Read MS Access .MDB database in Objective-C

Question

I am exploring porting ATCS Monitor from Windows to the iPad and Mac OS X. ATCS Monitor uses Microsoft JET 4.0 to read data from Access MDB files. Is there an Objective-C library that can read MDB files, or do I need to roll my own (most likely based on MDB Tools)?

Answer 1

There is no Open Source Objective-C library for reading MDB files.

Here are all the ways I am aware of for reading MDB files on the Mac / iPhone:

1) MDB Tools: Version 0.7 is quite usable. Has a quite usable, allthough poorly documented C API. Supports reading tables. Is licensed under LGPL, so it might not be legal to use it on iOS, but shouldn't be a problem on Mac.

2) Actual ODBC drivers for Access (proprietary): Only for the Mac. Maybe you can find some licensing agreement with the company making them.

3) Jackcess, originally a port of MDB Tools to Java, but they added write support. Probably only useful on the Mac.

4) HXTT Access Pure Java JDBC: A proprietary Java library for reading and writing Access databases. It's interesting because a company name Impathic uses it in their Mac (and I believe iPhone) apps. They are completely crazy and they include a full Java runtime in their app package so they can distribute a Java app on the App Store, but it seems to work (albeit with a few bugs).

5) My own proprietary library. I wrote an Objective-C library (from scratch) for reading Access databases and I use it in my Mac and iPhone apps. If you are interested in licensing it, contact me.