[RESOLVED] Porting Access database application from VB6 to VB.NET

[paulorton]

My VB6 application uses ADO 2.5 to interact with an Access 2003 database. I now have Office 2007 and VB 2010 Express and wish to rewrite the application in VB.NET.

Two basic questions - should I convert the database to 2007 or leave it alone, and if I do move to 2007 what should I use to connect to it?

If I stay with 2003 do I continue with ADO 2.5 or use a later version (or even something different)?.

Thanks in advance!

[GaryMazzone]

Either way you abondon ADO 2.5 and use ADO.Net. As for the database backed use which ever you want.

[jmcilhinney]

Office 2007 introduced a new database engine to support the new file types. If you use the Office 2007 format (ACCDB) then you will need to use the ACE OLE DB provider to connect rather than Jet. If you stick with the old format (MDB) then you can use Jet or ACE. There's probably nothing to be gained by migrating from MDB to ACCDB, plus Jet is part of Windows while ACE requires separate installation either on its own or with Access. As such, I'd probably leave the database as is.

You certainly will use ADO.NET regardless though. You should check out the FAQ thread at the top of this forum and read the .NET section.

[paulorton]

Thanks to you both!