Visual Basic 2010 with MS-Access Database

November 25, 2010

Understanding ADO .Net for Visual Basic 2010 and Microsoft Access 2003 / 2007 Database

ADO.NET connected model, disconnected model

Visual Basic .Net and Ado.Net for MS-Access Database course online

There are two methods to work with MS-Access 2003/2007/2010/2013/2016/2019 Database (*.Mdb / *.Accdb) from Visual Basic 2010 using ADO .Net technology .

With .NET, Microsoft has released a new mechanism for accessing data: ADO.NET. The name is a carryover from Microsoft's ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) technology, but it no longer stands for ActiveX Data Objects--it's just ADO.NET. To avoid confusion, I will refer to ADO.NET as ADO.NET and to ADO as classic ADO.

If you're familiar with classic ADO, be careful--ADO.NET is not a descendant, it's a new technology. In order to support the Internet evolution, ADO.NET is highly focused on disconnected data and on the ability for anything to be a source of data. While you will find many concepts in ADO.NET to be similar to concepts in classic ADO, it is not the same.

Method (1)

Online mode or Connected mode or connected model

ADO.Net Connected model, Ado.net connected mode

Ado.Net Online-mode (Connected Mode) is just like the same old method we used to work with Databases from Visual Basic 6.0 and ADO2.8 version, all you need to do is :

Create Access Database and a Table with your fields.

Define the Database path

Include ADO2.8 Reference into the Visual Basic 6.0 project

Connect the Database

Open the Database

Operate your events (Save, Edit, Delete and find)

Exit the VB6 Project and you will find the data in the Table were affected if events were processed correctly in the VB6 Project.

And the this is the same logic with ADO.Net in Visual Basic 2010 and MS-Access 2003/2007. The difference is in coding interface, but also the logic is the same some how, more than VB6 Coding, but more understandable.

An example to the Online-mode with MS-Access 2003, is the Friends_Info. Basic code to connect to a MS-Access Database 2003/2007 from Visual Basic 2010 using the ADO.Net Online-Mode is :

ADO.Net connected model example source code vb.net

♦ Connect to and Open Database :

♦ Save Data into Table :

♦ Search for Data :

♦ Delete Data from Table :

Method (2)
Offline mode or Disconnected mode or disconnected model

Ado.Net disconnected model

You will see the difference now of using ADO technology only if you are familiar with classic ADO that we used to use in Visual Basic 6.0, but if you did not use it before that you won't.

ADO.Net Offline mode or the Disconnected method of working with Databases has a nice and easy logic :

♦ ADO.Net disconnected model works great with Client/Server applications

ADO.Net method is the preferred way to code client/server applications. The DataSet object is what the ADO.Net offline/Disconnected mode is all about, it gives you the ability to work on the Database components separately (it stores a Database copy in the Memory - RAM of the client machine while working on the Database components), so it gives you the ability to create multiple tables, fill them with data coming from different sources, enforce relationships between pairs of tables, and more.

♦ ADO.Net Offline mode is not recommended for ASP.Net

♦ Though the Dataset is a great choice to work with Client/Server applications, but when working for example with ASP.Net live pages, it is a bad choice because the ASP.Net pages don't live long before they finish their lifetime cycle.

The above Friends Info VB.Net project using ADO.Net offline mode basic codes as follow :

◘ Connect to and Open Database :

◘ Save Data into Table :

◘ Search for Data :

◘ Delete Data :

I will discuss working with Crystal Reports for Visual Basic .Net in details in another post, starting Downloading SAP Crystal Reports until Packing SAP Crystal Reports and install it on the client's machine. Keep up !

Another topic about ADO.Net generally, is the ability to Create/Delete/Back-up Database, Add/Modify/Delete/Back-Up Tables and Queries using the OpenSchema method. Let's see how to do this in Visual Basic .Net 2010.

→ VB2010 : To Create new Database using ADO.Net, you will need to add new reference to your project to AdoX (Microsoft ADO Ext. 2.x for Dll and Security) ...

Create new Database in Visual Basic 2010

→ VB2010 : To list all Database files from a Dir. into a TreeView control

→ VB2010 : To manage Tables using OpenSchema method

→ VB2010 : To manage Fields using OpenSchema method

Some Visual Basic Exceptions and Solutions Working with MS-Access 2003/2007

Exception: "Dynamic SQL generation for the UpdateCommand is not supported against a SelectCommand that does not return any key Information"
Solution :

Exception: "Syntax error (missing operator) in query expression ''He's')'.", while trying to Execute INSERT INTO Statement which carries String Values that contain Apostrophe like (He's)"
Solution :

Exception: Application was Unable to Start correctly (0xC0000142) in Office 2016

Solution : Re-install Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable [AccessDatabaseEngine16.exe] from here [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920]

Visual Studio 2015 and Microsoft Access 2016

Connection String : The OleDB Connection String used to connect Microsoft Access Database 2016 (accdb) with Visual Basic 2015 (.Net FrameWork 4.5) Win10 32bit [WinForm] Project.

How to properly Close Connection to OleDB

Code to close all Connection to Microsoft Access Database after exit windows form application in VB.NET

♥ Here are some online Visual Basic lessons and courses :

Search This Blog

Visual Basic Online Course