Microsoft Access 2000 provides a native OLE DB user and programming interface that you can use to access a Microsoft Access database, a Microsoft SQL Server database, and other data sources. This topic provides reference information about:
Microsoft Access and the OLE DB architecture
Defining connection information
Creating and accessing Microsoft Data Link files
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OLE DB is a component database architecture that implements efficient network and internet access to many types of data sources, including relational data, mail files, flat files, and spreadsheets. In the OLE DB architecture, the application that accesses the data is called a data consumer (for example, Microsoft Access 2000 or a Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 program), and the program that enables native access to the data is called a database provider (for example, Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server or Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider).
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A data link is the connection information that a data consumer uses to access a data source through the OLE DB provider of that data source. In the Microsoft Access user interface, you use the Data Link Properties dialog box to define a data link for an OLE DB provider in the following ways:
Each OLE DB provider defines specific connection information. For example, Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server requires a server name, server location, and a user name, and you may want to define additional information, such as a password or whether or not you want to use Microsoft Windows NT integrated security.
In general, to define connection information in the Data Link Properties dialog box:
The Data Link Properties dialog box Help file (msdasc.hlp) provides additional information on using the dialog box and defining connection information for each OLE DB provider.
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Although you typically connect to an OLE DB provider through Microsoft Access using the Data Link Properties dialog box, you may want to define connection information for an OLE DB provider in a Microsoft Data Link file (.udl) to use in a Visual Basic program and to organize and manage connection information on your computer.
To create connection information in this manner, open Microsoft Windows Explorer, choose Microsoft Data Link from the New menu, create a Microsoft Data Link file, select the file name, right-click on the file name, and then choose Properties.
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Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider and Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server are installed automatically when you install Microsoft Office 2000 or Microsoft Access 2000 standalone. Additional OLE DB providers are also installed, including OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers and OLE DB Provider for Oracle. To see a complete list of OLE DB providers installed on your computer, display the Data Link Properties dialog box from a Data Link file, and then click the Provider tab.
When you or other users display a page from Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later and you have a Microsoft Office 2000 license on your computer, if necessary, the page automatically downloads the necessary OLE DB providers and other related files by installing Microsoft Office Web Components.
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You can also programmatically access data through an OLE DB provider in Visual Basic for Applications in Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) by defining a connection string in the ConnectionString property of the Open method of the Connection object to pass the connection information to the OLE DB provider. For more information, see the The Microsoft Office 2000/Visual Basic Programmer's Guide.
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