Digital Signs can extract data from a SQL Server, MS Access and other SQL databases. In order to extract the data a valid connection string needs to be provided as part of the macro or table configuration. There are two options available when it comes to database connections:

  1. Use an ODBC DSN name. This option requires that you first create a working DSN using the ODBC Control Panel.
  2. Use an OLEDB Connection String. If you are using MS SQL Server 97 or 2000 then connection strings will work just fine however connection strings no longer work for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. This is due to Microsoft phasing out the SQL OLEDB Client and replacing it with the SQL Native Client. DC Media does not work with the SQL Native Client because .net is required in order to use the SQL Native Client libraries.

Authentication


For situations where the ODBC DSN connection requires a username and password, specify the connection string as:


DSN=<your dsn name>;UID=<user name>;PWD=<password>


e.g.


DSN=mydsn;UID=sa;PWD=itworks



Steps to create an ODBC DSN

The following steps will show you how to create an ODBC DSN that connects to a SQL Server. The steps for connecting to a MS Access database are similar.

Important note: If you are using Windows on a 64 bit system, you will need to run the 32 bit version of the ODBC Administrator, to do this click on the Windows Start menu, select run and then type in: c:\windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe. For more information consult this Microsoft Knowledge base article.

  1. Open the Windows Control Panel, locate and double click on Administrative Tools
  2. Double click on the Data Sources (ODBC) icon

  3. With the User DSN tab selected, click on the Add button 
  4. Scroll down the driver list and select SQL Server (or SQL Native Client if you are connecting to SQL Server 2005/2008)
  5. Click on Finish
  6. Enter a name for the new DSN, e.g. dcmedia 
  7. Select the server that is hosting the SQL Server from the drop list, or enter the server computer name
  8. Click Next
  9. Ensure that Connect to SQL Server to obtain default ... is checked and click Next
  10. Ensure that Change the default database to is checked and select the database that you want to use from the list of existing databases
  11. Click Next
  12. Click Finish

Your new DSN is ready for use. Follow these steps to display a database table in a digital sign:

  1. In the Digital Sign Creator, insert a new table object. Double click on the table to edit the table properties, click on Table and then click on Properties 
  2. Set the source type to SQL Database
  3. Enter the DSN name in the DSN/Connection String field
  4. Enter a query in the SQL Query field 
  5. Under the Columns list, click Add...
  6. Enter a column heading, width and the database field that will be displayed in the column
  7. Be sure to set the refresh timer according to your requirements to prevent unnecessary traffic with repeat database connections.