Connecting to External Databases (Windows)

If you want your users to access the data from an external database management system, you should use Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) drivers. For example, you can install a Microsoft Access ODBC driver creating a connection to external Microsoft Access database, and customize web applications to use this database for storing their data.

Note that an external database does not necessarily need to be remote; ODBC can be used to access local databases as well.

To install a new ODBC driver, creating a connection to an external database:

  1. Go to the Tools & Settings > ODBC Data Sources.

  2. Click Add ODBC DSN.

  3. Specify the ODBC connection name and description in the corresponding fields.

  4. Select the required driver in the Driver field.

  5. Click OK.

  6. Choose the appropriate options on the driver configuration screen. Typically, you should specify the path to the database, user credentials and other connection options, depending on the selected driver.

  7. Click Test to check whether the connection will function properly with provided settings. Click Finish to complete the creation.

    image-ODBC-connection

To change settings of an existing ODBC connection:

  1. Go to Tools & Settings > ODBC Data Sources.
  2. Click the required connection name in the list.
  3. Change the settings as needed.
  4. Click Test to check whether the connection will function properly with new settings. Click Finish to save changes.

To remove a redundant ODBC connection:

  1. Go to Tools & Settings > ODBC Data Sources.
  2. Select a checkbox corresponding to the connection you want to remove.
  3. Click Remove, confirm the removal and click OK.