Connecting to the database

The ODBC Data Provider enables EasyCatalog to directly connect to your database

EasyCatalog ODBC Data Provider needs a suitable installed. Creating and working with an ODBC Data Source works in the same way as working from a flat-file, although requires slightly more configuration.

Before a data source can be configured in EasyCatalog, you must first use either:

Platform	Application
Macintosh	The ODBC Manager application, which is usually located in the applications>Utilities folder.
Windows	The ODBC Data Sources control panel. On Windows 11, use the search tool and type ODBC to open the ODBC Data Sources Administrator tool.

Using either of these, a new Data Source must be configured. This Data Source contains information on how to connect to your database, the type of database being used, etc.

This configuration should be performed prior to configuring your new data source in EasyCatalog.

Configuring an ODBC Data Source

Setting up EasyCatalog to use an ODBC Data Source is a straight forward process as long as the data source has been configured correctly in the ODBC Manager/ODBC Data Sources application.

To create a new ODBC Data Source in EasyCatalog navigate to New > EasyCatalog Panel > New ODBC Data Source. This will open the dialog shown in the screenshot below.

ODBC Data Source configuration dialog box

Name

The name of the data source –this will be used to refer to the data source by EasyCatalog. The data source needs a unique name, which will be used to identify it later by EasyCatalog. The data source will be added to your workspace folder within EasyCatalog and subsequently available from the File→New→EasyCatalog panel menu.

Datasources

A list of the ODBC Data Sources configured in the ODBC Manager application (Macintosh) or ODBC Datasources Administrator Tool (Windows) is shown here. Select the data source you are connecting to to pre-fill the Connection String.

Connection string

In order for EasyCatalog to connect, a username and password must be specified. This is done by adding UID=USER;PWD=PASS; to the connection string. Alter USER/PASS with the details appropriate to the host.

The Connection String is a series of parameters that contain information on how to connect to your database. The format of the connection string is based on the ODBC Connection String standard, and consists of a series of keyword/value pairs separated by semicolons. The equal sign (=) connects each keyword and its value.

In it’s simplest form a connection string needs only to specify a data source name, which is configured separately in the ODBC Control panel (on Windows) or the ODBC Manager application (on Macintosh).

A list of the typical connection string keywords and values is shown below. Note that whether they are supported depends on the ODBC driver you are using. The options specified by the connection string override any settings made in the Data Source configuration in the ODBC Control panel (Windows) or ODBC Manager (Macintosh).

Keyword	Value
DSN	Data source name
HOST	Server host name
SVT	Database server type
DATABASE	The name of the database to connect to
OPTIONS	Database-specific options
UID	User Name
PWD	Password
READONLY	N/Y/I
FBS	Fetch-buffer size
STMT	Specify a statement that will be executed after the connection to the database.

Example:

DSN=BackupServer;UID=jdoe;PWD=letmein;

Tables

Click this button to see a full list of tables available in your database. This dialog can also be used to build the SQL statement.

Statement

The statement needs to be modified to select from the correct table (if unsure of which table to use, the available tables are shown by selecting the Tables… button), in this case the table is called Productos. The encoding should be set to the same encoding as the ODBC driver. Press Execute to execute the query, if the query has been successful it will show fields and some data in the Sample area.

The statement is used to specify the exact data to retrieve from the database, and takes the form of a standard SQL-compliant request.

Structured Query Language allows you to specify exactly what to retrieve from the database. By using SQL, your database can be interrogated in an almost infinite number of ways.

The exact syntax and use of SQL is beyond the scope of this guide, and there are many SQL tutorials available. This guide assumes that you have a working knowledge of your database and are able to retrieve your data using SQL.

Encoding

Change this pop-up if you are using a Unicode-compliant database. Depending on the ODBC driver being used, select either Unicode or Utf-8.

Macintosh only: For non-Unicode databases, select windows latin 1 if the text in the database was originated from a Windows machine.

Execute

Click the Execute button to test the Connection String and SQL statement settings. The results returned by the query will be shown in the sample window.

Sample

The results of the database query will be shown here. Use this area to ensure the results are as expected, and to configure Field Options.

Field information

Select one of the columns returned by the query in the Sample pane and click the Options button to configure its Field Options.

Once successfully configured and tested, at least one field must be configured as the key field — a field which can be used to uniquely identify each record from the database.