Data Connection Definitions

The Data Connection Definitions Plug-in enables developers and administrators to define and manage connections to external data sources. Data connections defined by this plug-in can be used by the following plugins: Data Query Definitions, Composite Property Definitions, MailBuilder, ExtranetGuard and DataMapper.

Data connections are defined by a name (for user reference) and a ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) connection string or one of the Composite custom provider connection strings.

ADO connection strings can map ODBC DSN / DSN-less connections and OLEDB Providers (among others). This include data sources such as MS Access, MS SQL Server, Oracle,  MS Index Server and Active Directory.

The following are examples of ADO connection strings that map external datasources:

• MS SQL Server example
  Provider=SQLOLEDB; Server=myServerName; User Id=myUsername; Password=myPassword;
• Oracle example
  Provider=MSDAORA;Data Source=serverName;User ID=userName; Password=userPassword;
• MS Index Server example
  Provider=MSIDXS;
• MS Access example
  DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=d:\filepath.mdb;

Custom connection strings

In addition to ADO connection strings Composite can import XML from HTTP / HTTPS based servers (XML over HTTP) and custom XML providers developed using .Net.

• XML over HTTP
  Provider=XMLHTTP
• Custom XML Provider *)
  Provider=CustomXmlProvider

*) New in Composite 3.8