How To Modify the Visual Data Manager (VISDATA) to Work with Access 2000 Databases (252438)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows 5.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows 6.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows 5.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows 6.0

This article was previously published under Q252438

SUMMARY

Microsoft Visual Basic ships with an add-in utility known as the Visual Data Manager (VISDATA) for which source code is also provided in the form of a sample project named Visdata.vbp. Visdata.vbp is installed with other Visual Basic samples as part of the MSDN Library installation.

This article describes how to modify the source code for the Visual Data Manager add-in in order to use the add-in with Microsoft Access 2000 format database files.

MORE INFORMATION

Adapting VISDATA to work with Microsoft Access 2000 format databases requires changing only one project reference, adding one menu item, and adding one line of code to process the new menu item.
  1. Update the DAO Reference from DAO 3.51 to DAO 3.60. (This step alone is sufficient to allow you to open and work with Access 2000 files.)
    1. Open Visdata.vbp in the Visual Basic design environment.
    2. On the Project menu, open the list of References.
    3. Deselect the existing reference to Microsoft Data Access Objects 3.51, and then locate and select Microsoft Data Access Objects 3.60. If you are using Visual Basic 6.0, be sure to move the DAO 3.6 reference above the ADO library reference in the list.
  2. Add a new menu item and code to allow creating a new Access 2000 database.
    1. Open the main form, frmMDI, in the design environment.
    2. From the Tools menu, open the Menu Editor.
    3. In the Menu Editor window, scroll down in the existing menu items to File / New / Microsoft Access.
    4. In order to insert the new menu item after the existing entry for Access Version 7.0 MDB files, select the following entry: dBase. Click the Insert button, and then click the RIGHT ARROW button to make the new, blank entry a subitem under the Microsoft Access heading. Enter Access 2000 as the Caption and mnuDBNMDB2K as the Name. Close the Menu Editor by clicking OK.
    5. Open the frmMDI code module and select the mnuDBNMDB2K_Click event procedure in the drop-down list. Enter the following line of code:
      NewMDB dbVersion40
  3. In Visual Basic 6.0 only, update ADO connection strings to support Access 2000. VisData uses both DAO and ADO. Use the Search function on the Visual Basic Edit menu to locate all references in the project to the Microsoft Jet OLE DB Provider version 3.51 and update 3.51 to 4.0.
  4. In Visual Basic 6.0 only, add code that will enable the Grid toolbar button, which displays a table of records in a DBGrid control rather than one record per form.
    1. Open the module modVisData and find the OpenTable procedure. After the lines:
              If gsDataType = gsMSACCESS Then
                .ConnectionString = "PROVIDER=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" & gsDBName
      							
      insert the additional line:
                .CursorLocation = adUseClient
      						
    2. Then open frmDataGrid and find the Form_Load event procedure. After the line:
        Set datDataCtl.Recordset = mrsFormRecordset
      							
      insert the additional lines:
        datDataCtl.Refresh
        Set grdDataGrid.DataSource = datDataCtl
        grdDataGrid.Refresh
      							
      If you were to omit this step, you might see an empty grid; or the grid may display with the very first cell empty.
  5. Recompile the VISDATA project and copy the compiled executable to the Visual Basic directory (which is \Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Vb98 by default in Visual Basic 6.0).

REFERENCES

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

238401 PRB: Getting Unrecognized Database Format Error Message When Upgrading to Access 2000

242010 PRB: The Data Form Wizard May Not Open an Access 2000 Database


Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:7/1/2004
Keywords:kbDatabase kbhowto kbMDACNoSweep KB252438 kbAudDeveloper