To access data from Access 97

The following procedure describes how to access your COBOL data from Microsoft Access 97, the database component of Microsoft Office 97. Another procedure has been provided for users of Access 2000 (the version that comes with Microsoft Office 2000). If you have a different version of Access, follow whichever procedure you desire. Even though your steps may be slightly different, the concepts will be largely the same.

Notes: When you are accessing relative files, you should not need to specify a unique key for Access. When Access displays the dialog box requesting that you enter a unique key, just click OK without selecting any field.

If you are using the Multicompany feature and are linking tables, you must relink every time you start Access and use this data source. See section 3.8, "Multicompany Support" for more information on this feature.

To access data from Access 97:

1. Start Access.

2. Open an existing database or create a new one. If you have created a new database, name and save it.

3. Select Get External Data from the File menu, and then select Import or Link Tables, depending on whether you want a static view of the data (Import) or you will be returning data to the Vision files (Link Tables). Note that in these examples, the data is imported, not linked. See "To access data from Access 2000" for a comparison of linking versus importing.

4. Select ODBC Databases from the "Files of type" drop-down list in the Import dialog box.

5. Select the DSN that you want to import from the list in the Select Data Source dialog box and click OK. (Click New to create a new DSN. Refer to section 3.1, "Data Source Names (DSNs)" for instructions.) If you want to use the sample DSN that comes with AcuODBC, select AcuODBC Datasource.

6. Select, from the list in the Import Objects dialog box, the table or tables that you want to read into Access, and click OK. Click Select All to add all of the listed tables to your Access database.

7. Double-click the table icon to open the table in Access.

If you have imported the data, the table name or names you selected appear on the Access screen next to an icon of a table. You will see a different icon next to the table names if you have linked the data.

8. You may now perform Access operations on this data.