Installation Overview and Requirements
Regardless of whether you are performing a new installation or upgrading an existing installation, PTC suggests you review the following summary before proceeding. Installing or upgrading the Info*Engine JDBC adapter takes several steps and requires strong knowledge of the current JDBC installation at your site.
1. Prepare yourself and your site for the installation or upgrade.
Carefully read the sections detailing the information required before you can begin installing or upgrading all adapter software. The installation or upgrade might require special access permissions.
2. Mount the Info*Engine JDBC Adapter CD-ROM, or if you have downloaded the software, navigate to the directory that contains your adapter software.
If the adapter software was distributed on a CD-ROM, be sure you know the appropriate mount point at your site for a CD-ROM installation.
3. Install the adapter.
You can install the adapter into any directory.
4. Configure the adapter and resolve any error messages that appear during startup.
5. Test the installation of the adapter and resolve any error messages that appear.
Before Installing the JDBC Adapter
Several items must be obtained or considered before beginning the installation and configuration of the JDBC adapter. Read these items carefully before beginning the installation process.
1. Ensure that the Java SE Development Kit version has been installed and is running on the adapter host. If Windchill has been installed on this host, then SDK has already been installed.
If you have not downloaded and installed the SDK for the machine running the adapter host, you can obtain free or evaluation copies from the following website:
2. Ensure that the JDBC class libraries and the drivers appropriate for your platform, operating system, and databases have been installed.
JDBC class libraries and drivers are available from the vendors of your databases, not from PTC. Many database vendors offer downloadable drivers online. The Sun Microsystems website contains a list of JDBC drivers that are publicly available for downloading from various vendors:
The Info*Engine JDBC adapter and Info*Engine do not work properly without the appropriate database drivers. JDBC drivers that support the JDBC 4.0 API can be used with the JDBC adapter. To ensure optimum performance between the adapter and the databases you will access, PTC highly recommends using type 4 drivers, which convert JDBC calls into a network protocol used by a database directly.
Type 2 drivers work well with the JDBC adapter, but performance will be less than the optimum performance provided by type 4 drivers. Type 3 drivers also work with the JDBC adapter, but they usually require additional software and the performance will not be optimum.
The type 1 driver, known as the JDBC-ODBC bridge, can be used with the JDBC adapter; however, performance will be less than optimum and additional software from your database vendors may be required. The type 1 driver is part of many versions of the JDK software and may already exist at your site. It is important to remember that the type 1 driver does not allow direct access to databases on its own. An ODBC client must be used between the JDBC-ODBC bridge and your databases. Many databases today come with the ODBC client as part of their installation or take advantage of an ODBC client native to the operating system on which they run. In either case, you must configure your ODBC client to communicate with your database.