I have recently installed WinNT4.0 server and the MS Internet Information Server.
I also I want to use a database in my Web application via the JDBC interface.
(Since JDK 1.1 isn't yet supported by most browsers, the JDBC will at first be
in a server side application).
I'm leaning towards puchasing MS Access 97, but I want to make sure it will serve
my needs first (and without requiring the purchase of OTHER exxpensive add-on
products to make it work).
Questions:
1) Is MS Access a robust enough product to actually use under a web site ?
This web site is not very data intensive (there will only be a moderate amount
of I/O per user and there would be at most a handful of people accessing the
site at any given time). However, there does need to be some concurrent access
(which could be coordinated by threads in the Java server).
2) Does an ODBC driver come with MS Access 97 ?
3) Can I do insert/update/delete operations via the ODBC
interface to MS Access?
(The reason I ask this is all the MS Access books I
browsed through in the book store only talked about QUERYING the database with select. I get
suspicious when it seems everyone is dancing around a subject.)
4) Is there a pure JDBC driver available for MS Access ?
In another question, someone said that JetConnection is
a "straight JDBC driver", but it appears to me that it
is not (they require the ODBC driver for the database).
5) Can I use the JDBC-ODBC bridge that comes in the
JDK 1.1 from Sun ?
6) If I can't use the standard one, which one CAN I use ?
7) If I use a JDBC-ODBC bridge, would it be easy to set up
and can it be done with any C-compiler/linker ?
8) Please elaborate the steps for setting all this up
(assuming I write a sample Java application that
makes read/write JDBC calls).
Although I listed these questions to steer your thinking a
bit, what I'm really looking for is an overall solution
that will cost minimal money and given that I want to use
JDBC. I don't require someone necessarily to answer all
the above questions necessarily, but I DO require enough information to accomplish my goal.
For example, I don't know how to get my java app, the JDBC-ODBC bridge (or other driver) and the ODBC driver
to all talk to each other. Is the ODBC driver a DLL ?
I'm prepared to buy MS Access, but I'd be REALLY upset
if I later found out it that I couldn't get it to do what
I needed.
Also, if you know of a free (or shareware) database system
for WinNT4.0 that will do the same, I'd much appreciate
learning of it.
