MDAC 2.5 SDK - Overview of OLE DB
The OLE DB documentation released with the Microsoft® Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.5 SDK includes a number of topics that have been changed, added, or deleted.
The OLE DB documentation's table of contents has been rearranged so that the OLE DB for OLAP documentation is contained within the larger OLE DB Programmer's Reference. In addition, the OLE DB Core Components section has been merged into the OLE DB Programmer's Reference.
A new index should make information easier to find and will continue to be enhanced with future releases.
Along with many fixes and enhancements to the OLE DB Programmer's Reference to keep up with feature development, this release has improvements that will help you find what you need.
A new index should make information easier to find, and will continue to be enhanced with future releases.
Appendix C, OLE DB Properties, has been rearranged so that properties are easier to find and the information is easier to read.
Three new appendixes appear in the OLE DB Programmer's Reference:
The OLE DB Core section, which includes the Data Link API Reference, has been moved into the OLE DB Programmer's Reference, rearranged, updated, and enhanced. The documentation is more complete and should be easier to use.
The Data Link API has two new features: UDL Pooling and Provider Extensible Data Link User Interface API. The procedure for creating Data Link (.udl) files has changed in Microsoft Windows® 2000 and is documented in "Referencing a Connection String in Your Application." The topic "Provider Extensible Data Link User Interface API" explains how to add your own property pages to the Data Link Properties dialog box.
The topic "Data Type Conversion Interfaces," describing two interfaces and data conversion tables, has been moved to Appendix H.
The topic "Row Position Object," which describes the IRowPosition and IRowPositionChange interfaces, has been moved to Appendix I. These OLE DB core interfaces were moved to an appendix because their functionality has been replaced or enhanced by other interfaces.
The OLE DB for OLAP section of the MDAC SDK has been moved into the OLE DB Programmer's Reference. Its structure has been reorganized and all art has been updated to better illustrate OLAP concepts. OLAP-specific properties and methods have been moved into Part 4 of the OLE DB Programmer's Reference.
The ITest Spy tool was removed from Data Access SDK 2.1 (the last release before MDAC 2.5 SDK) because this tool does not apply to more current operating systems. It is still available from Microsoft® Product Support Services. For more information about how to acquire this tool when working with PSS, see the OLE DB Testing Overview.
ITest and Test Case Wizard have been entirely removed from the MDAC 2.5 SDK. These tools do not apply to more current operating systems and are no longer available in the MDAC 2.5 SDK.
Local Test Manager (LTM) is the primary tool that developers of OLE DB providers use for conformance testing. With this release of the MDAC SDK, the tool itself has many added features, and documentation for it has been added.
Trace Provider is a new tool that allows you to intercept and log calls from provider-supported interfaces to the data source. Its documentation is new.
The "OLE DB Test Tools" section of the MDAC 2.5 SDK has been renamed to OLE DB Testing.
The Rowset Viewer sample has been updated for the row object and direct binding interfaces. It also now handles multidimensional data functions for developers using OLE DB for OLAP.
The OLE DB Query Demo sample has been deleted from this release of the MDAC SDK.