From VB .Net, how obtain ref to Access project?

[Guest]

From VB .Net, using either DAO or ADOX (or whatever else is available), how
can I obtain a reference to a database file created in Access? For example,
I tried the following:

Dim AccessApp As New Microsoft.Office.Interop.Access.Application
AccessApp.OpenCurrentDatabase("C:\Documents and Settings\...\filename.mdb")
Dim cat As ADOX.Catalog
cat.ActiveConnection = AccessApp.CurrentProject.Connection

The last statement gives me a "Object reference not set to an instance of an
object" error.

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

The immediate problem here is that you've declared the "cat" variable but
never instantiated it - you're missing a "Set cat = New ADOX.Catalog" line.

Beyond that, you're mixing automation and data access, which are really two
separate things. What is it you want to do - automate the Access
application, or just get at the data from your .NET code?

 

[Guest]

Essentially, I'm trying to do in VB .Net what is done in VBA under Access,
i.e. I'm trying to write code in VB .Net to manipulate a database using the
same/similar commands available in Access VBA. I see the commands in the VB
..Net Object Library (after adding the appropriate references), I just can't
get the commands to talk to the approrpiate .mdb file. For example, in my
prior post "How to add new table programatically" on 2/2/05 which you
responded to, you told me how to add new tables using DAO, ADOX, and DDL. I
got the DDL to work, but I couldn't figure out how to access the .mdb file in
DAO or ADOX.

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

I'm afraid I won't be able to help you with that, Ed. You could try asking
in a .NET newsgroup. I think the answer will probably be that this approach
is not practical, but who knows, I could be wrong.

 

[onedaywhen]

I
got the DDL to work, but I couldn't figure out how to access the .mdb file in
DAO or ADOX.

Then use DDL <g>. You could try searching the google groups Usenet
archive for examples e.g.

http://tinyurl.com/4saap

Jamie.

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[Sergey Poberezovskiy]

Ed,

You have opened database correctly, but forgot to
initialize your ADOX.Catalog object - hence the error.

HTH

 

[onedaywhen]

I just re-read your original post. The problem may be a flawed approach
on your part. You seem to be automating the MS Access app and using it
to opening a file, simply to obtain a reference/pointer to an internal
instance of an ADO Connection (note not an OleDb Connection). There is
no need to do this when you can instead create an *external* connection
to the database.

Jamie.

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