Re: Informix / Excel connectivity

On Tue, 29 Feb 2000 12:24:26 -0500, "Carlson@WHSmith" <carlson1@bellsouth.net> wrote: >One of my users' upcoming requests is to be able to create user-defined >Excel reports using info from our Informix database. I have a few >questions and issues that someone out there may have answers for: > >1. Is there such a product? I'm aware of Office Connect . . . . it >appears to be the answer, but I haven't heard any practical >applications. I'm also aware of the Lawson financials aoftware suite, >but I'm also looking for a product that we could use enterprise-wide >with all of our Informix data, not just the Lawson section. Why using an additional product? Install the Informix Client SDK on Windows, setup with setnet32 and configure the ODBC driver. Start Excel und you can do simple queries with the MS Query tool, complicated ones with VBA. Hint: Try WinSQL from www.imranweb.com (it's free) to check out your ODBC connection. >2. Now that we're talking ODBC, I'm aware that there are various >security issues using a product such as this. Again, this is new ground >for me, as we have kept a relatively closed system using shared memory >connections. Is there any relatively easy way to create a read-only >connection with an ODBC product? Setup a user with 'read only' access for all tables in your database. Let only this user connect with ODBC when configuring setnet32. HTH Axel