Conecting to MS Access via a network

Question

Hi folks,
I'm trying to get my program to access a database via a network and I'm testing (perhaps unwisely) with MS Access. The first step was using:
    driver="sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver";
    connectString="jdbc:odbc:Test";
    Class.forName( driver );
    con = DriverManager.getConnection( connectString, "", "" );and setting this up using User DSN/System DSN in the OBDC manager on win2000.
This works fine and I can establish a connection. My next step was to add my computer name or IP address with the thought when it work I can change either one to another computer. These efforst have been so far to no avail. I keep getting the error message:
java.sql.SQLException: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specifiedSome of the variations I've tried so far are:
    connectString="jdbc:odbc://1.1.1.92/Test";
    connectString="jdbc:odbc://127.0.0.1/Test";
    connectString="jdbc:odbc://computername/Test";
    connectString="jdbc:odbc://1.1.1.92/Test1"; with Test1 defined as a file DSN in the OBDC Manager
The only "minor" success was
    connectString="jdbc:odbc://computername.proxyservername/Pete"; Pete defined as a file DSN in the OBDC Manager again
This produced the error "java.sql.SQLException: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name too long" which doesn't help me either.
Has anyone managed this before and tell me how or give me some tips?
Thanks a lot in advance,
Pete
PS. After searching the forums I've also tried:
    con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:odbc:Driver={MicroSoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=D:test.mdb", "", "" );This works.
    con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:odbc:Driver={MicroSoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=//compname.proxyname/D:\\test.mdb", "", "" );Doesn't work :-(

Answer 1

Has anyone managed this before and tell me how or give me some tips?To connect to MS Access using the ODBC driver via the jdbc-odbc bridge, you have two choices: use a DSN or use a DSN-less connection string.
The MS Access driver only uses the file system for accessing the file. There is no way at all for you to specify a remote computer using the driver. None.
As mentioned you can map a drive to your computer and use that. That however requires that every client have that drive mapped. That is seldom a workable solution. And it is unusable on the internet.
The DSN-less connection string must be exactly correct or it will not work. The usual problem is that there are extra spaces or not enough.
See here for an example of DSN-less http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp?forum=48&thread=259008
See here for an explaination of ODBC in general and how to access MS Access remotely http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp?forum=48&thread=211735&start=2