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Office 2000 and Mainframe and UNIX Server Data

Microsoft Office 2000 users might need to access data stored on mainframe or UNIX servers. Microsoft BackOffice provides Microsoft SNA Server 4.0 to provide gateway and application integration support for a broad range of desktop operating systems with IBM Host systems.

Office 2000 applications also provide support for accessing data by using the ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) programming model from Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code and Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) script in HTML documents. ADO can use OLE DB data providers and ODBC drivers to access data.

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Organizations are increasingly employing Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Windows NT operating systems to create a variety of solutions in the enterprise including the following: sophisticated intranets, electronic commerce applications, customer services applications, and complex distributed transaction processing. Employing the latest distributed Windows and BackOffice technology ensures that these solutions can be implemented quickly and inexpensively. At the same time, businesses need to preserve their investment in existing data and applications on mainframe and AS/400 systems.

Traditionally, integration of client/server and host environments has meant employing terminal emulation to provide access to mainframe and AS/400 resources. Microsoft SNA Server 4.0 provides comprehensive gateway and application integration features such as the following:

• Support for database access that uses the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Distributed Relational Database Architecture (DRDA) standards by using the StarSQL ODBC/DRDA Drivers.
• Support for record-level access to Virtual Sequential Access Method (VSAM) and other databases on mainframe and AS/400 systems by using the OLE DB Provider for AS/400 and VSAM.
• Support for distributed transaction processing and Web-to-host integration solutions that use host Customer Information Control System (CICS) or IBM Information Management System (IMS) transactions.

You can use the StarSQL ODBC/DRDA Drivers and the OLE DB Provider for AS/400 and VSAM data provider that are installed as part of Microsoft SNA Server client software to access mainframe and AS/400 data sources from Office 2000 applications in the following ways:

• Excel 2000 supports displaying and retrieving data with installed ODBC drivers by using the New Database Query command (Data menu, Get External Data submenu).
• Access database files (MDB files) support importing data and creating linked tables from ODBC data sources by using the Import and Link Tables commands (File menu, Get External Data submenu).
• All Office 2000 applications can access server data from Visual Basic for Applications code by using ODBC drivers and OLE DB data providers. The Data Access Objects (DAO) programming model can be used to access ODBC data sources. The ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) programming model can be used to access ODBC and OLE DB data sources from VBA code and from VBScript script in HTML documents.

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OLE DB providers for mainframe and UNIX server data

All Office 2000 applications can access data by using OLE DB data providers in conjunction with ADO programming model from Visual Basic for Applications code and from VBScript script in HTML documents. In addition to the OLE DB provider for AS/400 and VSAM that is installed with Microsoft SNA Server 4.0, the following vendors are currently supplying or will supply OLE DB providers to access VSAM, AS/400, HP/UX, IBM AIX, and OpenVMS data:

• Amalgamated Software of North America
• IBM Corporation
• International Software Group
• MetaWise
• Microsoft Corporation

For information about the OLE DB providers available from these vendors, see their respective Web sites.

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See also

For information about support for data access by using Visual Basic for Applications and database connectivity standards, see Data Access Technologies.

For more information about Microsoft SNA Server 4.0, see the Microsoft SNA Server Web site, at http://www.microsoft.com/sna/, and SNA Server online Help, which is installed with SQL Server.

For information about implementing and troubleshooting SNA Server, see the TechNet Reference SNA Server Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/resource/technet/servers/sna/.

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