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There are several different types of database connections:

  • JDBC
  • ODBC
  • Host
  • Tutorial
  • Repository

Database connections can be used to view the contents of a database in a tree (schemas, tables and columns).
JDBC is an abstraction layer used by Java applications to connect to databases. The JDBC driver, created and provided by the database vendors, implement the generic API by defining the database specifics. This allows the Java application then to be database agnostic to some extent. The preferred connection method for most databases in WhereScape 3D is JDBC.
In WhereScape 3D, ODBC connections are established via the JDBC-ODBC bridge. ODBC data sources can be configured in the operating system using the standard ODBC manager.
Tutorial connections are a special type of JDBC connection used to connect to the tutorial databases shipped with WhereScape 3D.
Similarly, Repository connections are a special type of JDBC connection used to connect to the WhereScape 3D metadata repository.
Derby database connections can now be established to both embedded and multi-user databases.

Note

With the release of Java 8 the Sun JDBC-ODBC bridge has been removed. To continue supporting ODBC on Windows, WhereScape 3D now bundles a custom bridge driver called JdbcOdbc.dll which is copied into the chosen install location during the installation process.
Since this driver is Windows only support for ODBC, on Linux and Max OS X this has been dropped. On Windows ODBC connections will continue functioning as normal as long JdbcOdbc.dll is in the same directory as WhereScape-3D-HEAD-bundle.jar. However, ODBC connections will no longer work on other systems.
The bridge driver must have the same architecture as the Java runtime WhereScape 3D runs in as well as the ODBC connection so WhereScape 3D includes both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of JdbcOdbc.dll and installs the version with the same architecture as the version of Windows you are running. Each copy is also placed in a subfolder of the install directory (named x86 and x64). This allows you to connect to 32-bit ODBC connections on a 64-bit system by replacing JdbcOdbc.dll in the install directory with the version in the x86 subfolder and running WhereScape 3D in a 32-bit Java runtime.
REPLACE WITH THIS IMAGE: Images/connections/conenctiontypes.png

WhereScape 3D can also use files stored on a host machine as a data source by selecting Host as the connection type. There are also several different types of host connections:

  • Local file systems
  • FTP servers
  • SSH servers
  • Hadoop distributed file systems (HDFS)

The files and directories in the file system of any host connection are visualized in a tree the same way as they are in database connections.
A local file system is used to connect to files in a local directory path for discovery and profiling.
FTP server connections, SSH server connections, and HDFS connections are all defined by a URL and port number. A specific directory is set to act as the root folder. The required username and password information is also recorded to assist in connecting to the system.

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