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...

How many of you out there have to write LotusScript  code to access MS SQL Server?  Lucky for me, I get to do it all the time.  Since I'm in a Windows-based environment, I tend to use 'ado' objects to do my connecting.  One of the advantages of using ado is that there are thousands of VB examples of connecting to SQL Server.  So, I started by simply copying and pasting those examples into my LotusScript and viola....Error messages!  But, most of those errors were because I hadn't defined all of those constants that VB uses.  Things like 'adCmdText'.  Well, rather than define those over and over, here's a quick little tip.

Find the file called 'adovbs.inc'  It's usually located in the '\\Program Files\Common Files\System\ado' directory.  Open it with Notepad, copy it, paste it into a new script library and save the library.  (I save mine as adovbs.inc.)  Now, simply "Use" that script library and you never have to worry about defining those VB constants ever again.

If you ever have any other questions about connecting to SQL Server, drop me a line, I'd be happy to help where I can.  Then, you too, can be writing things like "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE clue >0" and get empty result sets.

Have fun!