PayDirt

 As I said yesterday, I usually do most of my SQL Server connectivity using 'ado' objects.  That works great when you're in a Windows environment.  But what happens when you've got Linux desktops, or servers, or anything other than Windows?  JDBC, that's what.  I suppose you could use the Lotus Connectors, and they probably work just fine.  I just haven't used 'em, and it's my blog so I'm talking about JDBC today.

The first thing you need when looking at using JDBC to connect to SQL Server are the right drivers.  I could go into a long spiel about the different types of JDBC drivers (Type I - Type IV), but plenty of other sites do that far better than I could.  I've played with several different types of drivers, including Microsoft's own.  But, the one I've found that works best for me is the jTDS driver.

So, go download it and over the next couple of posts I'll go through how to get it set up on your Domino server and how to use it to connect to SQL Server, retrieve data, and process it.

Stay tuned...