA version 9.x
- ASA version 8.x
- ASA version 7.x
- ASA version 6.x
- SQL Anywhere version 5.x
Basic software components for ASA
Figure 2-5 show
the basic software components required to connect to an ASA data
source in PowerBuilder.
Preparing to use the ASA data source
Before you define and connect to an ASA data source in PowerBuilder,
follow these steps to prepare the data source.
To prepare an ASA data source:
-
Make sure the database file for the ASA
data source already exists. You can create a new database by:- Launching the Create ASA Database
utility. You can access this utility from the Utilities folder for
the ODBC interface in the Database profile or Database painter when PowerBuilder is running
on your computer.
This method creates a local ASA database on your computer,
and also creates the data source definition and database profile
for this connection. (For instructions, see the User’s
Guide
.) - Creating the database some other way, such as with PowerBuilder running
on another user’s computer or by using ASA outside PowerBuilder.
(For instructions, see the ASA documentation.)
- Launching the Create ASA Database
-
Make sure you have the log file associated with
the ASA database so that you can fully recover the database if it
becomes corrupted.If the log file for the ASA database does not exist, the ASA
database engine creates it. However, if you are copying or moving
a database from another computer or directory, you should copy or
move the log file with it.
Defining the ASA data source
When you create a local ASA database, PowerBuilder automatically
creates the data source definition and database profile for you.
Therefore, you need only use the following procedure to define an
ASA data source when you want to access an ASA database not created
using PowerBuilder on your computer.
To define an ASA data source for the ASA driver:
-
Select Create ODBC Data Source from the
list of ODBC utilities in the Database Profiles dialog box or the
Database painter. -
Select User Data Source and click Next.
-
On the Create New Data Source page, select the
ASA driver and click Finish.The ODBC Configuration for ASA dialog box displays:
-
You must supply the following values:
- Data source name on the ODBC tab page
- User ID and password on the Login tab page
- Database file on the Database tab page
Use the Help button to get information about fields in the
dialog box. -
(Optional) To select an ODBC translator to translate
your data from one character set to another, click the Select button
on the ODBC tab. -
Click OK to save the data source definition.
Specifying a Start Line value
When the ASA ODBC driver cannot find a running personal or
network database server using the PATH variable and Database Name
setting, it uses the commands specified in the Start Line field
to start the database servers.
Specify one of the following commands in the Start Line field
on the Database tab, where n is the version
of ASA you are using.
| Specify this command |
To |
|---|---|
| dbengn.exe | Start the personal database server and the database specified in the Database File box |
| rtengn.exe | Start the restricted runtime database server and the database specified in the Database File box |
For information on completing the ODBC Configuration For Adaptive Server Anywhere dialog
box, see the ASA documentation.
Support for Transact-SQL special timestamp columns
When you work with an ASA table in the DataWindow, Data Pipeline, or Database
painter, the default behavior is to treat any column named timestamp as
an ASA Transact-SQL special timestamp column.
Creating special timestamp columns
You can create a Transact-SQL special timestamp column in
an ASA table.
To create a Transact-SQL special timestamp column
in an ASA table in PowerBuilder:
-
Give the name timestamp to any column having
a timestamp datatype that you want treated
as a Transact-SQL special timestamp column. Do this in one of the
following ways:- In the painter – Select
timestamp as the column name. (For instructions, see the User’s
Guide
.) - In a SQL CREATE TABLE statement – Follow
the “CREATE TABLE example”.
- In the painter – Select
-
Specify timestamp as the
default value for the column. Do this in one of the following ways:- In the painter – Select
timestamp as the default value for the column. (For instructions,
see the User’s Guide
.) - In a SQL CREATE TABLE statement – Follow
the “CREATE TABLE example”.
- In the painter – Select
-
If you are working with the table in the Data
Pipeline painter, select the initial value exclude for the special
timestamp column from the drop-down list in the Initial Value column
of the workspace.You must select exclude as the initial value to exclude the
special timestamp column from INSERT or UPDATE statements.For instructions, see the User’s
Guide
.
CREATE TABLE example
The following CREATE TABLE statement defines
an ASA table named timesheet containing three
columns: employee_ID (integer datatype), hours (decimal datatype),
and timestamp (timestamp datatype
and timestamp default value):
|
1 |
CREATE TABLE timesheet ( |
|
1 |
employee_ID INTEGER, |
|
1 |
hours DECIMAL, |
|
1 |
<i>timestamp TIMESTAMP default timestamp</i> ) |
Not using special timestamp columns
If you want to change the default behavior, you can specify
that PowerBuilder not treat ASA columns named timestamp as
Transact-SQL special timestamp columns.
To specify that PowerBuilder not treat
columns named timestamp as a Transact-SQL special
timestamp column:
-
Edit the Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere section of the
PBODB100 initialization file to change the value of SQLSrvrTSName
from ‘Yes’ to ‘No’.After making changes in the initialization
file, you must reconnect to the database to have them take effect.
See Appendix A, “Adding
Functions to the PBODB100 Initialization File”
What to do next
For instructions on connecting to the ODBC
data source, see “Connecting to a database”.