Database Interface
This section describes the steps required to connect via ODBC to a MySQL embedded database instance installed together with the standard Agiloft installation.
Please note, we do not generally recommend accessing the database directly. In most cases, Custom Integrations with JDBC are a better option.
The main reasons for this are:
- Agiloft is a high-level business-oriented information management system. There are many layers of logic between the raw data in the database and what the user sees and is able to export from the GUI.
- The Agiloft database is managed by the application itself, rather than a DBA. This results in "machine-generated" database structures which may not correspond to what is presented in the GUI in any obvious way. The "management" processes occur at runtime and the database can "morph" depending on the actions of the admin user: columns can be added, removed or change type.
- Further, during the upgrade process Agiloft may modify the database structures to bring them up-to-date with the definitions that are expected by the code. There is therefore a risk of the external reporting engine failing to work with an updated database.
- Finally, certain fields and values, artificial columns, are calculated on-the-fly and are not present in the database at all or are present in different tables.
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