Connecting a 64-bit Application to Clarion TopSpeed

TopSpeed provide an ODBC driver that enables third party applications to connect to TopSpeed format data (.TPS) files.

The ODBC driver's architecture is 32-bit, which means it can only be used with a 32-bit application. This is because an application and its libraries (e.g. the ODBC Driver and the ODBC Driver Manager the application uses to load the ODBC Driver) must all be the same architecture.

There is a solution, however. The Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge enables a 64-bit application to connect to a 32-bit ODBC Driver (and vice versa). For example, you can use the ODBC-ODBC Bridge to connect a 64-bit application such as Microsoft Power BI to TopSpeed.

The ODBC-ODBC Bridge has two components: the Client and Server, which can be installed on either the same machine or on different machines. The ODBC-ODBC Bridge Client communicates with the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Server via RPC, which means the architecture of the Client does not dictate the architecture of the Server. So, a 64-bit Client is compatible with a 32-bit Server (and vice versa).

The ODBC-ODBC Bridge sits in between the application and ODBC driver. The Client passes the ODBC calls the application makes to the Server, which then passes them on to the application.

  1. If you have not already done so, in the 32-bit version of the ODBC Administrator, configure a TopSpeed ODBC data source on the machine where the TopSpeed ODBC driver is installed.
  2. Install the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Client on the machine where your application is installed.
  3. Install the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Server on the machine where the TopSpeed ODBC driver is installed.
  4. On the machine where your application is installed, use the 64-bit version of the ODBC Administrator to configure an ODBC-ODBC Bridge Client data source. Point the data source at the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Server that's installed on the TopSpeed ODBC driver machine, specify a Window user name and password for this machine. Specify your TopSpeed data source in the TargetDSN list.
  5. In your application, connect to your new ODBC-ODBC Bridge data source.