Specifying Data Source Names to Identify TimesTen Databases
When you connect from an application, you use a Data Source Name (DSN) to uniquely identify the particular TimesTen database to which you want to connect.
Specifically, a DSN is a character-string name that identifies a TimesTen database and a collection of connection attributes that are to be used when connecting to the database. On Windows, the DSN also specifies the ODBC driver to be used to access the database.
In TimesTen, you can also define a default DSN that can be used when a user or an
application either does not specify a DSN or specifies a DSN that is not defined in the
odbc.ini file at connect time. See Setting Up a Default DSN in TimesTen.
Note:
If a user tries to use a DSN that has connection attributes for which they do not have privileges, such as first connection attributes, they receive an error. For more information on first connection attribute privileges, see Connection Attributes in the Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Reference.
Even though the DSN uniquely identifies a TimesTen database, a database can be referenced by multiple DSNs. The difference between each of these unique DSNs is in the specification of the connection attributes to the database. This provides convenient names to different connection configurations for a single database.
Note:
According to the ODBC standard, when an attribute occurs multiple times in a connection string, the first value specified is used, not the last value.
A DSN has the following characteristics:
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Its maximum length is 32 characters.
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It is case insensitive.
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It is composed of ASCII characters except for the following: ( ) [ ] { } , ; ? * = ! @ \ /
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TimesTen does not recommend the use of spaces as part of the DSN. If a DSN contains a space, some TimesTen utilities truncate the DSN at the point where they encounter the space. In addition, a DSN cannot start or end with a space, or consist solely of spaces.
The following sections describe how to configure and manage your DSNs: