Home | All Classes | Main Classes | Annotated | Grouped Classes | Functions |

# SQL Module - Drivers

- Introduction
- Building the drivers using configure
- Building the plugins manually
  - QMYSQL3 - MySQL 3.x
    - General informations
    - How to build the plugin on Unix/Linux
    - How to build the plugin on Windows
  - QOCI8 - Oracle Call Interface
    - How to build the plugin on Unix/Linux
    - How to build the plugin on Windows
  - QODBC3 - Open Database Connectivity
    - General informations
    - How to build the plugin on Unix/Linux
    - How to build the plugin on Windows
  - QPSQL7 - PostgreSQL version 6 and 7
    - General information
    - How to build the plugin on Unix/Linux
  - QTDS7 - Sybase Adaptive Server and Microsoft SQL Server
    - How to build the plugin on Unix/Linux
    - How to build the plugin on Windows
- Troubleshooting
- How to write your own database driver

## Introduction

The SQL Module uses driver plugins in order to communicate with different database APIs. Since the SQL Module API is database-independent, all database-specific code is contained within these drivers. Several drivers are supplied with Qt and other drivers can be added. The driver source code is supplied and can be used as a model for writing your own drivers.

To build a driver plugin you need the client API that is shipped with every DBMS (Database Management System). Most installation programs also allow you to install "development libraries", and these are what you need. These libraries are responsible for the low-level communication with the DBMS.

The currently available drivers shipped with Qt are:

- QMYSQL3 - MySQL Driver
- QOCI8 - Oracle Call Interface Driver
- QODBC3 - ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) Driver
- QPSQL7 - PostgreSQL v6.x and v7.x Driver
- QTDS7 - Sybase Adaptive Server and Microsoft SQL Server Driver

Note that not all of the plugins are shipped with the Qt Free Edition due to licence incompatibilities with the GPL.

## Building the drivers using configure

The Qt configure script automatically detects the available client libraries on your machine. Run "configure -help" to see what drivers may be built. You should get an output similar to this:

    Possible values for <driver>: [ mysql oci odbc psql tds ]
    Auto-Detected on this system: [ mysql psql ]

Note that configure cannot detect the neccessary libraries and include files if they are not in the standard paths, so it may be necessary to specify these paths using the "-I" and "-L" switches. If your MySQL include files are installed in /usr/local/mysql (or in C:\mysql\include on Windows), then pass the following parameter to configure: "-I/usr/local/mysql" (or "-IC:\mysql\include" for Windows).

Note that on Windows the parameter -I doesn't allow spaces in filenames, so use the 8.3 name instead, i.e. use "C:\progra~1\mysql" instead of "C:\program files\mysql".

Use the `-qt-sql-<driver>` parameter to build the database driver statically into your Qt library or `-plugin-sql-<driver>` to build the driver as a plugin. Look at the chapters below for additional information about required libraries.

## Building the plugins manually

### QMYSQL3 - MySQL 3.x

#### General informations

MySQL 3.x doesn't support SQL transactions by default. There are some backends which offer this functionality. Recent versions of the MySQL client libraries (>3.23.34) allow you to use transactions on those modified servers.

If you have a recent client library and connect to a transaction-enabled MySQL server, a call to the QSqlDriver::hasFeature( QSqlDriver::Transactions ) function returns TRUE and SQL transactions can be used.

You can find information about MySQL on http://www.mysql.com

#### How to build the plugin on Unix/Linux

You need the MySQL header files and as well as the shared library "libmysqlclient.so". Depending on your Linux distribution you need to install a package which is usually called "mysql-devel".

Tell qmake where to find the MySQL header files and shared libraries (here it is assumed that MySQL is installed in /usr/local) and run make:

    cd $QTDIR/plugins/src/sqldrivers/mysql
    qmake -o Makefile "INCLUDEPATH+=/usr/local/include" "LIBS+=-L/usr/local/lib -lmysqlclient" mysql.pro
    make

#### How to build the plugin on Windows

You need to get the MySQL installation files. Run SETUP.EXE and choose "Custom Install". Install the "Libs & Include Files" Module. Build the plugin as follows (here it is assumed that MySQL is installed in C:\MYSQL):

    cd %QTDIR%\plugins\src\sqldrivers\mysql
    qmake -o Makefile "INCLUDEPATH+=C:\MYSQL\INCLUDE" "LIBS+=C:\MYSQL\LIB\OPT\LIBMYSQL.LIB" mysql.pro
    nmake

If you are not using a Microsoft compiler, replace "nmake" with "make" in the statement above.

### QOCI8 - Oracle Call Interface

#### How to build the plugin on Unix/Linux

All files required to build driver should ship with the standard Oracle install. For Linux, it may be possible to copy headers from another platform's install.

Oracle library files required to build driver:

- libclntsh.so
- libclntsh.so.8.0
- libwtc8.so

Oracle header files required to build driver:

- nzerror.h
- nzt.h
- oci.h
- oci1.h
- oci8dp.h
- ociap.h
- ociapr.h
- ocidef.h
- ocidem.h
- ocidfn.h
- ociextp.h
- ocikp.h
- ocikpr.h
- odci.h
- oratypes.h
- ori.h
- orid.h
- orl.h
- oro.h
- ort.h

Tell qmake where to find the Oracle header files and shared libraries (here it is assumed that Oracle is installed in /usr/local) and run make:

    cd $QTDIR/plugins/src/sqldrivers/oci
    qmake -o Makefile "INCLUDEPATH+=/usr/local/include" "LIBS+=-L/usr/local/lib -lclntsh -lwtc8" oci.pro
    make

#### How to build the plugin on Windows

Choosing the option "Programmer" in the Oracle Client Installer from the Oracle Client Installation CD is sufficient to build the plugin.

Build the plugin as follows (here it is assumed that Oracle Client is installed in C:\oracle):

    cd %QTDIR%\plugins\src\sqldrivers\oci
    qmake -o Makefile "INCLUDEPATH+=C:\oracle\oci\include" oci.pro
    nmake

If you are not using a Microsoft compiler, replace "nmake" with "make" in the statement above.

### QODBC3 - Open Database Connectivity

#### General informations

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) is a general interface that allows you to connect to multiple DBMS using a common interface. The QODBC3 driver allows you to connect to an ODBC driver manager and access his datasources. Note that you also need to install and configure ODBC drivers for the ODBC driver manager that is installed on your system. The QODBC3 plugin then allows you to use these data sources in your Qt project.

On Windows systems after 95 an ODBC driver manager should be installed by default, for Unix systems there are some implementations which have to be installed first. Note that every client that uses your application is required to have an ODBC driver manager installed, otherwise the QODBC3 plugin will not work.

The QODBC3 Plugin needs an ODBC compilant driver manager version 2.0 or greater to work. Some ODBC drivers claim to be version 2.0 compilant, but do not offer all needed functionality. The QODBC3 plugin therefore checks whether the data source can be used after a connection has been established and refuses to work if the check fails. If you don't like this behaviour, you can remove the `#define ODBC_CHECK_DRIVER` line from the file `qsql_odbc.cpp`. Do this at your own risk!

#### How to build the plugin on Unix/Linux

It is recommended that you use unixODBC. You can find the newest version and ODBC drivers at http://www.unixodbc.org. You need the unixODBC header files and shared libraries.

Tell qmake where to find the unixODBC header files and shared libraries (here it is assumed that unixODBC is installed in /usr/local/unixODBC) and run make:

    cd $QTDIR/plugins/src/sqldrivers/odbc
    qmake "INCLUDEPATH+=/usr/local/unixODBC/include" "LIBS+=-L/usr/local/unixODBC/lib -lodbc"
    make

#### How to build the plugin on Windows

The ODBC header and include files should already be installed in the right directories. You just have to build the plugin as follows:

    cd %QTDIR%\plugins\src\sqldrivers\odbc
    qmake -o Makefile odbc.pro
    nmake

If you are not using a Microsoft compiler, replace "nmake" with "make" in the statement above.

### QPSQL7 - PostgreSQL version 6 and 7

#### General information

The QPSQL7 driver supports both version 6 and 7 of PostgreSQL. We recommend compiling the plugin with a recent version of the PostgreSQL Client API (libpq) because it is more stable and still downward compatible.

If you want to link the plugin against the libpq shipped with version 6 we recomment a recent version like PostgreSQL 6.5.3, otherwise a connection to a version 7 server may not work.

The driver auto-detects the server version of PostgreSQL after a connection was successful. If the server is too old or the version information cannot be determined a warning is issued.

For more information about PostgreSQL visit http://www.postgresql.org.

#### How to build the plugin on Unix/Linux

Just installing "libpq.so" and the corresponding header files is unfortunately not sufficient. You have to get the whole source distribution and run the configure script once (there is no need to build it if you have already installed a binary distribution).

Tell qmake where to find the PostgreSQL header files and shared libraries (here it is assumed that you extracted the PostgreSQL source code in /usr/src/psql and the shared library is installed in /usr/lib) and run make:

    cd $QTDIR/plugins/src/sqldrivers/psql
    qmake -o Makefile "INCLUDEPATH+=/usr/src/psql/src/include /usr/src/psql/src/interfaces/libpq" "LIBS+=-L/usr/lib -lpq" psql.pro
    make

### QTDS7 - Sybase Adaptive Server and Microsoft SQL Server

#### How to build the plugin on Unix/Linux

Under Unix, two libraries are available which support the TDS protocol:

- FreeTDS, a free implementation of the TDS protocol ( http://www.freetds.org ). Note that FreeTDS is not yet stable, so some functionality may not work as expected.

- Sybase Open Client, available from http://www.sybase.com Note for Linux users: Get the Open Client RPM from http://linux.sybase.com

Regardless of which library you use, the shared object file "libsybdb.so" is needed. Set the SYBASE environment variable to point to the directory where you installed the client library and execute qmake:

    cd $QTDIR/plugins/src/sqldrivers/tds
    qmake -o Makefile "INCLUDEPATH=$SYBASE/include" "LIBS=-L$SYBASE/lib -lsybdb"
    make

#### How to build the plugin on Windows

You can either use the DB-Library supplied by Microsoft or the Sybase Open Client ( http://www.sybase.com ). You have to include NTWDBLIB.LIB to build the plugin:

    cd %QTDIR%\plugins\src\sqldrivers\tds
    qmake -o Makefile "LIBS+=NTWDBLIB.LIB" tds.pro
    nmake

By default the Microsoft library is used on Windows, if you want to force the use of the Sybase Open Client, you have to define Q_USE_SYBASE in %QTDIR%\src\sql\drivers\tds\qsql_tds.cpp.

## Troubleshooting

You should always use client libraries that have been compiled with the same compiler as you are using for your project. If you cannot get a source distibution to compile the client libraries yourself, you have to make sure that the pre-compiled library is compatible with your compiler, otherwise you will get a lot of "undefined symbols" errors. Some compilers have tools to convert libraries, e.g. Borland ships the tool `COFF2OMF.EXE` to convert libraries that have been generated with Microsoft Visual C++.

If the compilation of a plugin succeeds but it cannot be loaded, make sure that the following requirements are met:

- Make sure you are using a shared Qt library, you cannot use the plugins with a static build.
- Make sure that the environment variable QTDIR points to the right directory. Go to the $QTDIR/plugins/sqldrivers directory and make sure that the plugin exists in that directory.
- Make sure that the client libraries of the DBMS are available on the system. On Unix, run the command `ldd` and pass the name of the plugin as parameter, for example `ldd libqsqlmysql.so`. You will get a warning if any of the client libraries couldn't be found. On Windows, you can use the dependency walker of Visual Studio.

## How to write your own database driver

QSqlDatabase is responsible for loading and managing database driver plugins. When a database is added (see QSqlDatabase::addDatabase()), the appropriate driver plugin is loaded (using QSqlDriverPlugin). QSqlDatabase relies on the driver plugin to provide interfaces for QSqlDriver and QSqlResult.

QSqlDriver is an abstract base class which defines the functionality of a SQL database driver. This includes functions such as QSqlDriver::open() and QSqlDriver::close(). QSqlDriver is responsible for connecting to a database, establish the proper environment, etc. In addition, QSqlDriver can create QSqlQuery objects appropriate for the particular database API. QSqlDatabase forwards many of its function calls directly to QSqlDriver which provides the concrete implementation.

QSqlResult is an abstract base class which defines the functionality of a SQL database query. This includes statements such as SELECT, UPDATE, or ALTER TABLE. QSqlResult contains functions such as QSqlResult::next() and QSqlResult::value(). QSqlResult is responsible for sending queries to the database, returning result data, etc. QSqlQuery forwards many of its function calls directly to QSqlResult which provides the concrete implementation.

QSqlDriver and QSqlResult are closely connected. When implementing a Qt SQL driver, both of these classes must to be subclassed and the abstract virtual methods in each class must be implemented.

To implement a Qt SQL driver as a plugin (so that it is recognized and loaded by the Qt library at runtime), the driver must use the Q_EXPORT_PLUGIN macro. Please read the Qt Plugin documentation for more information on this. You can also check out how this is done in the SQL plugins that is provided with Qt in `QTDIR/plugins/src/sqldrivers` and `QTDIR/src/sql/drivers`.