Step 1 -
Create a new Windows Application project in Visual Studio. I named mine aa051003.
Note ... You will find that it's a lot easier to provide the right name for something in Visual Studio when it's created rather than trying to change the name later. This is certainly true for projects. So decide what you're going to call something and where the project folder will be when you create it! It will save time and confusion later.
If you have any questions about this, spend just a little time working with the New Project dialog in Visual Studio to make sure you understand it. Create a few dummy projects and examine the files and folders created in Windows to check your understanding.
Step 2 -
Make sure your Visual Studio Toolbox is open, the initial form in your project is displayed, and the Data group is selected in the Toolbox. Drag the OleDBDataAdapter control from the Toolbox to the form in your new project. At this point, the Data Adapter Configuration Wizard should pop open. Read the initial screen and then click Next.
Step 3 -
Click the New Connection ... button.
If you haven't used the Spotlight articles Access database before, it's necessary to create a new connection object. If you're working on a system with other programmers or a database that you have programmed against before, the connection may have been created already. Later, when we look at the Microsoft Northwind sample application, it's very likely that the connection will already exist, so you won't have to perform this step.
Step 4 -
Click the Provider tab in the Data Link Properties dialog and then select the Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider. Click Next again.
The same dialog with the Connection tab selected should appear. Click the ellipsis (the button with the three dots) and browse to the Spotlight articles Access database. Click the Test Connection button to make sure everything works.
If you're a VB 6 programmer and all this looks familiar - see the note on the next page.
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Everything Old is New Again! > Page
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