The ODBCKit is an open source framework for Mac developers to leverage the underlying Open Database Connectivity resources in the business network. Built with the intent of providing an easy and approachable toolkit for Mac Developers, it evolved into a little bit more, also providing a simple graphical query tool as well as a couple of Automator Actions to the provide user level access to the ODBC databases.
What this means in the real world is that using this toolkit, it should be easier to write and maintain applications that have ready access to enterprise level data sources like Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and others. Why is this a big deal? well, one of the biggest concerns with the Mac platform is business applications. If there is an easy way to create and maintain applications that use the same enterprise database engines as their Windows counterparts, expanding the Mac in to the world of big business and corporate development becomes just a little bit easier.
By making this open source, specifically under the BSD license model, the toolkit is readily usable in both commercial and open source projects without concern for the viral nature of some of the open source alternatives while allowing users to guide the forward evolution of the project through both suggestions and code contributions.
ODBCKit, Objective-C, the legacy
As a project, there is a long history here, in fact it is the second longest running project that Druware has worked on, with origins going back to 2004. Originally written in Objective-C, using design cues from tools like Microsoft's own database objects, as well as concepts from platforms like Delphi's database access objects, it was a ground up wrapper around the generic ODBC platform. It was not really built with the idea of sharing it with the world, it was built to fill a personal need and desire. Life, time, and opportunities change how plans evolve.
In 2005, a friend expressed a need for something similar to this project, and when explaining it to him, he asked if he could use it. I sent him a copy, and over a few conversations we decided that I should make it open source and public. So it was that it landed on SourceForge where it has lived for the last 20 years, and the last 10 of those with very little direct attention. It worked, the tools I built around it worked and there was little need to enhance it.
ODBCKit, Swift Version
Enter 2026, and a couple of new projects that could leverage the ODBCKit into those workflows. Pulling the code down, and integrating it into some newer projects, the legacy of Objective-C was showing its age. So we decided it was time for a rewrite into Swift. Swift has some very nice features ( and also some very tedious things when it comes to C interop ). So, we started the rework. In less than a week, a foundation was built, and yes, there is now a functioning Swift implementation, and it has moved on to GitHub.
New? yes. Improved? still in progress.
Like What You See? Contribute!
Though we do all of the development on this project under the auspices of Druware, we have no commercial products built upon it that pay for it. If you find it useful, make a contribution. All of those donations go directly to the people writing the code and doing the maintenance.
News
2/2/2026 - More ODBCKit Progress...
Another good week(end) of progress. A LOT of little changes, more unittest goodness, and more thought one how to really make this better. With that said, let's get into the details.
First of all, the ODBCConnection now properly handles ConnectionStrings and not just predefined ODBC Datasource Names. UnitTests to support this as well. We also got this working with the current generation Azure Microsoft SQL Server driver, but still have some more unittests to get done to make sure that this keeps working as we evolve the code.
Second, we moved the Datasource and Drivers methods to a new ODBC static class for easy listing of those items.
Third we implemented a new odbcquerytool command line application to connect and run ODBC commands at the command line.
Finally, we moved the ODBCKit itself into a new repo, ODBCKit-Swift for easy import of the framework into any Swift program using Swift's built in Package Manager.
All in all a solid week.
Next up figuring out the code signing issues to enable building applications that live in the sandbox.
1/24/2026 - ODBCKit More News!
Well, progress on this wintry weather day has gone far better than expected. All of the base classes are now implemented in their most basic forms.
Unittests running against a Microsoft SQL Server, using the Actual Tech driver are connecting, executing commands to create the table, insert data, an open command returning a recordset and even down to reading that data before dropping the table and then closing the connection.
The initial pass of the work has been moved to GitHub. The old Objective-C code is now all moved over to the 'Legacy' folder and the Swift code will become the new main line branch of the code.
Comments are always welcomed. Documentation and all the other bits are incoming. However, it is now time to go get a workout done before the weather turns to grisly. Y'all be safe out there.
1/24/2026 - Swift? ODBCKit Updates
It has been a minute since we had much to talk about regarding the ODBCKit. It was one of those things that 'just worked' and so while it did its thing, there was nothing much to report. Sure it was Objective-C code, and everything we do today is either c# or Swift.
Well, today, that changes. Over the last week we have started a ground up rework of the entire ODBCKit into Swift, embracing some of the things that Swift does really well. While not yet ready, we have already gotten the core, ODBCConnection class up and running and passing basic unit tests.
Our hope is to have the new Swift version ready to go in a couple of weeks.