HOWTO: Redistributing DAO with Your Visual C++ 5.0 Application

• Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, version 5.0

SUMMARY

There are 2 approaches to redistributing DAO 3.5 with your Visual C++ 5.0 application:

• You can redistribute the DAO Setup located in the VC\REDIST\DAO directory.

• You can follow the steps in the Daosetup.rtf installed with the DAO SDK.

MORE INFORMATION

Redistributing the DAO Setup

On the Visual C++ 5.0 CD, under \DEVSTUDIO\VC\REDIST\DAO\DISK1\, there is a DAO Setup program that can be redistributed. This setup program prompts the user for information about which components to install. You can run the setup program with a '-s' option that silently runs the DAO Setup without putting information on the screen.

Here are a few important notes:

• If you run the program with the -s option, all of the DAO components will be installed (DAO core components, ODBC Direct, and ISAMs).
• If ODBCDirect is selected or you chose the '-s' option, you must have ODBC 3.0 currently installed on the system.
• To register DAO and use DAO, you must have Oleaut32.dll version 2.20.4049 or later as well as Stdole2.tlb installed into your System directory. If you try to run the setup program with the "-s" option and you do not have version 2.20.4049 or later, the setup program fails. To get these newer versions of the files, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  ARTICLE-ID: Q164529

     TITLE     : FILE: Updated Automation System Files
  
  

Installing the DAO components with Your Own Setup Program

Below is the information from the Daosetup.rtf file installed into the DAO SDK directory.

NOTE: The documentation fails to mention that you must copy the Oleaut32.dll and Stdole2.tlb files from the \devstudio\vc\redist directory on the Visual C++ 5.0 CD into the Windows system directory. You must register Oleaut32.dll.

This document describes the steps required to create a setup program that successfully installs DAO and its related files. It is recommended that you use InstallShield Express that ships with Visual C++ 5.0 along with the information in this document to create your setup.

Proper setup of DAO is very important. Because DAO is a shared component that only exists in one location on a machine, all applications using DAO may stop working if DAO setup is not done correctly.

1. Introduction

DAO, Microsoft Jet, and RDO require a more complex installation procedure than simply copying files into a directory. An application cannot have its own "private" copy of an OLE Automation server (such as DAO) in an application directory. The server is registered by OLE, and all users use the same DLL.

1. Files

Whether your application uses ODBCDirect or the Microsoft Jet Engine to access data determines whether you should install the Microsoft Jet Engine or ODBCDirect files.

Only the files described in this section can be distributed with your application to other users. You cannot distribute other files, such as .hlp files or DAO header (.h) files.

NOTE: The DAO directory and System32 directory are explained in section 3.2.

   a. DAO
      DAO is comprised of the following core files (these files must be
      installed for DAO to function):

      File         Description          Installed   Registered  Directory
      -------------------------------------------------------------------

      DAO350.DLL    DAO version 3.5      Shared        Yes       DAO
      DAO2535.TLB   Type Library         Companion     No        DAO
                                         to DAO350.DLL
      MSJTER35.DLL  Microsoft Jet        System        No        System32
                    (and DAO) error
                    message DLL
      MSJINT35.DLL  Localized Microsoft  System        No        System32
                    Jet (and DAO) error
                    strings
      MSVCRT40.DLL  C Runtime DLL        System        No        System32


   b. Microsoft Jet Engine

      1) Core Jet files
         Microsoft Jet is comprised of the following core files.  These
         files are sufficient to access version 3.0 .MDB databases and ODBC
         data sources (in conjunction with an installed ODBC driver) when
         installed with DAO.

      File         Description          Installed   Registered  Directory
      -------------------------------------------------------------------

      MSJET35.DLL  Microsoft Jet engine  System         Yes     System32
                   (version 3.5)
      MSRD2X35.DLL MDB files from       Companion       Yes     System32
                   Microsoft Access     to MSJET35.DLL
                   2.0, Visual Basic
                   3.0 or earlier
      MSJTER35.DLL Microsoft Jet (and   System          No      System32
                   DAO) error message
                   DLL
      MSJINT35.DLL Localized Microsoft  System          No      System32
                   Jet (and DAO) error
                   strings
      VBAJET32.DLL VBA-Microsoft Jet    System          No      System32
                   Expression service
      VBAR332.DLL  VBA Runtime          System          No      System32

      2) Optional files
         The following optional files provide access to other data formats.
         Install the DLLs that correspond to the file format you need to
         support, or if you need replication support.


      Module        Description         Installed   Registered  Directory
      -------------------------------------------------------------------

      MSREPL35.DLL  Microsoft Jet       System      No          System32
                    Replication
      MSXBSE35.DLL  Xbase formats       System      Yes         System32
      MSPDOX35.DLL  Paradox formats     System      Yes         System32
      MSTEXT35.DLL  Text files          System      Yes         System32
      MSEXCL35.DLL  Spreadsheet files   System      Yes         System32
      MSLTUS35.DLL  Lotus formats       System      Yes         System32
      MSEXCH35.DLL  Exchange formats    System      Yes         System32

   c. ODBCDirect
      Install the following files for supporting ODBCDirect functionality.
      DAO uses RDO to handle it's ODBCDirect functionality. For this reason
      you may recognize these files as the core RDO files.

      File          Description          Installed   Registered  Directory
      -------------------------------------------------------------------

      MSRDO20.dll  Remote Database       Shared          Yes     System32
                   Objects 2.0
      RDOCURS.dll  Batch Client Cursor   Companion       No*     System32
                   Library               to MSRDO20.DLL

1. Installation The following sections provide information on using the installation procedure.

   a. Check if files are in use.

         The first step in the installation procedure is to see if programs
         that are using any files you may be installing are running. If they
         are you may need to abort the installation and request the user to
         close other applications before installing DAO.
   

   b. Copy the files.

         Copy all files listed as DAO files (except the Dao350.dll and
         Dao2535.tlb), and all Microsoft Jet Engine core files (and
         application specific optional files) or ODBCDirect files (depending
         upon the needs of your application) to the system (system32 for
         Windows NT) directory (referred to in the charts above as the
         System32 directory). Per usual DLL standards, you need to copy with
         version checking to make sure a newer version of the file is not
         overwritten by your installation. All the DAO files contain
         appropriate version resources.
   

         Use the following procedure to copy Dao350.dll and Dao2535.tlb:
   

         1) For Windows NT (earlier version than 4.0), the DAO files always go
            into <windows>\MSAPPS\DAO. For example, c:\winnt35\msapps\DAO. For
            Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0, the DAO directory is approximately
            c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DAO. The exact
            location varies if the user has a non-English version of Windows
            95, which must read the location from the registry. Locate the
            following node in the registry:
   
               HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
   
            and retrieve the value of the key named CommonFilesDir.
   
         2) If this registry key does not exist, then create it and set the
            value to:
   
               \Program Files\Common Files
   
            Make sure to use the correct driver letter.
   
         3) After you have the value of the key, which will typically be:
   
               c:\Program Files\Common Files
   
            then append "\Microsoft Shared\DAO" and use that as the
            destination location for the Dao350.dll and Dao2535.tlb.
   
         4) Copy Dao350.dll and Dao2535.tlb to this directory using version
            checking. This is the Directory referred to in the charts above as
            the DAO directory.
   
      c. Register the DLLs.
         After you copy all of the DLLs, you need to register them. You do
         this by calling the DLLRegisterServer entry point on each DLL if it
         exists. Note that because DAO requires Microsoft Jet before it can
         successfully register, the order of copying files given previously is
         important.
   
         Your setup program should use Regsvr32.exe or an equivalent call to
         execute the DLLRegisterServer within the following dlls (if they have
         been installed by step 3b): Dao350.dll, Msjet35.dll, Msrd2x35.dll,
         Msexcl35.dll, Mspdox35.dll, Msxbse35.dll, Msltus35.dll, Mstext35.dll,
         Msexch35.dll, Msrdo20.dll.
   
         Following are some special considerations you should keep in mind:
   
         - Dao350.dll needs to have Msvcrt40.dll and other required files on
           the computer before it can register. If DAO fails to register,
           check the version of MSVCRT40.DLL. Problems are typically seen
           under Windows 95 where the version should be 4.10.6038 (about 319K
           file).
   
         - Msrdo20.dll needs to have ODBC installed before it will register.
           Use the ODBC Installation program to install ODBC.
   
         - Msexch35.dll needs to have MAPI installed on your system before it
           can register.
   
      d. Update the file reference counts.
         Because DAO is shared by many programs, a count is kept of how many
         times the DLL has been installed. This allows uninstall programs to
         remove the file only when no other program needs it. This is the same
         for the Msrdo20.dll. The other files are never removed from the
         system.
   
         1) Under the following location, search for a key with the same name
            as the file you've installed:
   
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDlls\
   
         2) If the key exists, increment its value by one (it is a dword).  If
            the key does not exist, you need to create a key that is the name
            of the file (including path) of type dword and give it a value
            of 1. A typical entry would be:
   
            \\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\DAO
               \\DAO350.DLL"=dword:00000001
   
           (This example is in the export format used by regedit; you would
           only use single backslashes when creating the key.)
   
           Make sure you reference count both the Msrdo20.dll and the
           Dao350.dll.
   
   

2. Uninstall To conform with Windows 95 guidelines, programs must be able to uninstall themselves and remove any files and registry entries they create. Many setup toolkits, such as the provided InstallShield toolkit, provide this as "built-in" functionality. It is beyond the scope of this document to provide all the details of Windows 95 installation requirements, but here are the basic steps required to uninstall DAO. Note that only the shared components and their companion files will be removed. The installed system files will never be removed.

   The Dao350.dll and Dao2535.tlb will be removed only if the value of Dao350.dll's reference count key is 1. Otherwise the count is decremented and the file left in place. For example:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDlls\ "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DAO\DAO350.DLL"

   Before removing Dao350.dll, you need to call its entry point DLLUnregisterServer so that it can remove its entries from the registry. You can do this by using Regsvr32.exe with the -u option.

   The same rules apply for the Msrdo20.dll and it's companion file of Rdocurs.dll.

Keywords          : dbDao MfcDAO kbprg
Version           : WINDOWS NT: 5.0
Platform          : NT WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto