Connecting a 64-bit Application to Acomba

Acomba provide an ODBC driver that enables third party applications to connect to Acomba data tables.

The ODBC driver's architecture is 32-bit, which means it can only be used with a 32-bit application. This is because an application and its libraries (e.g. the ODBC Driver and the ODBC Driver Manager the application uses to load the ODBC Driver) must all be the same architecture.

There is a solution, however. The Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge enables a 64-bit application to connect to a 32-bit ODBC Driver (and vice versa). For example, you can use the ODBC-ODBC Bridge to connect a 64-bit application such as Microsoft Access to Acomba.

The ODBC-ODBC Bridge has two components: the Client and Server, which can be installed on either the same machine or on different machines. The ODBC-ODBC Bridge Client communicates with the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Server via RPC, which means the architecture of the Client does not dictate the architecture of the Server. So, a 64-bit Client is compatible with a 32-bit Server (and vice versa).

The ODBC-ODBC Bridge sits in between the application and ODBC driver. The Client passes the ODBC calls the application makes to the Server, which then passes them on to the application.

  1. If you have not already done so, in the 32-bit version of the ODBC Administrator, configure a Acomba ODBC data source on the machine where the Acomba ODBC driver is installed.

    If the target Acomba file that you specify in the data source is on a mapped drive, replace the mapped drive path with an UNC path. For example, use:

    \\myfolder\myfile

    not:

    z:\myfolder\myfile
  2. Install the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Client on the machine where your application is installed.
  3. Install the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Server on the machine where the Acomba ODBC driver is installed.
  4. On the machine where your application is installed, use the 64-bit version of the ODBC Administrator to configure an ODBC-ODBC Bridge Client data source. Point the data source at the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Server that's installed on the Acomba ODBC driver machine, specify a Window user name and password for this machine. Specify your Acomba data source in the TargetDSN list.
  5. In your application, connect to your new ODBC-ODBC Bridge data source.