Migrating from the MSS or OLE DB database interfaces

In earlier releases of PowerBuilder, the MSS native interface was provided for connection to Microsoft SQL Server. This native interface was based on Microsoft DB-LIB functionality, which is no longer supported by Microsoft and is not Unicode-enabled. The MSS interface was removed in PowerBuilder 10.0.

Prior to the introduction of SQL Server 2005 and SQL Native Client, Microsoft recommended using the OLE DB database interface and MDAC to connect to SQL Server. You can continue to use this solution if you do not need to take advantage of new features in SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008.

This section provides a comparison between database parameters you might have used in existing applications with the parameters you can use with the SNC database interface.

MSS database parameters supported by SNC

Table 9-2 shows the database parameters and preferences that could be set in the Database Profile Setup dialog box for the discontinued MSS native database interface for Microsoft SQL Server, and indicates whether they are supported by the SNC interface.

The column on the left shows the tab page in the Database Profile Setup dialog box for MSS. The parameters and preferences may be on different tab pages in the SNC profile.

Table 9-2: MSS parameters supported by SNC

MSS

SNC

Connection tab:

Language

Not supported

Lock

Supported (Transaction tab)

AutoCommit

Supported

CommitOnDisconnect

Supported

System tab:

Log

Not supported

SystemProcs

Not supported

PBCatalogOwner

Supported

Transaction tab:

Async

Not supported

DBGetTime

Not supported

CursorLock

Not supported

CursorScroll

Not supported

StaticBind

Supported

MaxConnect

Not supported

Syntax tab:

DBTextLimit

Supported (as PBMaxTextSize on Transaction tab)

DateTimeAllowed

Not supported

OptSelectBlob

Not supported

Network tab:

AppName

Supported (System tab)

Host

Supported (System tab)

PacketSize

Supported (System tab)

Secure

Supported (as TrustedConnection on General tab)

OLE DB database parameters supported by SNC

Table 9-3 shows the database parameters and preferences that can be set in the Database Profile Setup dialog box for the OLE DB standard interface for Microsoft SQL Server, and indicates whether they are supported by the SNC interface.

The column on the left shows the tab page in the Database Profile Setup dialog box for OLE DB. The parameters and preferences may be on different tab pages in the SNC profile.

Table 9-3: OLE DB parameters supported by SNC

OLE DB

SNC

Connection tab:

Provider

Not supported

DataSource

Supported at runtime (as SQLCA.ServerName)

DataLink

Supported

Location

Not supported

ProviderString

Supported

System tab:

PBCatalogOwner

Supported

ServiceComponents

Not supported

AutoCommit

Supported (General tab)

CommitOnDisconnect

Supported (General tab)

StaticBind

Supported (Transaction tab)

DisableBind

Supported (Transaction tab)

Init_Prompt

Not supported

TimeOut

Supported

LCID

Not supported

Transaction tab:

Block

Supported

PBMaxBlobSize

Supported

Mode

Not supported

Lock

Supported

Syntax tab:

DelimitIdentifier

Supported

IdentifierQuoteChar

Not supported

DateFormat

Supported

TimeFormat

Supported

DecimalSeparator

Supported

OJSyntax

Supported

Security tab:

EncryptPassword

Not supported

CacheAuthentication

Not supported

PersistSensitive

Not supported

MaskPassword

Not supported

PersistEncrypted

Not supported

IntegratedSecurity

Supported (TrustedConnection on General tab)

ImpersonationLevel

Not supported

ProtectionLevel

Not supported

Additional database parameters

The SNC interface also supports the ReCheckRows and BinTxtBlob runtime-only parameters, the Encrypt, TrustServerCertificate, and SPCache parameters (on the System tab page), and the Identity parameter (on the Syntax tab page).

SPCache database parameter

You can control how many stored procedures are cached with parameter information by modifying the setting of the SPCache database parameter. The default is 100 procedures. To turn off caching of stored procedures, set SPCache to 0.

For more information about database parameters supported by the SNC interface, see the Connection Reference in the online Help.