ODBC Driver

What is the ODBC Driver?

Inmagic's ODBC Driver provides open access to Inmagic's specialised textbase structure. ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) is a programmatic interface that allows users to manipulate data from databases using third-party tools. Developed by Microsoft® Corporation and embraced by MIS, ODBC provides an open standard for accessing information from many different databases, including Oracle, Microsoft Access, and Inmagic's DB/Text® and Content Server platforms.

Why is ODBC Important? 

In many organisations, IT departments prefer and often require databases to be ODBC compliant, so that data from one database can be accessed and combined with other data sources throughout the corporation via a standard retrieval mechanism. With Inmagic's ODBC Driver, your textbases can now work in tandem with other databases used in your organisation. ODBC also provides a programmatic method for the customisation of your textbases. So if you want to tailor your TextWorks databases or add to their functionality, you can do so using the ODBC interface.

What Makes Inmagic's ODBC Driver Unique? 

With our ODBC Driver, we are able to provide open access to Inmagic's textbases while preserving a good part of what makes them special. Rather than sacrifice the superior indexing and keyword searching that users of Inmagic products depend upon, we enhanced the standard syntax used for ODBC transactions (SQL syntax) to include a CT (contains term) operator for performing keyword, phrase and proximity searches. The ODBC Driver uses our indexes to ensure rapid retrieval. So while Inmagic's ODBC Driver is standard, our enhancement of SQL to support rapid keyword retrieval makes us unique. Fast keyword searching is not generally available through ODBC.

The Speed and Flexibility of Inmagic TextWorks + the Benefits of ODBC

Inmagic's products have many features in common with standard relational databases. Both have records, fields, support for a variety of data types, and the ability to perform searches. Inmagic does some things better, such as fast keyword and proximity searching and variable length and repeating fields. Relational databases do some things better, such as dynamic joins and field-to-field comparison searches.

Inmagic's ODBC Driver offers the best of both worlds.

The ODBC Driver makes our textbases perform in a truly relational fashion. You can do one-to-many, many-to-many, and nested joins across multiple tables (textbases) dynamically. You can use field-to-field comparisons in a search or search on computed values. You also have the benefit of a standard API, so that the same application can "talk" to a extWorks textbase, a Microsoft Access database, an Oracle database, or all of the above... even at the same time.

You can use the ODBC Driver with Inmagic DB/TextWorks or CS/TextWorks to build a wide variety of applications customised for your unique needs. The examples that follow will give you a better idea of how you can use Inmagic's ODBC Driver to benefit your organisation. 

Using the ODBC Driver to Combine Information from Multiple Sources

Use the ODBC Driver with DB/TextWorks or CS/TextWorks to produce a single report that combines data from an ODBC-compliant database with data from TextWorks.  You can even use a third-party tool to design your reports. For example, you can design a report in Microsoft Access that combines data from an Oracle database and your textbase.  With the ODBC Driver, you can mirror an Oracle table in TextWorks, perform keyword queries against TextWorks, then use the results to perform “gets” against an Oracle table.  You are no longer limited to converting your data from Oracle into TextWorks or vice versa.  Users can still work with the data in the user-friendly environment in TextWorks, and then report the results in a way that management prefers. 

Using the ODBC Driver for Creating High-level Management Reports

With a little help from the ODBC Driver, TextWorks can also produce high-level reports for management that utilise graphs and charts. For example, you can use Crystal Reports software or another third-party report tool to design easy-to-read “pie chart” reports that extract data directly from a TextWorks textbase. Or you can export data from TextWorks into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, then perform financial and statistical analysis and create detailed financial reports for management. Users can continue to handle the data in TextWorks, but management's view of the data is a set of comprehensive, customised reports created using a third-party tool and ODBC.

Using the ODBC Driver with the Web

With the ODBC Driver and a third-party Web development tool, you can write Web applications that allow you to report and interact with textbases on your corporate intranet. For example, you can use Cold Fusion a popular Web application development tool that utilises an ODBC back-end as the data repository to build a browser-based application for accessing your textbases. Multiple users can then query the textbases from anywhere on your intranet via a Web browser. Or you can provide browser-based editing and maintenance of your textbase records.

Please contact Maxus for more information on the ODBC Driver.