Testing the ODBC Layer

We recommend that before you test your application with one of our ODBC drivers that you use a simple ODBC application to check that the ODBC layer is working. Doing this enables you to ensure that the driver has been licensed and that your ODBC data source has the correct connection details (user name, password, database instance, database port etc.) We recommend that you do that because some applications will insulate you from underlying error if there is a problem with the ODBC driver. For example, if you forgot to license an Easysoft ODBC driver when using Oracle Heterogeneous Services, you would only see an Oracle error message in your application, you would have to enable Oracle logging to see that the actual problem was the driver was not licensed.

If you have tested the ODBC connection before reporting a problem, it tells us that the issue lies with your application, which is helpful when diagnosing what the cause of the problem is.

On Linux and Unix, we supply a test application named isql, which assuming you choose to install the unixODBC Driver Manager that's included in the ODBC driver distribution is located in install_dir/easysoft/unixODBC/bin. For example:

cd /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/bin
./isql.sh -v MY_DSN

In the example, we run isql.sh a wrapper script, which sets the environment and then runs isql. MY_DSN is the name of the ODBC data source to be tested and -v tells isql to return any error messages that may arise.

If you chose to use a version of unixODBC that was already on your system during installation, enter this command instead:

isql -v MY_DSN

If the connection fails at this stage, there's no point in trying the driver with you intended application. Consult the ODBC driver documentation, the Easysoft web site, or contact the Easysoft Support Team for assistance.

On Windows, the Easysoft ODBC drivers have a Test button in their data source configuration dialog boxes, but these don't test licensing and can sometimes require a machine restart before they can be used to check the ODBC connection. A better test is to use the Microsoft ODBC Test application, which you can download from the Easysoft FTP site.

If your ODBC data source was configured in the 32-bit version of ODBC Data Source Administrator, on the machine where you created this data source:

  1. Create a folder named ODBCTest32.
  2. Download the contents of this folder to ODBCTest32: 
    ftp://ftp.easysoft.com/pub/utils/windows/odbc-test/32-bit/

—Or—

If your ODBC data source was configured in the 64-bit version of ODBC Data Source Administrator, on the machine where you created this data source:

  1. Create a folder named ODBCTest64.
  2. Download the contents of this folder to ODBCTest64: 
    ftp://ftp.easysoft.com/pub/utils/windows/odbc-test/64-bit/

Then:

  1. Start ODBC Test, by double-clicking: 
    odbcte32.exe
  2. In ODBC Test, choose Conn -> Full Connect, and then double-click your data source in the list. (If you don't see your data source, you have the wrong version of ODBC Test e.g. you have the one from the 32-bit folder on our FTP site and you need the one from the 64-bit folder instead, or vice versa.)

If the connection fails at this stage, there's no point in trying the driver with you intended application. Consult the ODBC driver documentation, the Easysoft web site, or contact the Easysoft Support Team for assistance.