We are also using HP Information Access (IA) on 3 HP3000 and 1 HP9000.  We have
a large install base, hours of training and $ invested in this product.  We can
not afford waste tax payers money to reinvent the wheel with another product.
I'm hoping that HP sees the light (I doubt it) and gets the product off their
mature (dead) list or turns it over to a third party who is willing to maintain
and enhance it. I sent a letter of complaint to top HP management and as a
result we met with HP representatives on several issues, IA being one of them.
I have not gotten a formal reply on any of the issues.  We are also running IA
under WIN95 and NT and the only problem that we have discovered is a problem
printing to a LAN printer.  HP did help us resolve that problem (result of prior
meeting).
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: ODBC, Crystal Reports, and stuff
Author:  HP3000-L (HP3000-L/mimein////////RFC-822:[log in to unmask]) at
omuser,01
Date:    10/8/96 7:02 PM


This is not a simple question.  Lets start with the easy one, 32bit ODBC.
There is really only one choice and that is the MB Foster product.
However, you will be getting a subset of that free before the end of the
year.  If you want the full version, however, you will have to get it from
MB Foster.

The report writer choice is a matter of personal preference.  Crystal
Reports is good, however, so are several other products including MS ACCESS
or any other product that works with an ODBC data source.

The big question though is are your needs such that ODBC is the only
middleware you will need.  This is when it gets complex.  Your choices
range from LeeTech's Client Server Foundation and SDK which will allow for
an extremely flexible API that will allow you to execute HP 3000 programs
using programs running in the PC space to the Quest Netbase PC which will
allow you to do IMAGE calls from a program located in the PC environment.
There are at least 10 different approaches that can be used.

[log in to unmask]

----------
> From: Andrew Lee <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: ODBC, Crystal Reports, and stuff
> Date: Tuesday, October 08, 1996 8:21 AM
>
> Hello, All:
>
> Please deluge me with recommendations on this matter... it'll be
> greatly appreciated.
>
> We run two 3000s and use HP's Information Access for data gathering.
> Info Access, of course, accesses our Image databases with native
> drivers. Trouble is, Info Access is probably going to go away before
> long, and is problematic when running under Windows 95/NT, which
> we are currently migrating to.
>
> I understand 32 bit ODBC drivers are now out. What I'd like to do is
> use Crystal Reports and ODBC to replace Info Access at some point
> in the near future.
>
> Has anyone tried this combination? Also, can someone please recommend
> a particulary good vendor for a suitable ODBC driver?
>
> Thanks much.
>
> Andy
> =======================================
> Andrew C. Lee
> Department of Data Processing
> CSUS Foundation, Inc.
> California State University, Sacramento
> Vmail: 916.278.4248
> Email: [log in to unmask]