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Language: SQL
Expertise: Beginner

Apr 1, 1997

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.