Connecting to Microsoft SQL 97/2000 Server without BDE?

[trd_johnnyb]

Is it possible to connect to a Microsoft SQL server (97 or 2000 is optional) without using the Delphi BDE?

What I wan't to do is simple SQL, from a small application on client machines without having to install a specifik database engine on the user machines, since they tend to give a lot of problems...

Regards
Johnny B

[luke_skywalker]

You can connect to Microsoft's servers via ODBC, you will need to establish connection from your Delphi app. Depending on the version of Delphi you should be able to connect to it using ADO components, which ship with version 5 of Delphi, as for earlier release you would have to find a component suite that does incorporate ADO for you.

[trd_johnnyb]

What happens if I create an application that uses Microsoft ADO controls and then compile it. Do I have to install the ADO components on the client machines? Or will they be compiled into the program? Or are they part of the Windows 9x/NT enviorenment?

Regards
Johnny B

[luke_skywalker]

ADO Components should be embedded into the exe you made. The only thing your users will need to do is configure ODBC drivers and specify appropriate DSN name.