Question:
I have a number of databases - filemaker, DBase, ASCII and CAD drawings. We want to convert everything to one database. Is this possible? What are some initial steps to take to get on the path of converting everything over.
Answer:
Well, it's certainly time to settle on one database!
OPO Version 2 includes ODBC access to a fairly wide variety of databases,
which includes ASCII and DBase files. Once you define these files as an
ODBC data source, you can access them through an OPO session, just as you
would an Oracle database. After you have defined a session to access the
data, you can move the tables and their data to any other session by simply
dragging and dropping the tables.
You could, concievably, use the Migration Expert that comes with OPO for
the same purpose once you have created an ODBC data source for the files.
For the FileMaker files, you have a couple of choices. You could see if
there is an ODBC driver available for FileMaker files and use the same
methods described above. This should work, although there may be some
problems, especially with data conversion, for an untested ODBC driver in
OPO. You could also dump the files to an ASCII or CSV format and import
the data. I describe how to do this in detail in my book Mastering
Oracle Power Objects, available from O'Reilly and Associates.
Finally, for the CAD drawings, I would use some care here. You could store
them in a LONG-type of column in an Oracle database, but you may still have
a problem displaying them outside of the CAD product, since most CAD
products use a proprietary format. If you do want to keep the data in an
oracle database, consult the Oracle manuals as to the best way to get these
files into an Oracle database.
