Re: need advice for client using excel with informix

First of all they need to make sure that the version of FTP they are using includes a winsock.dll. If not then they will either have to upgrade there FTP to a version that includes the winsock.dll or purchase it from a vendor that writes a generic winsock.dll. Once the winsock.dll is in place all they need is an Informix ODBC driver. There are three different vendors that I know of: Intersolv, OpenLink, and VisionWare. Intersolv is probably the most widely used, but it will also require I-Net (Informix Client Networking piece) to be installed on each of the client PC's. We like the OpenLink driver because it cuts out some of the layers that most other ODBC vendors incorporate into their drivers. This makes it easier to manage and install, it also is faster. The only other thing that your client may need to do is make sure that when they installed Excel that the chose the option to install Microsoft Query. Once the pieces described above are in place all that has to be done is for the user to start Excel. From the menu bar select 'Data' and then 'Get External Data ...'. This will kickoff Microsoft Query. A dialogue box titled 'Select Data Source' will show up. The first time the user runs this they will have to chose 'Other'. Another dialogue box will pop up titled 'ODBC Data Sources'. The user will select the appropriate data source that was set up when the ODBC driver was installed. The user will then be required to sign on to the database and the selected ODBC Data Source will show up in the 'Select Data Source' dialogue box. Select the one that was just created and click on the 'Use' button. A list of the tables in the database that the user has permissions to see will show up in a list box. From here on out it is a QBE (Query By Example) to retrieve the data. Hope this helps. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Scott Allred Internet: scott.allred@nsc.sprint.com | | Sprint/North Supply Phone: (913) 791-7000 x1810 | | New Century, KS Fax: (913) 791-7671 | | USA | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: need advice for client using excel with informix Author: Scott Allred at North-Supply Date: 4/18/95 8:01 AM i have a client who is using a manufacturing package called promax written in informix 4gl and sql. they have set up a sco unix client server environment and want to access the informix data with microsoft office products, especially excel and maybe access. they are using ftp software on the pc's and the informix package runs entirely on the server. any suggestions on how this should work and what else they might need. they also purchased the informix development system. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. please post or email to: johnnyg@tulsa.com thanks