Creating a Connection String

Application Note for QuNect ODBC for QuickBase

A ODBC connection string tells the ODBC driver manager which ODBC driver to use and also contains various parameters that the ODBC driver manager passes down to the ODBC driver itself. The following configurator will walk you through all the options available for the QuNect ODBC for QuickBase ODBC driver.

As you make choices below your connection string will appear here. When you're finished configuring, you can copy and paste your connection string from here into your code.

Use a DSN-less connection Use a DSN	The first decision you have to make in creating a connection string is whether or not to use a DSN. A DSN (Data Source Name) is a configuration for an ODBC driver that is stored in the registry. When you install QuNect ODBC for QuickBase a DSN is created called QuickBase via QuNect. However the DSNs do not have a username and passord associated with them until you configure them. Please read the Getting Started application note to learn how to configure your DSNs. After installation you can create your own additional DSNs and give them any name you wish.
Do not specify a username Specify a username	If you've specifed a DSN above then you don't have to specify a username here and the username saved in the DSN will be used. You can specify a username here while using a DSN and the username you specify here will take precedence over the one saved in the DSN. Usernames are either the email address you signed up to QuickBase with or a QuickBase screen name.
Do not specify a password Specify a password	If you've specifed a DSN above then you don't have to specify a password here and the password saved in the DSN will be used. You can specify a password here while using a DSN and the password you specify here will take precedence over the one saved in the DSN.
Do not try to connect through a proxy server Find a proxy server and connect through the proxy server	In some local area networks you need to connect through a proxy server to get to QuickBase. If this is the case then you'll need to put this on the connection string. If there is no proxy server QuNect ODBC for QuickBase will still successfully connect but with an initial delay of a quarter of a minute.
I do not have a QuickBase Unique URL I have a Unique URL	QuickBase offers a high end plan called QuickBase Enterprise Edition. One of the features of this plan is the ability to have a Unique URL. So instead of navigating to www.quickbase.com you can navigate to mycompany.quickbase.com. If you use a Unique URL, then you need to specify the server here. If you don't specify a Unique URL then the value stored in the DSN will be used. If you're using a DSN-less connection then the default of www.quickbase.com will be used.
I want to use field names I want to use fids	Every QuickBase field has both a name and field identifier (fid). Field names can be changed by an administrator. Fids cannot be changed. Once a field is created it always has the same fid. Within a table a fid is unique and if a field is deleted its fid is never reused. So if you want to prevent the changing of field names from effecting your SQL statements then you should set this option to use fids.
Empty text fields are not null Empty text fields are null	QuickBase does not distinguish between an initially empty text field and a text field that used to contain text and no longer does. Another way to say this is that there is no such concept as a NULL value for text fields in QuickBase. So the default behaviour for QuNect ODBC for QuickBase is to never report text fields as having a NULL value. However you can force QuNect ODBC for QuickBase to report empty text fields as NULL.
User fields are email addresses or screennames User fields are invariant user identifiers (uids)	Useful if you want to be able to keep track if QuickBase users even when they change their email address or screennames. You can always get the email address or screenname from a formula text field that has this formula: ToText([User field name]). But there is no QuickBase formula that will give you a user field's uid value.
Text File Attachment fields Binary File Attachment fields Download File Attachments to disc Path do download file attachments:	By default QuNect ODBC for QuickBase presents QuickBase file attachment fields as a text field containing a URL to the attached file. If you set this field to a fully qualified path on your local computer (e.g. c:\projects\inprogress\stage1.mpp), QuNect ODBC for QuickBase will upload that file from your harddrive to QuickBase. But you can change this behaviour to make QuNect ODBC for QuickBase present file attachment fields as binary fields. This is particularly useful with SQL Server. In SQL Server binary fields are of type picture. You have another option instead of the binary field type you can specify a path to a local disc and QuNect ODBC for QuickBase will download attachments to that folder. Please read the application note entitled Downloading File Attachments from QuickBase into SQL Server for more information.
Download only the current revision of file attachment fields Download all revisions of file attachment fields	Only matters if you've chosen to specify that you want file attachments downloaded using the connection string option above.
Generate an error if uploading a file that does not exist Ignore and continue when encountering missing files for upload	QuNect ODBC for QuickBase will upload a local file to a file attachment field if you set the file attachment field's value to the path of a file on local disk. If the file does not exist an error is generated by default. If you use this connection string parameter you can ignore these errors when processing multiple records.
Use the default duration of days on input and milliseconds on output Use a single specific duration on input and output	Duration fields (a numeric field) present the number of milliSeconds. And when updated or inserted the supplied number is interpreted as days. However if the DURATION parameter is set to either: sec min hour day week Both inputs and outputs to the numeric duration fields will be interpreted in those units.
Use the default set of characters for field names Specify the set of characters for field names	QuickBase allows a far wider range of characters in field names and table names than most other database systems. Here you can specify which characters QuNect ODBC for QuickBase allows in field names and table names. Characters that are not allowed are replaced with the underscore character. This setting does not impact field names and table names appearing in MS Access tables linked with QuNect ODBC for QuickBase.
Use the default application token Use your application token	If your application requires application tokens then you may want to specify your own. Otherwise QuNect ODBC will use its own b2fr52jcykx3tnbwj8s74b8ed55b Please read the QuickBase help on Application Tokens.