Introduction
This guide presents step-by-step instructions for installing the ODB system on Windows to be used with Microsoft Visual Studio. If you would like to use ODB with GCC on MinGW/MinGW64 (either directly as past of an IDE such as Qt Creator), refer to Installing ODB on MinGW.
Before you can start using ODB in your applications, you will need
to install three essential packages: the ODB compiler
(odb), the common runtime library (libodb),
and the database-specific runtime library (libodb-<database>).
The database runtime library is specific to the database system you
are planning to use. For example, if you are going to use MySQL,
then the database runtime will be libodb-mysql. If
you would like to use several database systems, install the
corresponding runtime libraries for each of them.
You may also choose to install optional ODB packages such as
ODB profile libraries, the ODB examples (odb-examples)
and the test suite (odb-tests). You only need to install
a profile library if you are planning to use the corresponding profile
in your application. Similarly, you only need the examples and test
suite if you are interested in building the examples or running the
tests.
Prerequisites
In order to build ODB source packages you will need Microsoft
Visual Studio 2008 (VC++ 9.0) or later. You will also most
likely need a client library for the database system of your
choice. For example, for MySQL you need the
libmysqlclient library. The INSTALL
file accompanying each database runtime library has more
information on the database-specific prerequisites.
Installing the ODB Compiler
To install the ODB compiler, download the pre-compiled binary
package for Windows and unpack it into a directory of your
choice, for example C:\tools. The ODB compiler
binary will be in the bin\ directory inside the
package directory, for example C:\tools\odb-x.y.z-i686-windows\bin\.
You can run the ODB compiler by either using the absolute path,
for example:
C:\tools\odb-x.y.z-i686-windows\bin\odb --version
Or you can add the bin\ directory to the Path
environment variable. To accomplish this, open Control Panel,
then System, select the Advanced tab and click on the
Environment Variables button. If you have administrator
privileges, select the Path variable from the System variables
list. Otherwise, select (or create) the Path variable from
the User variables list. Click the Edit button and add the
bin\ directory to the list. Click Ok, then
log off and log on again for the changes to take effect.
Once this is done, you should be able to run the ODB compiler
by using just its name, for example:
odb --version
Note that building the ODB examples and the test suite requires that
the ODB compiler bin\ directory be in the Path
environment variable (or, alternatively, in the Executable
Files list in the VC++ Directories).
Note also that while you can move the ODB compiler directory around,
you cannot move individual sub-directories or files inside it. For
example, copying the ODB compiler executable to
C:\Windows will not work.
Building the ODB compiler from source code on Windows involves a custom build procedure. If you absolutely must build the ODB compiler yourself, write to the odb-users@codesynthesis.com mailing list for more information.
Installing the Common Runtime Library
To install the common runtime library, download the libodb
source package and use the provided solution file corresponding to your
version of Visual Studio. Refer to the INSTALL file in the
libodb package for information on how to configure Visual
Studio to automatically locate the libodb headers, DLLs,
and import libraries.
Installing the Database Runtime Library
To install the common runtime library, download the libodb-<database>
source package and use the provided solution file corresponding to your
version of Visual Studio. Refer to the INSTALL file in the
libodb-<database> package for information on database-specific
prerequisites and how to configure Visual Studio to automatically
locate the libodb-<database> headers, DLLs, and import libraries.
Installing Profile Libraries
If you would like to install a profile library, download the
corresponding source package (libodb-<profile>) and use
the provided solution file corresponding to your version of Visual
Studio. Refer to the INSTALL file in the
libodb-<profile> package for information on
profile-specific prerequisites and how to configure Visual Studio to
automatically locate the libodb-<profile> headers, DLLs,
and import libraries.
Building and Running the Examples
If you would like to build and run the ODB examples, download the
odb-examples package and use the provided solution
files. While you can run each example individually, the package
also includes a batch file that runs all of the examples automatically.
Refer to the accompanying INSTALL file for more detailed
information on how to build and run the examples.
Building and Running the Tests
If you would like to build and run the ODB test suite, download the
odb-tests package and use the provided solution
files. The package also provides batch files that allow you
to build and run the tests automatically in non-interactive
mode. Refer to the accompanying INSTALL file for
more detailed information on how to build and run the test suite.