Re: Connect to two database engines at same time?

In article <4j6pq7$l1f@jaxnet.jaxnet.com>, chs@jaxnet.com says... > >Our company currently uses informix-se on a UNIX platform for our >accounting applications. This same vendor has a DOS based human >services application written in clipper. They tell me that they are >currently writing an interface (MS-Windows based using Delphi) which >will tie the two databases together in order to be able perform some >cost analysis. > >Question is can an application connect to two different database >engines and open a table from each of the two at the same time. It depends on your definition of 'connect'. Usually, you are only 'connected' to one database. However, it is possible to access multiple Informix databases by using the following format in Informix: select <whatever> from <database>@<hostname>:<tablename> So join two tables on different databases you might -- select a.column, b.column from db1@host1:tbl1 a, db2@host2:tbl2 b where a.key = b.key This would join table tbl1 in database db1 on computer host1 with table tbl2 in database db2 on computer host2, all the while you could be on a completely different computer . We do this using the Informix product ISTAR. We also use the Sybase middleware to connect DB2, Oracle, and Informix databases. This works by creating a virtual view of the databases on the Sybase server. Problems?? Well, users have to be on all machines, privileges need to be maintained, host files must be updated, etc. It isn't too difficult, but it is time consuming to set up and maintain.