Manually setting up the TopSpeed Developer ODBC driver

Owned by Rick Martin
Last updated: Apr 26, 2013 by David HarmsVersion comment
2 min read

Clarion comes with a Developer Version of the ODBC TopSpeed Database driver.

However, to the best of my knowledge the Clarion installer has not provided an option to install the TPS ODBC driver since around Clarion 5.5.

I find it is very nice to do technical support and database debugging using Microsoft Access and the TPS ODBC driver. This lets me write SQL queries to examine and explore the database much more quickly than using TopScan or writing custom code.

I have tracked down the necessary steps to install the TPS ODBC driver:

  1. Copy c4otsdx.dll from Clarion Bin folder to Windows\System32 folder.
  2. Copy tpsodbc.hlp from Clarion Bin folder to Windows\System32 folder.

  3. Copy the following registry entries to a .REG file on your system. This adds the TPS ODBC driver to the list of ODBC drivers.

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBCINST.INI\ODBC Drivers]

"SoftVelocity TPS driver - Developer Demo (*.tps)"="Installed"

  4. Merge the .Reg file you created into your registry.

  5. Copy the following registry entries to a .REG file on your system. This adds the information needed by the ODBC administator to know what to do with the SoftVelocity TPS driver entry.

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBCINST.INI\SoftVelocity TPS driver - Developer Demo (*.tps)]
"UsageCount"=dword:00000001
"Driver"="C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\c4otsdx.dll"
"Setup"="C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\c4otsdx.dll"
"DSN"="SoftVelocity TPS driver - Developer Demo (*.tps)"
"APILevel"="1"
"ConnectFunctions"="YYN"
"DriverODBCVer"="04.00"
"FileExtns"="*.tps"
"Help"="tpsodbc.hlp"

  6. Merge the .REG file you created into your registry.

  7. Follow instructions in help (tpsodbc.hlp) to create a DNS to your folder with TPS files.

A couple of things to keep in mind.

  1. With newer UAC-aware operating systems you'll need to elevate to administrator to copy files to the Windows\System32 folder. I have not tried other folder to see if they may work.
  2. With a 64-bit OS you might need to use a different folder than Windows\System32. I'll report back when I find any additional information.
  3. New OSes do not support .HLP files by default.