Editing Open Database Connectivity (section)

===Early efforts===
By the mid-1980s the rapid improvement in microcomputers, and especially the introduction of the [[graphical user interface]] and data-rich [[application program]]s like [[Lotus 1-2-3]] led to an increasing interest in using personal computers as the client-side platform of choice in [[client–server model|client–server]] computing. Under this model, large mainframes and [[minicomputer]]s would be used primarily to serve up data over [[local area network]]s to microcomputers that would interpret, display and manipulate that data. For this model to work, a data access standard was a requirement – in the mainframe field it was highly likely that all of the computers in a shop were from one vendor and clients were [[computer terminal]]s talking directly to them, but in the micro field there was no such standardization and any client might access any server using any networking system.

By the late 1980s there were several efforts underway to provide an abstraction layer for this purpose. Some of these were mainframe related, designed to allow programs running on those machines to translate between the variety of SQL's and provide a single common interface which could then be called by other mainframe or microcomputer programs. These solutions included IBM's Distributed Relational Database Architecture ([[DRDA]]) and [[Apple Computer]]'s [[Data Access Language]]. Much more common, however, were systems that ran entirely on microcomputers, including a complete [[protocol stack]] that included any required networking or file translation support.

One of the early examples of such a system was  [[Lotus Development]]'s [[Lotus DataLens|DataLens]], initially known as Blueprint. Blueprint, developed for 1-2-3, supported a variety of data sources, including SQL/DS, DB2, [[FOCUS]] and a variety of similar mainframe systems, as well as microcomputer systems like [[dBase]] and the early Microsoft/Ashton-Tate efforts that would eventually develop into [[Microsoft SQL Server]].<ref>McGlinn, Evan (1988), [https://books.google.com/books?id=6D4EAAAAMBAJ Blueprint Lets 1-2-3 Access Outside Data"], ''InfoWorld'', vol. 10, no. 14, 4 April 1988, pp. 1, 69</ref> Unlike the later ODBC, Blueprint was a purely code-based system, lacking anything approximating a command language like SQL. Instead, programmers used [[data structure]]s to store the query information, constructing a query by linking many of these structures together. Lotus referred to these compound structures as ''query trees''.{{sfn|Geiger|1995|p=65}}

Around the same time, an industry team including members from [[Sybase]] (Tom Haggin), [[Tandem Computers]] ([[Jim Gray (computer scientist)|Jim Gray]] & Rao Yendluri) and Microsoft (Kyle Geiger) were working on a standardized dynamic SQL concept. Much of the system was based on Sybase's DB-Library system, with the Sybase-specific sections removed and several additions to support other platforms.{{sfn|Geiger|1995|p=86-87}} DB-Library was aided by an industry-wide move from library systems that were tightly linked to a specific language, to library systems that were provided by the [[operating system]] and required the languages on that platform to conform to its standards. This meant that a single library could be used with (potentially) any programming language on a given platform.

The first draft of the ''Microsoft Data Access API'' was published in April 1989, about the same time as Lotus' announcement of Blueprint.{{sfn|Geiger|1995|p=56}} In spite of Blueprint's great lead – it was running when MSDA was still a paper project – Lotus eventually joined the MSDA efforts as it became clear that SQL would become the de facto database standard.{{sfn|Geiger|1995|p=65}} After considerable industry input, in the summer of 1989 the standard became ''SQL Connectivity'' (''SQLC'').{{sfn|Geiger|1995|p=106}}