LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit 1.0.2 Readme
Primary Software: LabVIEW Toolkits>>Database Connectivity Toolset
Primary Software Version: 1.0.2
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: N/A
Problem: I have not installed the LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit. Can I still access the readme file?
Solution: The LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit readme file is attached below. The readme file also is located on the Database Connectivity Toolkit CD and installed with the toolkit. This file contains important last-minute information including installation and upgrade issues, known issues, bug fixes, and changes from previous versions.
Refer to the LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolset Readme File KnowledgeBase document (linked below) for a list of bugs fixed in the LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit 1.0.1.
LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit 1.0.2 Readme
June 2008
This file contains important last-minute information about the LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit 1.0.2, including installation issues.
Refer to the National Instruments Web site for the latest information about the Database Connectivity Toolkit. Refer to the LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit User Manual and the LabVIEW Help for more information about using the Database Connectivity Toolkit.
System Requirements
Installation Instructions
Recommended Database Client Software
Accessing the Help
Finding Examples
Known Issues
The computer you are using must meet the following minimum system requirements to run the Database Connectivity Toolkit:
- Windows Vista/XP/2000
- A minimum of 40 MB free disk space
- LabVIEW 8.6
Before installing the Database Connectivity Toolkit, uninstall any previous versions of the SQL Toolkit for G that you have installed. The Database Connectivity Toolkit and the SQL Toolkit for G use different methods of communicating with databases. Sharing VIs between toolkits can result in errors.
You can install all of your LabVIEW products—including LabVIEW and the Database Connectivity Toolkit—using the LabVIEW 8.6 Platform DVDs. Refer to the LabVIEW DVD Installation Instructions or the LabVIEW Release Notes, which are available in your LabVIEW box, for information about the LabVIEW Platform DVDs.
Complete the following steps to install the Database Connectivity Toolkit 1.0.2 from the LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit installation CD.
Note Some virus detection programs interfere with the installer. Disable any automatic virus detection programs before you install. After installation, check your computer for viruses and enable any virus detection programs you disabled.
- Log on as an administrator or as a user with administrator privileges.
- Insert the LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit 1.0.2 installation CD and follow the instructions that appear on the screen.
- Activate your LabVIEW products using the NI License Manager.
Note Due to differences between the ActiveX interface of different versions of the Microsoft ADO driver, National Instruments recommends that you mass compile the Database Connectivity VIs after installation to improve performance.
Version 1.0.1 for LabVIEW 6.x, 7.x, or 8.x
You must install the LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit 1.0.1 to work with LabVIEW versions 6.0 through 8.5.
Caution Do not install the Database Connectivity Toolkit 1.0.1 under LabVIEW 8.6.
Complete the following steps to install the Database Connectivity Toolkit 1.0.1.
Note Some virus detection programs interfere with the installer. Disable any automatic virus detection programs before you install. After installation, check your computer for viruses and enable any virus detection programs you disabled.
- Log on as an administrator or as a user with administrator privileges.
- Insert the LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit 1.0.2 installation CD and browse to the
LabVIEW_6.0-8.5 directory.
- Double-click
setup.exe and follow the instructions that appear on the screen.
The Database Connectivity Toolkit works with any database or data source that has ODBC or OLE DB drivers. The following list describes issues and recommendations for which database client software to use. Refer to the Known Issues section of this readme for database-specific issues.
- Microsoft Access— National Instruments recommends that you use the Microsoft Jet 4.0 or later OLE DB Provider.
- Microsoft SQL Server—National Instruments recommends that you use the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server.
- Oracle 7 and 8—You must install Oracle Client software on the machine to which you install the Database Connectivity Toolkit. National Instruments recommends that you use the Oracle Provider for OLE DB 8.1.6.2.0 or later. You can download the Oracle Provider from the Oracle Web site at
www.oracle.com.
The LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit User Manual contains conceptual information about using the Database Connectivity Toolkit. Open this manual by selecting Start»Programs»National Instruments»LabVIEW 8.6»LabVIEW Manuals and opening DCT_User_Manual.pdf or by navigating to the labview\manuals directory and opening DCT_User_Manual.pdf.
The LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit VI and Function Help contains reference information about Database VIs and functions. Complete the following steps to access the LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit VI and Function Help.
- Launch LabVIEW.
- Select Help»Search the LabVIEW Help from the pull-down menu to launch the LabVIEW Help.
- Click the Contents tab.
- Navigate to Toolkits»Database VIs and Function.
LabVIEW examples for the Database Connectivity Toolkit are located in the labview\examples\database folder. You can modify an example VI to fit an application, or you can copy and paste from one or more examples into a VI that you create.
You also can find example VIs using the NI Example Finder. Select Help»Find Examples to launch the NI Example Finder. You also can click the arrow on the Open button on the LabVIEW dialog box and select Examples from the shortcut menu to launch the NI Example Finder.
Use the Browse or Search page of the NI Example Finder to find an example VI. In the Browse page, the Database Connectivity Toolkit examples are located in
the Toolkits and Modules»Database Connectivity folder.
The following sections describe known issues at the time of release. Refer to the Knowledge Base at ni.com for the most recent information about known issues.
- The Microsoft ODBC driver for Oracle and the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Oracle do not support BLOB, or binary, data types. You cannot use Oracle with the Database Connectivity Toolkit for binary data with these drivers. Use the OLE DB Provider and ODBC driver that Oracle provides instead. You can download the Oracle DB Provider and ODBC driver from the Oracle Web site at www.oracle.com.
- When you read data from an Oracle database, data types of NUMBER do not show up in the variant indicator. This data is available but not visible. To see NUMBER data, use the Database Variant To Data function to convert the NUMBER to a string or to any numeric data type in LabVIEW.
- If the Microsoft Access ODBC driver and Jet Provider return the error
Operation canceled, verify that the ODBC data source and/or data link connection string reference a valid .mdb file.
- The Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider and ODBC Driver might return the following error message when two executions attempt to gain write access to the same table.
Native error code -2147467259 0x80004005
Microsoft JET Database Engine:
Could not update; currently locked by user 'Admin' on machine 'XXX'.
This problem occurs if each execution or thread opens a unique connection to the database or opens unique statements to a table. In other words, this problem occurs if the executions or threads do not share handles. The Microsoft Access drivers use a lazy file access method that can cause this error. If this error occurs while you are accessing a Microsoft Access database from multiple processes or different computers, you must attempt to recover from this error and retry the failing database action.
- Inserting BLOB data into dBASE databases does not work if you use the OLE DB Provider for ODBC with an ODBC Data Source that points to a dBASE DSN. Refer to the Microsoft KnowledgeBase article Q264242 for a workaround.
- Asking for a dynamic cursor using the Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider gives a static cursor that is not quite correctly implemented. This bug has been reported to Microsoft.
- The Microsoft FindFast utility sometimes prevents writing to files. This problem results in an
Access Denied error message. Disable FindFast by removing it from the startup group in the Program Files menu and reboot the computer.
- You might experience slow performance when reading the entire contents of a large database table into LabVIEW. National Instruments does not recommend that you work with very large recordsets because doing so is inefficient and uses a large amount of computer resources. However, the Database Connectivity Toolkit does provide the Read All Data example VI that demonstrates how to return a large amount of table data into a 2D array of strings in the most efficient method ADO provides.
The Read All Data example VI uses few resources to return recordset data. However, this VI also has some limitations because the data format is a 2D array of strings. You must convert these strings into the LabVIEW data types that are most useful for displaying that data. Binary data such as arrays and clusters must be unflattened or type cast to their original format.
The Read All Data example VI also is unable to read recordsets that contain a NULL value anywhere in the resulting recordset. LabVIEW returns no data and generates an error.
- The Database Connectivity Toolkit demo, available by selecting Start»Programs»National Instruments»LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolkit»Database Connectivity Demo or by navigating to the
labview\examples\database\Telecommunications Parametric Testing.llb, does not work with the LabVIEW Base Package because some of the testing VIs use advanced analysis functions available only in the LabVIEW Full and Professional Development Systems.
Copyright
© 2008 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.
Under the copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an information retrieval system, or translating, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of National Instruments Corporation.
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National Instruments, NI, ni.com, and LabVIEW are trademarks of National Instruments Corporation. Refer to the Terms of Use section on ni.com/legal for more information about National Instruments trademarks.
Patents
For patents covering the National Instruments products, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your CD, or ni.com/patents.
Related Links: KnowledgeBase 3MQ6LIDW: LabVIEW Database Connectivity Toolset Readme File
Attachments: 
Report Date: 06/03/2008
Last Updated: 08/01/2008
Document ID: 4M2H92LC
