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 anODBC data source, you can access them through an OPO session, just as youwould an Oracle database. After you have defined a session to access thedata, you can move the tables and their data to any other session by simplydragging and dropping the tables.
You could, concievably, use the Migration Expert that comes with OPO forthe 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 ifthere is an ODBC driver available for FileMaker files and use the samemethods described above. This should work, although there may be someproblems, especially with data conversion, for an untested ODBC driver inOPO. You could also dump the files to an ASCII or CSV format and importthe data. I describe how to do this in detail in my book MasteringOracle Power Objects, available from O’Reilly and Associates.
Finally, for the CAD drawings, I would use some care here. You could storethem in a LONG-type of column in an Oracle database, but you may still havea problem displaying them outside of the CAD product, since most CADproducts use a proprietary format. If you do want to keep the data in anoracle database, consult the Oracle manuals as to the best way to get thesefiles into an Oracle database.
