Hello!

I am new to VisualBasic, but I need to do some work on a VB project. Currently I am struggling with this problem:
A Module connects to a local Access database. The connection is a ADODB.Connection(). The connection seems to work
Code:
Public conn As New ADODB.Connection()

Function Connect() As Boolean
		On Error GoTo Connect_Err
		conn.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" & My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\database.mdb;Jet OLEDB:Database Password=myOtherPassword"
		conn.Open()
        Connect = True
        conn.Close()
		Exit Function
Connect_Err: 
		Connect = False
	End Function
At least Connect is set to "True";

My Problems:
1. I would like to add the following check to some parts of the code:
Code:
If (conn.State = adStateOpen) Then
... Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition tells me, "adStateOpen" is not declared. I tried to find a reference for the Class ADODB, to get the correct properties and methods for the object the Connection() method return, but I could not find such a reference for this class.

2. I am not sure about the usage of the conn.Open and conn.Close methods. I have a function, that is called many times as it reads out many single parameters from the database. Should I open and close the connection within this method, or should I leave the connection open while doing multiple calls to the database.
Code:
	
Function GetDbParam(ByRef variable As Object) As String
		Dim r As Object

        conn.Open()
        r = conn.Execute("select * from params where variable = '" & CStr(variable) & "'")
        If Not r.EOF Then
            If IsDBNull(r("value")) Then

                conn.Close()
                Exit Function
            End If
           
            GetDbParam = r("value").ToString()

        End If
        conn.Close()
 End Function
I hope to get some help on this.

Kind regards,
Andy