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12.1.2- Universal Access for Databases
by NT Community Manager.
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| << 12.1.1- How Databases Store Data | Chapter12 | 12.1.3- What is ODBC? >> |
Universal Access for Databases
You've probably heard of the different kinds of database applications that are available.Perhaps your Accounts department upstairs are using Oracle to store the payrollinformation, while you've got Microsoft Access at home because it came as partof the Microsoft Office suite. Yet these two are totally differentapplications. They don't even have to run on the same operating system!
We use the term'database' to refer to exactly the sort of storage structure we discussed inthe previous section: related tables, records, keys, and so on. When we need torefer to data storage in a broader sense, we use the term 'data store'.
So, is there a method that you can use toget information from a database onto your web pages – regardless of whether thedatabase type is Microsoft Access on Windows 98, or Oracle on UNIX?
Up until very recently the best answer tothis question was to use ODBC, but this technology restricted the user tocertain types of data store (mainly databases). Fortunately a better,broader-based solution is now at hand in the form of OLE-DB, the data accesstechnology of choice for this book. However, in order to fully understandOLE-DB you really need to see what preceded it. So let's start with ODBC andthe idea of universal access to one type of data store: the database.
| << 12.1.1- How Databases Store Data | Chapter12 | 12.1.3- What is ODBC? >> |
