Oracle and ADO

[Quehay]

I'm developing a front end for Oracle (within a network). At the moment I'm working through Access with unbound forms and ADO. I'm debating whether the interaction would be cleaner from VB6 with ADO (maybe no difference).

Does anyone know if ADO behaves any differently in these two platforms or have an strong preference either way?

TIA

 

[n2ckb]

Hi Quehay,

I have written a system in VB6 and Oracle using ODBC and ADO.
I didn't have any particular problems using ADO with Oracle.

My only opinion is that if you are using Oracle as a backend database then I would lean towards VB6, as I find it much easier to use than Access for the development of systems. Don't read into this too much, I have just used VB6 a lot more. I also feel that using Access to manipulate Oracle is not really gaining you much.

However one advantage of using Access is that it gives you the opportunity to create queries and develop a system in which you may be familiar. Using VB6 alone requires a strong knowledge of SQL, as you don't have the backup of GUI query designer.

In short I think it depends on your level of programming. If you have the ability to create systems in VB6, take that route, as I feel that they can be designed to look like a very professional bespoke package with relative ease. I am sure that you can do the same with Access, but it might take longer.

N2ckb

 

[Quehay]

Thanks for your input N2ckb! My inclination toward Access was the advantage of having client .dll's already installed via company PC setup. There's already some weirdness in trying to do unbound, e.g., trying to create a workaround for the lack of AddItem in Access combos (there's an MS Forms2 combo with AddItem but no ItemData availabe). I'll probably try the same code in both to see the differences.

 

[SIDChick]

There are some subtle differences in the SQL between, say SQL Server select statements and the ones in Oracle. For instance, Oracle does not like join statements and prefers to use the table joins in the where clauses like '+='.

 

[muesli]

I'd strongly suggest that you connect through the Oracle OLE DB driver as this is (a) fast and (b) allows you to easily return recordsets from stored procedure calls. If you write the system cannily enough, you can put virtually all your business logic on the server.

Unless you have a pressing desire to use bound controls then I suggest you also consider Oracle Objects for OLE which functions very much like DAO but allows access to virtually all of Oracle's advanced features. SQL Server can do only a limited subset of what Oracle can do on the database with data, so ADO access tends to restrict itself to that very subset of functionality.