MDAC 2.5 SDK - Technical Articles
Drivers are libraries that implement the functions in the ODBC API. Each driver is specific to a particular database management system (DBMS). In most cases, drivers expose the capabilities of the underlying DBMS; they are not required to implement capabilities not supported by the DBMS.
ODBC ships with drivers for SQL Server, Oracle, and Visual FoxPro, plus the Desktop Database Drivers.
The Microsoft SQL Server ODBC driver enables applications to work with Microsoft SQL Server.
The Microsoft ODBC Desktop Database Drivers are a Microsoft Jet-based set of ODBC drivers. These drivers provide access to the following types of data sources:
Access to other data stores, such as Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft Exchange, and HTML, is enabled by installable ISAM (IISAM) drivers. ODBC Desktop Database Drivers 4.0 do not support Btrieve and EMS data formats.
You use the Microsoft ODBC Driver for Oracle to connect your ODBC-compliant application to an Oracle database. The ODBC Driver for Oracle conforms to the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) specification described in the ODBC Programmer's Reference. It allows access to PL/SQL packages, XA/DTC integration, and Oracle access from within Internet Information Services (IIS).
Oracle RDBMS is a multiuser relational database management system that runs with various workstation and minicomputer operating systems. IBM-compatible computers running Microsoft Windows can communicate with Oracle database servers over a network. Supported networks include Microsoft LAN Manager, NetWare, VINES, DECnet, and any network that supports TCP/IP.
The ODBC Driver for Oracle enables an application to access data in an Oracle database through the ODBC interface. The driver can access local Oracle databases or it can communicate with the network through SQL*Net.
The ODBC Driver for Oracle complies with API Conformance Level 1 and SQL Conformance Level Core. It also supports some functions in API Conformance Level 2 and most of the grammar in the Core and Extended SQL conformance levels. The driver is ODBC 2.5-compliant and supports 32-bit systems. Oracle 7.3x is supported fully; Oracle8 has limited support. The ODBC Driver for Oracle does not support any of the new Oracle8 data types—such as Unicode data types, BLOBs, and CLOBs—nor does it support Oracle's new Relational Object Model.
To access Oracle data, the following components are required:
Additionally, for remote connections it requires a network that connects the computers that run the driver and the database. The network must support SQL*Net connections.
The Microsoft Visual FoxPro® ODBC Driver enables applications to open, query, and update data in Visual FoxPro and earlier versions of FoxPro through the ODBC interface.