Pitney Bowes MapInfo Professional - Manual (Page 172)

Creating a Data Source Connection to Microsoft Access
You can work with your Microsoft Access database from MapInfo Professional through an ODBC
connection. Microsoft Access does not allow spatial data, but you can display in MapInfo Professional
data that has X and Y coordinate values associated with it.
Before you Begin
Before you begin, you must have the Microsoft Access Driver installed on your machine-the driver is
installed by default with your Microsoft Access. The driver is necessary for establishing an ODBC
connection to the data source.
To check that the driver is installed on your machine, run the ODBC Administrator:
1. Open the Control Panel; from the Start menu select Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel, in the Classic View, select Administrative Tools and then Data Sources
ODBC (ODBC).
3. In the Data Sources ODBC Administrator dialog box, select the User DSN tab.
4. In the list, locate and select the MS Access Database. Or, if you do not see this name, then under
the Driver list look for Microsoft Access Driver (.mdb or .accdb).
5. Click Configure to ensure that it is properly set up.
If the driver is not there, then click Add to check if the Access driver is installed. You may need to install
the Microsoft Access drivers. These are included with Microsoft Access, Microsoft Office Professional,
ODBC SDK, Visual C++, MapInfo Professional, or purchased separately.
To verify if this is the required version of this driver, select the Drivers tab in the ODBC Administrator.
Locate the MS Access Driver (.MDB or .ACCDB) and check that it is the latest version.
To add a new Microsoft Access Data Source:
1. Run the ODBC Administrator.
2. Under the User DSN tab, click Add.
3. In the Create New Data Source wizard, select MS Access Driver (.MDB or .ACCDB) from the list
and click Finish.
4. In the ODBC Microsoft Access Setup dialog box, in the Data Source Name box, type in a name
for the data source. (This is the name that appears in the list when you connect from MapInfo
Professional.) Click Select.
5. In the Select Database dialog box, select the Microsoft Access database you wish to use and then
click OK.
If you do not select a database for this data source, a prompt displays during the connection to do
so. MapInfo Professional provides a sample Microsoft Access database.
Limitation
in Microsoft Access, if the key is set to character, then it does not display rows when the key value is
less than the full column width: for example, if the key is set to char(5), then the value `aaaa' looks like
a deleted row.
Reconnecting to your Data Source after Startup
Each time you start MapInfo Professional, you must set the connection to your database before you can
work with tables. The connection remains active while MapInfo Professional is open. The connection
closes when you exit MapInfo Professional.
The following instructions are applicable to SQL Server and PostGIS users. Oracle users, see Connecting
to Oracle after Re-Starting MapInfo Professional .
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Reconnecting to your Data Source after Startup