Clueless: Why use ADO in Access

[ag90fox]

I've been building Access 97 programs for my office for years using a split front-end/back-end setup soley using Access. I'm intrigued by ADO and all the discussions regarding it, but am wondering if learning it would be worth my while for programming in Access?

I can link to my back end using the add-in in Access, and create either stand alone queries, or queries built into forms/reports, so off-hand I'm not sure as to how ADO would help me.

Any insight into what ADO offers beyond the normal Access data linking, or how learning ADO might multiply my capabilities would be appreciated.


Thanks

 

[CasperTFG]

In my opinion, ADO is only usefull if your moving between database. A program made with ADO, could connect to Oracle, Informix, Access, SQLServer, MySQL, etc... Meaning in 2 years down the road if you figure that you need to move to SQL Server, you'll have to re-program evrything.

But If you know for sure that you will never use another DB, then stick with what you got. I've had a few problems between ADO and Access I listed a few below.

Indexes: In one program I use the Index field to delete records. Using ADO I can ask if the field is a key column, and from there perform a search. But ADO can't see Key field columns in Access, it just sees them as regular fields, numeric or text.

Data Conversion: ADO has the default for varChar as 256, the default in Access is 255. So when I try to take an ADO varChar field and insert it into a varChar field in Access it comes up with an error. Instead I have to make the Access table a LongVarChar. This uses up a lot of space.

If you have any more questions let me know. Craig, mailto:sander@cogeco.ca
"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."
I hope my post was helpful!!!

 

[Laois]

ADO is the way of the future and I use nothing else with Access. Microsoft will not be updating DAO. It may not be worth while changing an existing application from DAO to ADO, but any new applications should use ADO. It's not that different from DAO and it's not that hard to learn. It will make your life easier a few years down the road when you want to upgrade your application to the latest version of Access at the time.

Well that's my opinion.

 

[ag90fox]

Laois, I guess I'm still wondering where in your Access program is ADO more useful than using the standard options in Access like linked tables, or the query builder, and the assumed database connection that Access has with linked tables (i.e. not needing a "dim db as..." or whatever the ADO syntax is).

I'd really like to get into ADO if its going to make my apps more powerful, but don't know exactly where using it is more powerful than what Access already provides.

Thanks,

ag90fox

 

[MontyBurns]

there are many things that both DAO and ADO make possible. Being able to create Recordsets and manipulate them is really useful and i'd really advise getting a book on Access ADO or even just Access 2000 VBA to help you learn.

HTH,
Burns