What's New for OLE Automation Stored Procedures

SQL Server 6.5 includes new OLE Automation stored procedures. The following table lists the new stored procedures, which are explained in this part. Features are in alphabetical order.


Feature	New	Enhanced
sp_OACreate	·
sp_OADestroy	·
sp_OAGetErrorInfo	·
sp_OAGetProperty	·
sp_OAMethod	·
sp_OASetProperty	·
sp_OAStop	·

The OLE Automation stored procedures allow you to use standard OLE Automation objects within a Transact-SQL statement batch. Because these OLE objects reside and run on the SQL Server computer, they behave as OLE extended stored procedures.

You can use existing OLE Automation objects, such as the SQL Distributed Management Objects (SQL-DMO). You can also use 32-bit Visual Basic 4.0 to create your own OLE Automation objects and install them on the SQL Server computer.

To create and use OLE Automation objects on the SQL Server computer

Call sp_OACreate to create the object.
Use the object.
- Call sp_OAGetProperty to get a property value.
- Call sp_OASetProperty to set a property to a new value.
- Call sp_OAMethod to call a method.
- Call sp_OAGetErrorInfo to get the most recent error information.
Call sp_OADestroy to destroy the object.

Note All of the above steps must be performed within a single Transact-SQL statement batch. All created OLE objects are automatically destroyed at the end of every statement batch.