Last Reviewed: March 18, 2002

Article: DTS0121

 

Applies to: dtSearch Web (all versions)

 

dtSearch and the dtSearch Engine use the Microsoft ODBC database drivers to access desktop database files (Access, Fox Pro, Paradox, DBase) through ODBC.

The default installation of dtSearch Web does not include support for access to desktop database files using ODBC. As a result, you will get a "dtSearch Engine Unable to Process Request" message from dtSearch Web if you try to click on the name of a database row in search results.

To enable ODBC database support in dtSearch Web,

1. Install Microsoft Office on the server. If Microsoft Office is not installed, ODBC may not work and dtSearch will not be able to access rows from a database.

2. Locate the dtSearch Web folder on the server. To do this, start dtSearch and click File|dtSearch Web Setup. In the dialog box, look for the box labelled "/Scripts directory on server." The name will be something like c:\inetpub\scripts. dtSearch Web will be in a subfolder of this folder named "dtsearch" (for example, c:\inetpub\scripts\dtsearch).

3. Exit dtSearch.

4. Create a folder named "viewers" under the dtSearch Web folder (for example, c:\inetpub\scripts\dtsearch\viewers)

5. Copy the file dtv_odbc.dll from the bin\viewers subfolder of the folder where dtSearch is installed into the "viewers" folder you just created.

6. Reboot the server to ensure that dtSearch Web will be reloaded. Once dtSearch Web restarts, it will see the dtv_odbc.dll file and use it to access database files.

ODBC Driver Issues

dtSearch Web uses the Microsoft ISAPI web server interface and so operates in a multi-threaded environment, meaning that the program may simultaneously handle requests from many users. Some versions of the ODBC database drivers are not "thread safe" and will fail if run from a web server. Therefore, before you set up ODBC database support in dtSearch Web, you should check the documentation for the ODBC database drivers you have installed to see if they are thread safe. For more information, see this article on the Microsoft web site:

     TN067: Database Access from an ISAPI Server Extension

Unfortunately, Microsoft Knowledgebase Article Q167907, which had more specific information about using ODBC in multi-threaded applications, apparently no longer exists.

For information on updating your ODBC drivers to the latest versions, please see "Troubleshooting Database Indexing."