| Installing and Configuring ColdFusion Server |
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Managing Data Sources |
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| Installing and Configuring ColdFusion Server |
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Managing Data Sources |
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ColdFusion uses ODBC, OLE DB, and native database drivers to communicate with a wide variety of popular database programs. This section introduces each type of driver so you can decide which one best suits your needs.
Any valid ODBC data source already installed on your system is automatically available to your ColdFusion applications. You must also register it as a ColdFusion data source so that you can configure it with ColdFusion-specific options, such as the ability to specify SQL operations to restrict for the current data source.
When you create a data source on the Create ODBC Data Source page in the ColdFusion Administrator, you can configure a number of settings for your ODBC data source. The options available to you depend on which database driver you are using. Data source definitions and option settings are stored in the odbc.ini file on UNIX and in the Registry on Win32 platforms. The main role of the odbc.ini file is to map a data source name (DSN) to a particular ODBC driver and options.
For detailed information about options specific to your ODBC drivers, see the documentation that came with your database program or the ODBC driver documentation, including online Help. For detailed information on the MERANT ODBC drivers, see the MERANT DataDirect ODBC Reference, which is distributed with ColdFusion as an Acrobat file. On UNIX machines, this file is installed by default as: <installdir>/coldfusion/odbc/doc/odbcref.pdf. On Win32 machines, this file is installed by default as: <installdir>/cfusion/bin/odbcref.pdf.
OLE DB, which is available only on Windows NT/2000, is a Microsoft specification for a set of interfaces designed to access data, regardless of the data type.
Native database drivers are available for certain databases in ColdFusion Enterprise Edition. You can access DB2, Informix, Sybase System 11 through Sybase Adaptive Server 12.0, and Oracle 7.3.4, 8.0, and 8i databases through native database drivers on both Windows NT and UNIX platforms.
For detailed information about OLE DB and native drivers, see Advanced ColdFusion Server Administration.
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