mdbtools/doc/faq.html

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<title>The MDB Tools FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)</title></head>
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</p><h1>The MDB Tools FAQ</h1>
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<dl><dt>
1. General Questions</dt><dd>
<a href="#mdb">1.1 What is an MDB</a>
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<a href="#what">1.2 What does MDB Tools do</a>
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<a href="#tools">1.3 What are the tools in MDB Tools</a>
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<a href="#license">1.4 What license is MDB Tools under</a>
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<a href="#roadmap">1.5 Is there a road map</a>
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<a href="#install">1.6 How do I install</a>
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<a href="#bug">1.7 I've found a bug</a>
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<a href="#help">1.8 How do I help?</a>
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<h2>General Questions</h2>
<dl><a name="mdb"></a><dt><b>1.1 What is an MDB</b></dt><dd>
MDB databases are files produced by the Microsoft 'Jet' database engine. They are used in a variety of products such as MS Money and MS Project, but most importantly, it is used as the format for Microsoft Access databases.
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<dl><a name="what"></a><dt><b>1.2 What does MDB Tools do</b></dt><dd>
MDB Tools is an open source suite of libraries and utilities to read (and soon write) MDB database files.
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<dl><a name="tools"></a><dt><b>1.3 What are the tools in MDB Tools</b></dt><dd>
MDB Tools includes
<ul>
<li> LibMDB, a library for accessing MDB files. </li>
<li> MDB Utilities, a set of command line utilities to extract schema and data.</li>
<li> MDBSQL, a SQL engine layered on top of LibMDB.</li>
<li> MDB ODBC driver, a ODBC driver - requires unixODBC driver manager.</li>
<li> gmdb2, a graphical interface including SQL query tool and file debugger.</li>
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<dl><a name="license"></a><dt><b>1.4 What license is MDB Tools under</b></dt><dd>
The libraries in MDB Tools (libmdb, libmdbsql, and libmdbodbc) are licensed under the LGPL. The remainder of the software is license under the GPL.
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<dl><a name="roadmap"></a><dt><b>1.5 Is there a roadmap?</b></dt><dd>
<p>Roughly, the plan moving forward looks like this.
<ul>
<li>Add index scan capability to libmdb and the SQL engine with a query plan generator.</li>
<li>Add support for adding rows to existing tables and an mdb-import tool.</li>
<li>Add full write support to libmdb and libmdbsql.</li>
<li>Extract queries, table properties, VBA script, forms.</li>
<li>mdb-check database consistancy checker and recovery tool.</li>
<li>Add joins.</li>
<li>Ability to add tables.</li>
</ul>
<p>
Of course these are my personal goals, and the direction of the project depends on contributors and feature requests from users.
</p>
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<dl><a name="install"></a><dt><b>1.6 How do I install</b></dt><dd>
<p>
Consult the <a href="install/book1.html">installation guide</a> for details.
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<dl><a name="bug"></a><dt><b>1.7 I've found a bug</b></dt><dd>
<p>
Post it to the sourceforge project page so it gets tracked and send a note to the list so we can work it out. I may request details about or a copy of your database. Any database sent will be kept confidential.
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<dl><a name="help"></a><dt><b>1.8 How do I help?</b></dt><dd>
<p>
Join the mailing list, it's very low traffic at the time of this writing.
</p>
<p>
If you are a programmer, start with the debugger in gmdb2 to get a feel for the database layout. Read the HACKING file included in the distribution.
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<p>
We are currently looking for corrupted Access databases to help with developing recovery tools. If you have them, I will even extract the usable data from them for you for free. ;-)
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