I need an ODBC to ODBC bridge piece of software that allows a Perl
script running on a Linux machine to make SQL queries to a Microsoft
SQL Server 7.0. There are commercial products available, but they tend
to be rather expensive (e.g., Easysoft). Is there a free or cheap
(less than $200) that you KNOW works and is not horribly difficult to
install and use on a RH Linux 7.x platform?

Hello jjames!

I've found a Perl module for DBI to access an Access database (DBC)
and a free ODBC Driver Manager (iODBC).

You can download the Perl Module from [
http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/J/JU/JURL/DBD-ODBC-0.41.tar.gz ]
There's some documentation here: [
http://search.cpan.org/doc/JURL/DBD-ODBC-0.41/ODBC.pm ])

The free ODBC Driver Manager's homepage is [ http://www.iodbc.org/ ]
You can download it from 
[ http://www.iodbc.org/software.htm ] 
I would recommend you to download 'iODBC Driver Manager Runtime
Package (For Linux glibc21)' and 'iODBC Administrator (Linux glibc21)'

If you use Debian, you can install the packages by doing:
apt-get install iodbc libiodbc2 libiodbc2-dev

Additional links:

You can find a ODBC-Perl HOWTO, here: [
http://www.iodbc.org/odbc-perlHOWTO.html ]

If you have problems with the iODBC home when installing the perl
module, please check  [
http://www.iodbc.org/odbc-perlHOWTO.html#odbchome ]

Search strategy (CPAN.org)

ODBC

Search strategy (Google)

perl
obdc
driver



Good luck!

---

Request for Answer Clarification by jjames1-ga on 24 Jun 2002 23:11 PDT

We need to access MS SQL Server 7.0 not an Access database. Does your
answer still apply in this case?

---

Clarification of Answer by runix-ga on 25 Jun 2002 06:22 PDT

Yes!

Quoting the DBM::ODBC documentation:
  "These tests run perfectly under SQL Server 2000. This is normal and
expected.  "

and from iODBC 

"... ODBC is the acronym for Open DataBase Connectivity, a Microsoft 
        Universal Data Access standard that started life as the
Windowsi mplementation
        of the X/Open SQL Call Level Interface specification. Since
its inception
        in 1992 it has rapidly become the industry standard interface
for developing
        database independent applications. Is is also the emerging
standard interface
        for SQL based database engines replacing many of the first
generation
        Embedded SQL and proprietary call level interfaces provided by
database
        engine and database connectivity middleware vendors alike."

The site pointed to does have software that can do what I need, but it
is commercial and far more expensive than the $200 limit I specified
in the original question. Note that Driver Manager is free, it is the
driver itself that costs money. In one of the comments, freetds was
mentioned which is what I thinkn I will use.

I'll try and save you $5, search two of the biggest open source
software directories for lots of free software:

http://www.sourceforge.com/

http://www.freshmeat.net/

If anyone knows other, add them!

Hope this helps...

Have you done anything with Perl, and yet somehow not know about CPAN?

This might be what you want: 
http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=Msql-Mysql-modules
or maybe this:
http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=MySQL-GUI

If not, look through the list:
http://search.cpan.org/search?mode=module&query=sql

Hope this helps!

~ bookface-ga

A useful article about connecting MS SQL Server to PHP can be found
here on phpbuilder.com, and can be generalized to Unix/Perl. Use the
Perl DBI module over ODBC. All the examples are free/open source.

http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/alberto20000919.php3

Although I haven't earlier solved your problem exactly, I might toss
in some pieces of information that you could find useful:

1) Use the free "unixODBC library" to provide an ODBC manager in Linux
http://www.unixodbc.org
2) Use the free "Inline TDS ODBC driver" to connect to the MSSQL
server
http://www.inline.net (inline website seems currently unavailable)
http://library.freeodbc.org (driver available in downloads)
3) Use the DBD::ODBC Perl module for using the ODBC manager
http://search.cpan.org/doc/JURL/DBD-ODBC-0.41/ODBC.pm

If ODBC is not a requirement, there is also an alternative that uses
the TDS (Tabular Data Stream) protocol instead. Have a look at FreeTDS
which is a free database library that also has Perl bindings.
http://www.freetds.org/

Hope you found this somewhat useful!