Estimated completion time = 20 minutes.

In this tutorial, you will be creating an application in EASA that searches for stock data within an Access database and writes the search results to an Excel spreadsheet. In order for your application to be able to complete these tasks, you will need to configure the EASA server to connect to the database and have an active Excel Server for you to use.

Please follow the instructions below to complete this practical session. Detailed information on the tasks completed in this session can be found at Configuring Connections to External Databases.

Note: The tasks in this Practical Session require both login access to the computer acting as the EASA Server and an account with Administrator role privileges within EASA.

To connect to an Access database, EASA needs to have the database exposed as an ODBC data source. Once the ODBC data source has been created, the connection to the database can be configured in EASA and then tested.

Note: For most other relational database products, such Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, etc., the following step of creating an ODBC Data source is not required and you could proceed to Step 2 - Configuring the Database within EASA.

To setup the MS Access database you must first setup an ODBC System data source with Microsoft’s ODBC Data Source Administrator using the following procedure:

• Copy the StockData.mdb file to the file system of the computer acting as the EASA Server.

• Log onto the EASA Server with the account used to run the EASA Server software.

• (Windows XP): Open the ODBC Data Source Administrator by clicking on Start > Settings > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC)

• (Windows 7 32-bit): Run the ODBC Data Source tool. You can access this tool by running odbcad32.exe found in the C:\Windows\System32 folder.

• (Windows 7 64-bit): Run the 32-bit version of the ODBC Data Source tool. You access this tool by running odbcad32.exe found in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder.

• On the ODBC Data Source Administrator window, click the System DSN tab and then click the Add button to add a new system data source.

• The Create New Data Source window appears. From the list of available drivers, highlight Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb) and click the Finish button.

• Next, the ODBC Microsoft Access Setup window appears. In the Data Source Name box, type in: ‘StockAnalysis’

• Click the Select button to browse to your StockData.mdb file.

• The Select Database window appears. Use the Directory tree branch to select the StockData.mdb file. Click the OK button.

• Click OK on the remaining two windows to finish setting up the ODBC data source for the Access database containing the stock data.

With the ODBC data source created, you are now ready to configure the connection to the StockData database within EASA.

• Log in to EASA by clicking on the link sent to you by your EASA Administrator, or by opening your browser and typing in the URL for your EASA server as described at the Getting Started with EASA page.

• Next, select EASA→Set Mode→Administrator in the EASA web pages.

Note: If Administrator is not available within the Set Mode tab, you currently don’t have Administrator privilege for your user account. Contact your EASA administrator to receive Administrator privileges or have them configure the EASA server to connect to the database.

• Go to the EASA→Configure→Database tab, then on the new page click on the Configure Databases link.

• Click the Add New Database button to add a new database connection to the Stock Data database

• The New Database page appears and you should see input boxes where you’ll add the database configuration parameters. Set parameters as shown in the following table leaving User Name: and Password: parameters blank. Then click Save.

Notes:

The URL parameter is jdbc:odbc:<ODBC Data Source name>. Please refer to 'Step 1 - Setting up an ODBC Data Source'

The Driver Name parameter refers to an integrated Java JDBC-ODBC-Bridge driver. This driver is shipped with EASA.

The Validation Query is for testing purposes. A simple SELECT query is all that is required. INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE queries should NOT be used for Validation purposes

You will want to test the connection to the database by performing the Validation Query which you entered above.

• After clicking the Save button within the New Database page you return to the Configure Databases page.

You should now see the new StockData database in the table of databases on this page

Locate the last column Run Test.

• Click the Run Test icon ( ) in the StockData row.

The Test Results page appears. You should see a Test passed message along with the validation query results

The Access database named StockData is now configured within EASA and is ready for use within EASA applications.

Note: If the Excel Server software was installed on the EASA Server during installation, then you can skip to Practical Session 2.

In order to complete this tutorial, your EASA system also needs to have an active Excel Server configured for you to use. The Excel Server component must be installed on a Windows computer, which has MS Excel installed on it.

Instructions for installing the Excel Server software are given at Adding a New Compute Server or Excel Server.

Once the Excel Server software has been installed, the computer needs to be configured as an Excel Server in EASA using the following procedure:

• Open the Compute Server Configuration Tool using the compute server configuration link on the EASA→Administrator→Configure→Compute Servers page.

• Note: In order to open the Compute Server Configuration Tool, you will need to have the EASA Client software installed on your computer. This software can be installed from the Install Client page under the EASA tab in User mode

• In the Compute Server Configuration Tool, add an EXCEL SERVER to the COMPUTE SERVER LIST branch and then set its parameters:

Note: <your_server_name> is the name of the computer on which EASA Server software was just installed.

• Save and exit the Compute Server Configuration Tool.
• Click on the Update Excel Servers button on the Compute Servers page. You should now see the new Excel Compute Server in the table on this page and its Status should be 'active'.

At this point, the Access database and the Excel Server required to complete this tutorial are now configured in EASA and you can continue with the next practical session.

Practical Session 2