Linking to AS400

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jennifer
  • Start date Start date
J

Jennifer

Can someone give me basic instructions to linking to
AS400? Consider me a basic-intermediate user.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Your PC should have an ODBC driver on it for connecting to the AS400.
(If you have a client program that you use to connect to the AS400 it
probably installed one for you.)

Set up a DSN to use that ODBC driver.
The use Access to connect to ODBC linked tables and highlight the tables you
want to connect to.
Be sure to select Unique Record Identifiers if prompted.

I have not done this in 5 years but this is the basic idea.
 
Thanks for your help!


-----Original Message-----
Your PC should have an ODBC driver on it for connecting to the AS400.
(If you have a client program that you use to connect to the AS400 it
probably installed one for you.)

Set up a DSN to use that ODBC driver.
The use Access to connect to ODBC linked tables and highlight the tables you
want to connect to.
Be sure to select Unique Record Identifiers if prompted.

I have not done this in 5 years but this is the basic idea.
--
Joe Fallon
Access MVP






.
Click to expand...
 
This is eactly what I've done these past several months. So maybe this can
help. (This is the first time I've worked in this environment, but I'm ASSUMING
that my experience is typical.)

1.) I'm connecting to IBM's UDB DB2 on the 400.

2.) What ODBC drivers are on your PC?

The Client Access (now iSeries) drivers that work for standard applications
(your regular apps, Cognos Impromptu, etc.), will NOT provide the proper
connection for Access. (Can't get to the metadata(?).) Physically, Access will
connect, but you won't see what you need.

What you need is DB2 Connect - Personal Edition. Then create the DSN entry
using THIS driver.

Also, the tables on our 400 are named like this:

<filename>.<table name>

Access will link to DB2 changing the '.' to '_', resulting in:

<filename>_<table name>

3.) If you need to use pass-thru queries, remember that DB2 wants to see the
period '.', and not the underscore '_' that Access assumes.

4.) To how many tables on the 400 do you need to connect?

Our apps use a LOT of tables. (Okay, our BIGGEST app uses a LOT of tables.)
I've created a table so that the links can be deleted and recreated
automatically every time I open my .mdb file. (I even created a progress bar
form with an overall and task bar, showing the progress as the code executes.)

Let me know if you want/need the code.

Hmmm... I THINK that's it. As you can see, the BIG deal is using the correct
drivers. No DB2 Connect? Then no joy. Plain and simple.

HTH

Tom
 
Tcs said:
This is eactly what I've done these past several months. So maybe this can
help. (This is the first time I've worked in this environment, but I'm ASSUMING
that my experience is typical.)

1.) I'm connecting to IBM's UDB DB2 on the 400.

2.) What ODBC drivers are on your PC?

The Client Access (now iSeries) drivers that work for standard applications
(your regular apps, Cognos Impromptu, etc.), will NOT provide the proper
connection for Access. (Can't get to the metadata(?).) Physically, Access will
connect, but you won't see what you need.
Click to expand...

Our company has been using the Client Access ODBC driver for years with (few)
problems in Access. Not sure what you mean by not getting MetaData. The only
time I have seen issues is with some of the UDB field types that don't map very
well in Access. Otherwise it works fine.
 
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