Using the ODBC extension on Linux

Configuring the driver

The driver configuration is done within "/etc/odbcinst.ini". For adding the MySQL driver, add a section as follow :

CentOS :

[MySQL]
Description  = ODBC for MySQL
Driver       = /usr/lib/libmyodbc3.so
Setup        = /usr/lib/libodbcmyS.so
FileUsage    = 1

Debian :

[MySQL]
Description  = ODBC for MySQL
Driver  = /usr/lib/odbc/libmyodbc.so
Setup  = /usr/lib/odbc/libodbcmyS.so
FileUsage  = 1

note: the Driver path could be different on your system, check what library has been installed by your ODBC driver.

Configuring the DataSource

The DataSource Name (DSN) can be defined in "/etc/odbc.ini". Let's add my MySQL database section :

[test-connector]
driver = MySQL
Database = my_database
Server = localhost
Socket = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

Or with TCP connection

[test-connector]
Description = MySQL
Driver      = MySQL
SERVER      = localhost
USER        = someuser
PASSWORD    = somepassword
PORT        = 3306
DATABASE    = wikidb

Testing the ODBC access

Time to test our ODBC access on our database. This can be done from the command line as follow :

$ isql -v test-connector db_username db_password
+---------------------------------------+
| Connected!                            |
|                                       |
| sql-statement                         |
| help [tablename]                      |
| quit                                  |
|                                       |
+---------------------------------------+
SQL> select * from example;
+-----------+-------------------------------+-----------+
| id        | name                          | age       |
+-----------+-------------------------------+-----------+
| 1         | Timmy Mellowman               | 23        |
| 2         | Sandy Smith                   | 21        |
+-----------+-------------------------------+-----------+
SQLRowCount returns 2
2 rows fetched
SQL>

Everything looks good, now we should be able to use this DSN within MindTouch !