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MySQL-ODBC SDK
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The MySQL-ODBC SDK enables you to make MySQL-specific applications database-independent without wholesale re-writes of your application code. Thus, applications that are written directly to the MySQL call level interface now end up being database independent via iODBC, and usable against any ODBC accessible database (including MySQL).
Why
The Open-Source community is rapidly producing innovative applications and in many cases these applications need require relational database services. Traditionally and historically, the tendency has been to look to MySQL as the default relational database service for Open Source Applications (the M in LAMP) which is unfortunately retreogressive since the concept of database indpendence has long been addressed industry wide via APIs such as ODBC, JDBC, OLE DB, and more recently .NET. In some case the existence of these APIs has been unknown to Open Source developers prior to application development, and in other cases the complexity of a port from the MySQL API to ODBC simply too difficult.
There are numerous reasons why you cant mandate MySQL or any other database engine for that matter to every potential user of an Open Source database centric application:
Compromises freedom of choice (Freedom of Choice is a central theme of the Open Source movement and concept)
Database vendor lock-in reduces the deployment scope of your application, and it also potentially impedes functionality growth (what happens when the underlying database lacks the functionality that you desire?)
Cost-Effectiveness is an Open Source value proposition main stay, so asking potential users to acquire yet another database (the real costs arent $0.00 as resources will be required for administration, installation, configuration etc.) when functional ODBC accessible relational databases exist in house is simply contradictory at the very least
ODBC as a concept has always been designed to be database-independent; iODBC as an Open Source project was devised to ensure platform neutrality for ODBC (just as Mono is pursuing the same goals re. .NET). When you write an application using the ODBC API database interchangeablity becomes a reality.
How Does the MySQL-ODBC SDK Work ?
PHP|Python|Perl each have MySQLbinding layers (likewise any other MySQL application), and all that you need to do is rebuild the MySQL binding layer by following the steps below:
Download a copy of the source, mysql2odbc-0.99.2.tar.gz and unpack it somewhere into your normal source repository.
Check what options `./configure takes by running `./configure --help. In this case, you have a choice of specifying any one of the following ODBC SDKs:
OpenLink iODBC SDK (available from OpenLink Web Site)
iODBC SDK (available from iodbc.org)
unixODBC SDK
Run ./configure with the appropriate ODBC options, and specify a --prefix of course; for example, ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql2odbc --with-iodbc=/usr/local/iodbc
Assuming this completes successfully, run make and wait while it compiles
Become root and run make install. This will create $PREFIX/lib/libmysqlclient.so.10.0.0 and assorted symlinks around it.
Finally, to use the mysql-odbc bridge (the component that you build with the SDK for your application), you need to tell your application to use it in preference to the normal libmysqlclient.so - normally this means you need to export LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the directory in which the library resides ($PREFIX/lib) or export LD_PRELOAD to the name of the library itself, before you run your application.
Test to see that your local iODBC or unixODBC environment is functional which implies ensuring that data access is possible via ODBC Drivers installed on the machine hosting your previously MySQL specific application. |
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