Ms-access – Creating a DSN-less connection for MS Access within Java

dsnjdbcms-accessodbc

I'm building a desktop app that needs to communicate with a MS Access database. Now, unless I want to register the DSN for the database on every computer that's going to use the desktop app, I need a way to connect to the database in a DSN-less fashion.

I've searched alot and found some useful links on how to create connection strings and based on that I tried modifying my program based on that but without success.
The code below fails. If i switch the string in the getConnection to "jdbc:odbc:sampleDB" it works, but that's using DSN and not what I want to achieve.

How do I write and use a connection string in java to make a DSN-less connection to a MS Access database?

private Connection setupConnection() throws ClassNotFoundException,
        SQLException {
    Class.forName("sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver");
    Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)} &_ Dbq=c:\\as\\sampleDB.mdb");
    return con;
}

Addition: I'd also like to point out that if anyone has an idea of a way to achieve what I asked for WITH a DSN-connection I'll gladly listen to it!

Best Answer

JDBC connection string shouls start with jdbc: like:

jdbc:odbc:Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=c:\\Nwind.mdb

so try with:

   Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:odbc:Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};Dbq=c:\\as\\sampleDB.mdb");

If you configure DSN then you can connect to it using simplier connect string: jdbc:odbc:[alias], example:

jdbc:odbc:northwind

Related Solutions

Php – DSN-less connection with PHP ODBC using MDBTools Driver

I think it might not support it. Going from the source of the actual driver you see that it loads the params it needs to check, checks wether it has been given a DNS string, checks the ini files next and if it hasn't errored out it sets the params.

for reference from odbc.c latest mdb-tools (mdbtools-0.6pre1)

SQLRETURN SQL_API SQLDriverConnect(
SQLHDBC            hdbc,
SQLHWND            hwnd,
SQLCHAR FAR       *szConnStrIn,
SQLSMALLINT        cbConnStrIn,
SQLCHAR FAR       *szConnStrOut,
SQLSMALLINT        cbConnStrOutMax,
SQLSMALLINT FAR   *pcbConnStrOut,
SQLUSMALLINT       fDriverCompletion)
{
SQLCHAR FAR* dsn = NULL;
SQLCHAR FAR* database = NULL;
ConnectParams* params;
SQLRETURN ret;

TRACE("DriverConnect");

strcpy (lastError, "");

params = ((ODBCConnection*) hdbc)->params;

if (!(dsn = ExtractDSN (params, szConnStrIn)))
{
  LogError ("Could not find DSN in connect string");
  return SQL_ERROR;
}
else if (!LookupDSN (params, dsn))
{
  LogError ("Could not find DSN in odbc.ini");
  return SQL_ERROR;
}
else 
{
  SetConnectString (params, szConnStrIn);

  if (!(database = GetConnectParam (params, "Database")))
  {
 LogError ("Could not find Database parameter");
 return SQL_ERROR;
  }
}
ret = do_connect (hdbc, database);
return ret;

then when you verify in connectparams.c, ExtractDSN specifically looks for the DSN= string

 gchar* ExtractDSN (ConnectParams* params, const gchar* connectString)
 {
  char *p, *q, *s;

  if (!params)
  return NULL;
  /*
   * Position ourselves to the beginning of "DSN"
  */
  p = strstr (connectString, "DSN");
 if (!p) return NULL;
 /*
  * Position ourselves to the "="
  */
 q = strchr (p, '=');
 if (!q) return NULL;

And LookupDSN looks for inifiles or immediately returns with TRUE, depending on the HAVE_SQLGETPRIVATEPROFILESTRING precompiler setting.

So given that

SetConnectString (params, szConnStrIn);

only works on the data it got from the 2 previous functions, I think it doesn't support DSN-less. Only either a proper DSN= string or ini files.

Sql-server – Changing SQL connection information for DSN-less Access frontend

The following code has served me well for years:

Function LinkTable(DbName As String, SrcTblName As String, _
                   Optional TblName As String = "", _
                   Optional ServerName As String = DEFAULT_SERVER_NAME, _
                   Optional DbFormat As String = "ODBC") As Boolean
Dim db As dao.Database
Dim TName As String, td As TableDef

    On Error GoTo Err_LinkTable

    If Len(TblName) = 0 Then
        TName = SrcTblName
    Else
        TName = TblName
    End If

    'Do not overwrite local tables.'
    If DCount("*", "msysObjects", "Type=1 AND Name=" & Qt(TName)) > 0 Then
        MsgBox "There is already a local table named " & TName
        Exit Function
    End If

    Set db = CurrentDb
    'Drop any linked tables with this name'
    If DCount("*", "msysObjects", "Type In (4,6,8) AND Name=" & Qt(TName)) > 0 Then
        db.TableDefs.Delete TName
    End If

    With db
        Set td = .CreateTableDef(TName)
        td.Connect = BuildConnectString(DbFormat, ServerName, DbName)
        td.SourceTableName = SrcTblName
        .TableDefs.Append td
        .TableDefs.Refresh
        LinkTable = True
    End With

Exit_LinkTable:
    Exit Function
Err_LinkTable:
    'Replace following line with call to error logging function'
    MsgBox Err.Description
    Resume Exit_LinkTable
End Function



Private Function BuildConnectString(DbFormat As String, _
                                    ServerName As String, _
                                    DbName As String, _
                                    Optional SQLServerLogin As String = "", _
                                    Optional SQLServerPassword As String = "") As String
    Select Case DbFormat
    Case "NativeClient10"
        BuildConnectString = "ODBC;" & _
                             "Driver={SQL Server Native Client 10.0};" & _
                             "Server=" & ServerName & ";" & _
                             "Database=" & DbName & ";"
        If Len(SQLServerLogin) > 0 Then
            BuildConnectString = BuildConnectString & _
                                 "Uid=" & SQLServerLogin & ";" & _
                                 "Pwd=" & SQLServerPassword & ";"
        Else
            BuildConnectString = BuildConnectString & _
                                 "Trusted_Connection=Yes;"
        End If

    Case "ADO"
        If Len(ServerName) = 0 Then
            BuildConnectString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
                                 "Data Source=" & DbName & ";"
        Else
            BuildConnectString = "Provider=sqloledb;" & _
                                 "Server=" & ServerName & ";" & _
                                 "Database=" & DbName & ";"
            If Len(SQLServerLogin) > 0 Then
                BuildConnectString = BuildConnectString & _
                                     "UserID=" & SQLServerLogin & ";" & _
                                     "Password=" & SQLServerPassword & ";"
            Else
                BuildConnectString = BuildConnectString & _
                                     "Integrated Security=SSPI;"
            End If
        End If
    Case "ODBC"
        BuildConnectString = "ODBC;" & _
                             "Driver={SQL Server};" & _
                             "Server=" & ServerName & ";" & _
                             "Database=" & DbName & ";"
        If Len(SQLServerLogin) > 0 Then
            BuildConnectString = BuildConnectString & _
                                 "Uid=" & SQLServerLogin & ";" & _
                                 "Pwd=" & SQLServerPassword & ";"
        Else
            BuildConnectString = BuildConnectString & _
                                 "Trusted_Connection=Yes;"
        End If
    Case "MDB"
        BuildConnectString = ";Database=" & DbName
    End Select
End Function


Function Qt(Text As Variant) As String
Const QtMark As String = """"
    If IsNull(Text) Or IsEmpty(Text) Then
        Qt = "Null"
    Else
        Qt = QtMark & Replace(Text, QtMark, """""") & QtMark
    End If
End Function

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Php – DSN-less connection with PHP ODBC using MDBTools Driver

Sql-server – Changing SQL connection information for DSN-less Access frontend

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