WD97: Updated WBODBC Files Available

• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications requires external libraries to use BSTR values in string-related functions. Therefore, 32-bit Word add-in libraries (WLLs) or dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) that use LPSTR values in string-related functions need to be modified and recompiled to work in Microsoft Word 97.

The string functions in the ODBC add-in (Wbodbc.wll) have been updated so that the new version of the add-in contains string-related functions that do not cause errors when the functions are called from Visual Basic. There have been no other changes or additions to the functionality of the ODBC add-in. However, if you've written Word 7.0 solutions that use the ODBC functions in Wbodbc.wll, you must install the updated version of the WLL to run your solution in Word 97.

The template of sample macros that use Wbodbc.wll (WbODBC97.dot) is a Word 97 template. All the macros in this template have been updated to Visual Basic. You can refer to the sample macros (all of which use data in the Test.mdb database) as examples for using the functions in Wbodbc.wll.

For complete information about using the functions in this add-in, running the macros in the sample template, and handling ODBC data sources in general, see Appendix B in the Microsoft Word Developer's Kit (ISBN 1-55615-880-7). Note that this WLL is an update to the 32-bit version of the ODBC add-in only; the updated WLL cannot be used by 16-bit Word solutions.

If you're writing a new Word 97 solution that needs to programmatically access data in a database, you can use Microsoft(R) Data Access Objects (DAO) instead of the Wbodbc.wll functions. DAO 3.5, which is included with Microsoft Office 97, is the newest version of DAO. There are two paths to data within one DAO interface: ODBCDirect and Microsoft Jet. One of the two paths will be more appropriate, depending on what the solution is doing.

For example, if your solution is accessing a Microsoft Jet .mdb file or any other file share database, you should use the Microsoft Jet path. ODBCDirect was created specifically for accessing remote data. For more information about ODBCDirect, see to "Data Access Objects (DAO) 3.5 and ODBCDirect," a paper on the Microsoft Access Developer Forum (http://www.microsoft.com/accessdev/). For more information about accessing the Microsoft Jet database engine, see "Using DAO from Microsoft Word" in Microsoft Word Visual Basic Help (Vbawrd8.hlp).

The updated Wbodbc.wll and Wbodbc97.dot files can only be obtained from the Microsoft Internet site:

   http://www.microsoft.com/OfficeDev/

   http://www.microsoft.com/

   WBODBCWL.EXE    81601 bytes     2/5/97

     Readme.txt       2494 bytes     12/20/96
     Test.mdb        65536 bytes     10/29/96
     Wbodbc.wll      39424 bytes     12/2/96
     Wbodbc97.dot   122368 bytes     10/29/96

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q145749
   TITLE     : CAPI and WLL Support Policy