[FWTools] PGeo driver examples and usage for windows and linux

[Frank Warmerdam]

Stefan Keller wrote:
> Hi all,
>  
> I'm trying to convert an ESRI Personal GeoDatabase (.mdb) file.
>  
> 1.) The documentation (http://www.gdal.org/ogr/drv_pgeo.html) says that
> "On Windows, no ODBC DSN is required." But given bahnhoefe.shp (.dbf/.shx)
> on Windows: When I issue
>  
>      ogrinfo PGeo:bahnhoefe bahnhoefe
>  
> following error is produced (yes, 2 times):
>  
>     ERROR 1: Unable to initialize ODBC connection to DSN for bahnhoefe,
>     [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no 
> default
>     driver specified
>     ERROR 1: Unable to initialize ODBC connection to DSN for bahnhoefe,
>     [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no 
> default
>     driver specified

Stefan,

When not using the DSN you should actually specify the name of the .mdb
file.

eg.
   ogrinfo bahnhoefe.mdb

> 2.) Is it difficult to adapt the MDB reader and make it standalone, i.e. 
> not depend on
> ODBC but with a binary parser? This would also help linux users who now 
> are obliged
> to install unixODBC and MDB Tools.

I assume you are suggesting direct calls into the MDB tools API instead
of going through ODBC?  This would be possible but difficult and result
in a lot of duplication between an MDB Tools based version and an
ODBC based version.  I'm not willing to depend on the MDB Tools based
version as the only version since MDBTools is big and in my opinion
not very stable.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org