Generic ODBC and column alias questions (fwd)

Is there a more appropriate mailing list for this topic?

Thanks,

font(at)couscous(dot)fortdearborn(dot)com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 17:12:20 -0500 (CDT)
From: Font <font(at)couscous(dot)fortdearborn(dot)com>
To: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Cc: font(at)couscous(dot)fortdearborn(dot)com
Subject: Generic ODBC and column alias questions

I'm a new subscriber to the list -- if anything here is answered in a
FAQ, please feel free to indicate where I should RTFM.

Firstly, I want make my first PostgreSQL installation ODBC-accessible, so
that the application accessing it is not bound to a particular database
implementation. Right now I'm playing with PHP3 on a Solaris 2.7 box.

I built pgsql 6.5.2 configuring with the --with-odbc flag. I then built
PHP3.0.12 with --with-iodbc --with-apache=... and --with-pgsql. I also
built iODBC 2.50.3. All of these builds went pretty well and installed
without incident. Everything is on the same box right now, web server,
PHP, and PostgreSQL.

PostgreSQL is accessible from PHP3 using the PostgreSQL-native database
access functions, but isn't accessible using the ODBC database access
functions. I'm wondering if there is some kind of syncing-up that needs
to happen between the iODBC odbc.ini (or ~/.odbc.ini) and PostgreSQL's
odbcinst.ini. The odbcinst.ini is the installation default, while the
odbc.ini is set up for the two databases I have:

;
; odbc.ini
;
[ODBC Data Sources]
template1 = sample database
timemat = Time and Materials

[timemat]
Servername = localhost
Port = 5432
Database = timemat

[template1]
Driver = /usr/local/pgsql/lib/libpsqlodbc.so
Description = PostgreSQL Template1 Database
Servername = localhost
Username =
Password =
Database = template1
Protocol = 6.4
Options =
ReadOnly = no
Debug = 0
Comm = 1

[Default]
Driver = /usr/local/pgsql/lib/libpsqlodbc.so

Does anything here look off? When I try to connect to "timemat", I get
the error "Warning: SQL error: Requested value changed., SQL state 01S02
in SQLExecDirect in [scriptname and line]". This is different from when I
don't have the ~/.odbc.ini and have the same information in
/usr/local/etc/odbc.ini, in which case the error becomes "Warning: SQL
error: Missing server name, port, or database name in call to CC_connect.,
SQL state IM002 in SQLConnect in [sriptname and line]". This even though
I have provided the server name, port, and database name.

This is probably equally a PHP3 question as a PostgreSQL question, but I
thought I would start here. Thanks for any help you can give!

The second question is quick, and is this: Can a column in a table be
given an alias, so that it could be referred to be either name? I have an
int4 which I'd like to refer to as either "id" or "usr_id".

My experience with PostgreSQL so far is that it's pretty neat!

Thanks,

dw
font(at)couscous(dot)fortdearborn(dot)com