Re: Connecting to Sybase and Informix

[Stan Quick <stanley.quick@BRIO.COM>]

Russ,
First, the technical aspect of your question.
SQR is available with native connectivity to 5 data sources (we'll discuss
Direct Data Objects (DDO)) in a minute).  The 5 sources are 1) Oracle 2)
Sybase 3) DB2 4) Informix 5) ODBC (including SQL Server).  What this means
is that the SQR executable (a C program) has been linked with the client
libraries for each of these sources (e.g. Net80 for Oracle, OpenClient for
Sybase, etc.)  When you use SQR/Informix, you are using the SQR.exe that has
been linked to use Informix's client libraries.  Occasionally, when you load
SQR on a machine (e.g. Sun Solaris), the client libraries are newer than the
version that was linked by Brio.  In this case, you would have to run MAKE,
which would let you re-link the new libraries.  You also use MAKE when you
have C routines that you would like to add to SQR to extend its
functionality.

When you use SQR/Sybase, therefore, you are establishing a connection to ONE
instance of Sybase, within which you can then use the "USE db" command to
change databases as you work.  However, if you wanted to connect to
Informix, you would not have the client library that would let you change
connections to an IFX db.  SQR/ODBC, on the other hand, is linked to use
ODBC connections...Any ODBC connection that is available on the server
running SQR.  Therefore, switching between a DSN for an Informix db and a
DSN for a Sybase db is easy -- just put -DB'DSN=...' on the begin-select and
you're good to go.  I have done a lot of projects like this, and it works
just fine.

Since Unix shops tend to frown heavily on ODBC, there is no SQR/ODBC for
Unix.  However, SQR 6.0 is now available with Direct Data Objects as an
access option.  SQR/DDO uses Java-based drivers for all data access.  So,
just as you did with SQR/ODBC, you can change connections dynamically on
your select statements.  Since SQR/DDO is available on NT and Unix, you can
access any relational db through its JDBC driver, as well as accessing XML,
SAP R/3, Essbase, etc.

Second, the licensing aspect of your question.
SQR 4.3 is bundled with PeopleSoft.  The license agreement your company
signed when it bought PeopleSoft is that your use of SQR is limited to use
on PeopleSoft data ONLY.  To use it for any other purposes is a breach of
contract, which leads to too much use of lawyers' time.  Thus, if you are
looking to use SQR beyond the reading/manipulation of PeopleSoft data, you
need to contact Brio Sales for an upgrade to your existing license (or a new
license for a different connectivity version).

Stan


-----Original Message-----
From: Russ Wulfson [mailto:rwulfson@BOST.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 10:01 AM
To: SQR-USERS@list.iex.net
Subject: Connecting to Sybase and Informix


I have, what is to me, a rather complex question.  I recently posted a note
about trying to connect to multiple databases (Sybase and Informix).  The
answer that seemed correct was that I had a licensing issue.  We have sqr
4.3 bundled with PeopleSoft and this version seems tied directly to
Informix (our PeopleSoft database).  We're interested in getting a free
standing version of Brio Report, but I'm concerned that this will not
resolve my current problem.  I need to be able to run an sqr that will
function primarily in Informix and allow me to use the -DB flag in my
select and connect to Sybase.  We have Brio Enterprise and have not been
able to find or make any drivers work on the UNIX side. So here's my
questions:

1) Does any one have any direct experience getting Sybase and Informix to
work at the same time? or know anything specific about this issue?

2)Do the newer versions of Brio Report use ODBC connections or some other
type of connections?(I don't think I fully grasp the connectivity issues)

Thanks for any help you guys can give me.

Russ