How to Open, Read, and Edit MS Access Databases in Mac OS X

RazorSQL, a database query tool, SQL editor, and database browser, can be used to open and edit MS Acess databases on Mac OS X by using MS Access JDBC drivers. Two JDBC driver options are discussed below.

HXTT MS Access JDBC Driver

The MS Access JDBC driver from HXTT can be used with RazorSQL to read from and write to MS Access files on Mac OS X. More information on the HXTT Access driver can be found at the following link:

http://www.hxtt.com/access.html

To get the HXTT Access driver working with RazorSQL, you first need to download the driver zip file from the HXTT site, and then extract the zip file.

The next step is to open the RazorSQL connection wizard by selecting the Connections - Add Connection Profile menu option.

Select Microsoft Access as the database type and JDBC as the connection type.

Enter a profile name in the profile name field.

In the Driver Location field, browse to the location of the of the Access_JDBC30.jar file which should be under the access/lib directory where you just extracted the access.zip file that you downloaded.

In the Driver Class field, enter com.hxtt.sql.access.AccessDriver

In the JDBC URL field, enter something similar to the following. The following assumes an Access mdb file called fountainhead.mdb located in the /Users/user/Desktop directory.

jdbc:Access:////Users/user/Desktop/fountainhead.mdb

Hit connect to make a connection to the MS Access database. You can now query and browse the database using the database browser and SQL editor included in RazorSQL and edit table data using the table editor.

 

StelsMDB MS Access JDBC Driver

The MS Access JDBC driver from Stels can be used with RazorSQL to read from and write to MS Access files on Mac OS X. More information on the Stels Access driver can be found at the following link:

http://www.csv-jdbc.com/stels_mdb_jdbc.htm

To get the StelsMDB Access driver working with RazorSQL, you first need to download the driver zip file from the StelsMDB site, and then extract the zip file.

The next step is to open the RazorSQL connection wizard by selecting the Connections - Add Connection Profile menu option.

Select Microsoft Access as the database type and JDBC as the connection type.

Enter a profile name in the profile name field.

Multiple jar files need to be entered into the Driver Location field for the StelsMDB driver. They are the following and can be found under the mdbdriver folder in the zip file that was downloaded and extracted:

mdbdriver.jar
log4j.jar
commons_lang.jar
commons_logging.jar

The paths to all of the above files should be entered in the location field. The files can be added one at a time using the Browse button.

In the Driver Class field, enter jstels.jdbc.mdb.MDBDriver

In the JDBC URL field, enter something similar to the following. The following assumes an Access mdb file called fountainhead.mdb located in the /Users/user/Desktop directory.

jdbc:jstels:mdb:/Users/user/Desktop/fountainhead.mdb

Hit connect to make a connection to the MS Access database. You can now query and browse the database using the database browser and SQL editor included in RazorSQL and edit table data using the table editor.