How to read an old Jet 3.5 database? - database

I am trying to investigate an old DB file that used to have a custom front-end that dose not work anymore because of corrupted files.
The only clue I got is that it uses an old driver, a DAO Jet 3.5 (I have the driver installation file), and it used to run under windows XP.
The DB file itself doesn't have a known file extension.
What are my options for manually exploring the database?

If the file has no extension, it might not be a Jet database. But assuming it is, there are a few options...
MS Access would be the most obvious thing to try, but it can fail on old enough database files.
An alternative is MDB Viewer Plus which can open and read very old MDB files, with a nice GUI. It is perfect for "manual exploration" of an MDB file.
http://www.alexnolan.net/software/mdb_viewer_plus.htm
MDB Viewer Plus is a freeware viewer plus editor for opening Microsoft
Access MDB and ACCDB database files. It does not need to be installed
to run. It uses Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) which is
installed as part of Windows.
MDB Viewer Plus has been written to provide a free, quick and easy way
to open, view, edit, filter, sort, import to, export from, modify and
search MDB and ACCDB files. This is useful for software developers
like myself who use Access databases as a backend database for their
bespoke software. MDB Viewer Plus provides a convenient way to view
and edit these databases.

Related

Relational database tool, which can display PDF blobs

I would like to collect my orders in a very simple relational database with some PDFs inside binary a field. I would like to easily browse the PDFs without building a frontend. There are many SQL admin tools available which are perfect for browsing the databases, but I have not found any free tools which could display the PDFs inside it or open them easily.
Which existing free and platform independent tool is able to show PDFs in a database?
For example:
SqlLite Studio has a "Edit value" window, which can display the stored image.
SQLMastro is able to do it, but is not free.
Images can also be shown in LibreOffice Base and Microsoft Access.
In MS Access VBA it is possible to embed ActiveX applications or open a PDF stored at a path, but MS is not platform independent and VBA is very messy.
I would also be happy, if it would actually store a copy of the file temporary on the harddrive and automatically open it. I just want a single click solution.
I did not specify the actual database format, as I am happy to use any relation database which has such a tool already. I want to use some database instead of a magical folder structure.

how do i determine oracle database name of data source

I've been searching around and haven't found anything on my scenario that I understand:
I have a list of all of the Oracle databases and corresponding servers that my company owns (about 80 servers 150 databases). I am trying to figure out which one a specific file is being downloaded from (from a webpage).
I am mechanical engineer, not in software so if you could eli5 that would be very helpful.
Specifically I need the SID name, but figuring out the server name
would also be helpful.
Your question is kind of tricky here. if your downloading the file from web application(I assuming it is a Java webapp), oracle database could act as either the data store or a report server that can generate the oracle reports directly
In the first case, you need to find out if what kind of file you are downloading?
is it a PDF? is it a excel file? or just text file or anything? the best idea is to check out the file link and then decide what software generating this file. it could be any software in back end to generate the file like, POI(for generating excel file), or even a direct file link, but not oracle at all.
Also, In this case, the file is usually generated at backend by server-let. You need ask the developer which report or file generating engine they are employing. and if oracle database is also being used, it is usually providing the data fro that report or file engine.
In the second case, you can just check out the the URL and give it to the webmaster asking them which oracle server it is using. it is usually configured in the web server.

visual foxpro for windows 8

I have foxpro data table files ".dbf",".fpt",".cdx" .
I want to read data in the files and import it to SQL server 2008
I have windows 8 OS installed on my machine. I could not find compatible visual foxpro version for windows 8.
Also I have used dbfviewer tool to view data in .dbf file but I cannot check data in .fpt file
Any help is appreciated.
I don't know why people want to close an legit question... My guess they have no clue.
I am running windows 8.1 and use VFP 9 regularly. It may not claim to be directly compatible because M$ has discontinued support on the product, so why even test on platforms they have no concern with. Have you tried VFP9?
Another approach some people use is downloading the VFP OleDb Provider and use it via .net, or even through SQL-Server to use a connection, query the raw data into SQL Server, then run through conversion techniques while everything IS in SQL server.
VFP 9 also has from its top-level menu
Tools --> Wizards --> Upsizing
and guides you through how to pick either a directory of free tables, or pick a database and identify which server to connect to, etc, etc.
Hopefully some good starting points for you to run with and check back if you get stuck somewhere else down stream...
You only need to worry about the DBF file.
As noted in Microsoft's online documentation, Visual FoxPro's DBF, FPT, and CDX files are "Table", "Table Memo", and "Compound Index", respectively.
The DBF is the "core" file, containing the description of the fields as well as the information about each record and the actual data for most data types. For FoxPro's memo-style data types, the information for each record is written onto the equivalent FPT file instead of the DBF itself.
The CDX is a record of the FoxPro indexes, and rather that containing data just contains compiled and ordered pointers to which records match which indexed expressions.
You could purhcase a copy of Visual FoxPro 9, as it seems to work on Windows 8 albeit with some quirks. However, if you only want the data and do not have an exist VFP license, you are better off using the free OLE provider DRapp mentioned in his answer, and sending your data to a more modern format.
You can also use DBF Commander Pro to export DBF files to SQL Server.
To carry out this operation, you'll only need DBF and FPT files - they contain data of Memo field(s). CDX files are not needed since VFPOLEDB provider doesn't support indexes at all.
Install the app, open a DBF file, click File -> Export to DBMS. Then provide the connection string (or Build it). For MS SQL Server 2008 it will look as follows:
Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Persist Security Info=False;User ID=userid;Initial Catalog=databasename;Data Source=servername
Click Connect button in order to check the connection, then choose the destination table from the dropdown list:
At the bottom of the window you'll see the command-line that can be used for uploading DBFs to a database in a batch mode. Click Export button to start the process.
DBF Commander Pro has 20-days full featured trial period, so you can do the job for free and you'll economize $300 on Visual FoxPro license :)
In Windows 7, I can create an ODBC connection to a Foxpro data source. I don't know if that capability still exists in Windows 8, but I don't see why it wouldn't.
Once that connection exists, the data becomes available for any other tool that can utilize ODBC. At that point, you could import the data into Excel, massage it, then load it into SQL Server. Alternatively, you could also access the data directly via VBScript to either dump it to a text file or import it directly into SQL Server.

Connect to Microsoft Access Database from XCode

I've been tasked with writing a Mac App in xcode 4.3 that can search and display data from a publicly available MS Access Database that's updated regularly. For this reason, I can't just convert the file to a different database platform. I've searched the depths of Google and can't find anyone else attempting such a task.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
You may try to use 3rd party tools that provide connectivity like actualtech one.
http://www.actualtech.com/product_access.php
I personally never tried this one, but it looks promising.
I believe there are no native Microsoft support for other platforms than Windows.
If the database is in an MDB file, you could try using this online MDB to MySQL converter.
You could write a daemon that fetches the latest SQL dump daily or even hourly and stores it in a local SQLite file. Then your client app just needs to query the local file.
I know it's not as convenient as connecting to the database directly, but this is a 'free' solution.

Proprietary DBX File Type

I am trying to mine data out of a .dbx file. This file is NOT associated with Microsoft Outlook Express. It is for a Laboratory Information Management System. Unfortunately their project management skills aren't the best and getting patches/updates are not the easiest. The central file repository consists of .dbx files for each study we do. On the client side a local database is created and the user updates these files each time. I've had issues with studies conflicting and throwing CException errors but the company has yet to come up with a fix. I just need to mine the file for the tables that are in it and subsequent data it has.
Any suggestions,
Jeff
"dbx" is probably a Visual Foxpro table. You might be able to read it with Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel. (Or, of course, with Microsoft Visual Foxpro.)

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