Relation of ODAC to your dbexpress driver

fburleigh · Post by **fburleigh** » Sun 18 May 2008 20:11

ODAC seems to:

- replace/bypass the BDE (good) but emulate BDE's interfaces
- work alongside MIDAS/DataSnap

That makes me wonder how ODAC is related to dbExpress. Is there a reason to need *both* ODAC *and* your dbExpress driver? Or does ODAC perhaps silently include your dbExpress driver? For the past few years I've been using dbExpress and the TSQL* and client data set components. I do have one project still using paradox tables through BDE; I'd like to move to a two-tier model for that projects.

So I'm looking for some better tools.

The direct connectivity to the Oracle instance is a very compelling feature.

Thank you for whatever clarity you can bring to my question.

Plash · Post by **Plash** » Mon 19 May 2008 07:12

ODAC and dbExpress are altenative products. You need only one of them. ODAC does not include dbExpress driver, and ODAC is independent from dbExpress. So if you use ODAC, you don't need dbExpress driver.

We recommend using ODAC instead of dbExpress. ODAC supports more Oracle specific features. It is more handy in use, and there are less bugs in ODAC.

You can also use our new product UniDAC instead of dbExpress. With UniDAC components you can connect to Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, Firebird, and InterBase.

cjmoore · Post by **cjmoore** » Mon 19 May 2008 11:03

Plash wrote:We recommend using ODAC instead of dbExpress. ODAC supports more Oracle specific features. It is more handy in use, and there are less bugs in ODAC.

You can also use our new product UniDAC instead of dbExpress...

Does UniDAC support the same "Oracle specific features" as ODAC ?

Plash · Post by **Plash** » Tue 20 May 2008 08:14

UniDAC supports most of the Oracle specific features from ODAC. But some rarely used features are not supported in UniDAC.