How to access 32-bit data files with 64-bit Spotfire on a 64-bit operating system.

Created
October 08, 2021 23:27

Date Posted: 2018-03-26
Product: TIBCO Spotfire®

Problem:

Solution:

Starting with TIBCO Spotfire 6.5, you can directly open 32-bit Access, Excel and SAS files on 64-bit operating systems (OS's) with a 64-bit Spotfire instance.

TIBCO Spotfire now handles these connections "out-of-process." This means that the primary 64-bit Spotfire process launches a separate 32-bit process to handle these connections. This allows connections to Access, Excel and SAS files via the following method:

File > Add data table > Add > File > .accdb file

The connection via locally installed Data Providers (ODBC, OLE DB, etc.) is not implemented for out-of-process handling, and therefore does not allow you to use locally installed 32-bit Data Providers on 64-bit OS's with a 64-bit Spotfire instance, which would be performed with the following method:

File > Add data table > Add > Other > Database > ODBC Data Provider, OLE DB Data Provider, etc.

TIBCO Spotfire aims to take full advantage of the increased memory space and faster execution of the underlying operating system. Therefore, TIBCO Spotfire always runs in 64-bit mode on 64-bit versions of Windows (Vista and newer). Therefore always use the 64-bit driver whenever possible.

TIBCO Spotfire relies on OLE DB drivers created by Microsoft to be able to read data from Microsoft Access (.mdb, .accdb) files. These drivers are installed either through a full Microsoft Office installation or through the free-of-charge Microsoft Access Database Engine installation. When TIBCO Spotfire runs in 64-bit mode, it requires the 64-bit version of the Access Database Engine drivers.