This software is an attempt to implement a sort unified
data access for gnome. Currently it supports the usage of
RDBMS with an ODBC client library, as well as PostgreSQL.

For this purpose, a CORBA interface is provided for the communication
between the different pieces that compound the system.

How to use it
==============

ODBC server
-----------

Copy the odbc.ini file located in the top level source
directory to your home directory with the name `.odbc.ini'. The next
thing to do is to get some database running. I've tried the software
with two different database systems. One is Solid <www.solid.fi> which 
offers a one place evaluation copy without charge. The other DB i've
used is Postgres. The ODBC driver for this database is included in the 
tarball (postgres/ directory).

Then edit the ~/.odbc.ini file according to your setup. The most
important lines you might have to change are:

The `Default' entry is just there for testing purposes. Ignore it, or
delete it from the [Data Sources] section.

In all sections:
The line `Driver' should point to the shared library,
implementing the  ODBC driver for the database

The line `NetworkName' should have the value, the ODBC driver needs to 
connect to the database. This is necessary for all database driver
which don't parse the odbc.ini file (Solid uses it's own file).

in the [Solid] section:
change the `NetworkName' variable to a value usable for you.

in the [Postgres] section:
Database, User, and Password entries must  be changed to suit your
environment.

The postgres server (postmaster) must be started with the `-i' options
so that it accepts TCP/IP connections.

Other servers
-------------

Copy the gnome_db.gnorba to your GNORBA configuration directory (usually
/etc/CORBA/servers in RedHat 6.0, or /usr/etc/CORBA/servers in other
Linux distributions).

Then start the front-end application (gdafe) and go to Options->Data Sources
and create a new data source for your database (Look at the gdalib.sample
file included in the distribution to see how you must fill each field).

Running
========

There are some applications you can use in GNOME-DB:

* gdafe -> front-end application. Use it to send SQL requests to your database
* gda-mgr -> global configuration utility. It will help you managing system-wide
  configuration
* rolodex -> sample rolodex application
