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IBM DB2 Icon IBM DB2 ODBC Driver

The IBM DB2 ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from IBM DB2, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access IBM DB2 data like you would a database - read, write, and update through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

Viewing DB2 Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer



How to view DB2 data in RAD Studio Data Explorer using the CData ODBC Driver for DB2.

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for DB2, you gain access to live DB2 data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve and update DB2 data. This article will walk through connecting to DB2 using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to DB2

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Set the following properties to connect to DB2:

  • Server: Set this to the name of the server running DB2.
  • Port: Set this to the port the DB2 server is listening on.
  • Database: Set this to the name of the DB2 database.
  • User: Set this to the username of a user allowed to access the database.
  • Password: Set this to the password of a user allowed to access the database.

You will also need to install the corresponding DB2 driver:

  • Windows: Install the IBM Data Server Provider for .NET.

    On Windows, installing the IBM Data Server Provider is sufficient, as the installation registers it in the machine.config.

  • Java: Install the IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC.

    In the Java version, place the IBM Data Server Driver JAR in the www\WEB-INF\lib\ folder for this application.

Connecting to DB2 Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying DB2 data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for DB2 and a new VCL Forms Application:

  1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
  2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
  3. Click Add New Connection.
  4. Enter a name for the connection.
  5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for DB2.
  6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the tables for the connection.
  7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a table (for example: Orders) onto the form.

  8. Select the OrdersTable object on the form and set the Active property to true.
  9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

  10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the Orders data.