A challenging question for experienced programmers only

[maged]

hi all,

i am trying to use ado.net to connect to a database, access 2k thru a dsn. ( the one that we make from the administration tasks in control panel)

now after researching and many threads in many sites including this one. i found this bad news

ADO . net doesn't support the ODBC layer, in other words i cannt use the class oledbconnection in connecting thru a dsn name.

so i decided to go around the problem.

i do know how to connect if i have the full path of the access database ( ex. : c:\docs\data.mdb) , thru thr microsoft.jet engine of course.


so the important question, if i have the dsn name, how could i extract the file path from it. so i can overpass it and open my connection depending on the pass it points to

help me out experienced people.

i need help


THX IN ADVANCE & BST RGDS

[Edneeis]

This is not that experienced of a problem. Its true that the OLEDB data provider in .NET doesn't support ODBC but there is a .NET ODBC Data provider. Just use it instead of OLEDB. If you have VS.NET 2003 then it is built in to the .NET Framework otherwise you have to download it from the Microsoft website.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

From there it works just like the SQLClient and OLEDB providers but is for use with ODBC.

[maged]

thx for the tip,

anyway is it possible to perform what i wanr to do ?>?

can i get the path of the file for the dsn???


this may be very important in building my dbase class

i would appreciate your help

THX

[Edneeis]

If its a file DSN then you can just open it as text and find the path otherwise I don't know. If you can use the DSN without having the path then why do you need it?

[maged]

hi there,

i am building a database class that uses oledbconnection to perform tons of common task in my software, i want to make this class as general as possible.

i dont want to declare in it two types of conncetions

(ODBC & OLEDB) and on every operation i should check who will work, i intend to make a single oledb connection that i should use with dsn , by knowing it's name and path.

of course all the databases i intend to connect to is Access 2k , so there will never be a problem with ODBC, as i will always know what is the type of the database behind it.


THX for you attention

BST RGDS

[pupil]

Help!

I downloaded and installed that package from

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

but nothing happened. My Visual Studio .NET doesn't understand ODBC. It just says: "Type 'OdbcConnection' is not defined". And naturally it doesn't understand my namespace either.

What's wrong?

[BenFinkel]

Try the following:

        Dim odcQuote As Odbc.OdbcConnection
        Dim odaQuote As Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter

That works for me, but I've got .NET 2003

[kovan]

or search the registry (were the dsn is stored, extract it, and get ur path to the db from there)

when i opened this thread i thought i would see a question that will take me weeks to figure out,
please from now on title your messages approperiately according to what u need help with, u will get more responses.

[pupil]

Nothing helps. Or actually I didn't even understand what kovan wrote:
"or search the registry (were the dsn is stored, extract it, and get ur path to the db from there)"
'cause I'm such poor programmer and my english isn't that great either...

I'm just wondering, if it installed into the right place. I didn't change anything in the wizard, so it installed it here:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\Odbc.Net

it made that Odbc.Net-file. I have also Microsoft Visual Studio .NET -file...

Any ideas?

[kovan]

Originally posted by pupil
Nothing helps. Or actually I didn't even understand what kovan wrote:
"or search the registry (were the dsn is stored, extract it, and get ur path to the db from there)"
'cause I'm such poor programmer and my english isn't that great either...

I'm just wondering, if it installed into the right place. I didn't change anything in the wizard, so it installed it here:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\Odbc.Net

it made that Odbc.Net-file. I have also Microsoft Visual Studio .NET -file...

Any ideas?

lol
all DSN connections one makes through data sources under Administrative Tools in control panel ARE stored in registry
so what has to be done is, one must read the registry and the connection strings and all the properties are stored in registry for each DSN created.

If that doesnt make any sense, then your an idiot.(one or to level lower than a poor programmer)

[shunt]

Hi Pupil,

If you need to know details of any of the following steps just ask.

1) Make sure that you have a reference to the System.Data component. If not, then reference it!
2) Open the Object Browser and make sure you can see the System.Data.ODBC namespace. If not, then it is possible that there is a System.Data.ODBC component you need to reference. If there is, then reference it!
3) Where you try to use the odbc objects, try using the fully qualified names (System.Data.ODBC.ODBCConnection).

If none of these help, then I am not sure what the problem might be either.

Kovan , this is a place where people get help. You dont have to put anyone down here, whatever questions they might ask.

[pupil]

Thanks shunt, but i decided to install Visual Studio 2003 to my computer, so that should solve the problem.

[maged]

thx kovan, can you explain in .net code how can i extract the dsn properties from the regestry,

i have already sent you a pm , i hope you are not annoyed with my continous questiosn.

thx

[kovan]

Originally posted by shunt

Kovan , this is a place where people get help. You dont have to put anyone down here, whatever questions they might ask. [/B]

I dont like being put down when i help someone, they should at least appreciate it,
if they put me down i will put them down.

[kovan]

Originally posted by maged
thx kovan, can you explain in .net code how can i extract the dsn properties from the regestry,

i have already sent you a pm , i hope you are not annoyed with my continous questiosn.

thx

Reading registry

Imports Microsoft.Win32
 
    Public Function RegValue(ByVal Hive As RegistryHive, _
       ByVal Key As String, ByVal ValueName As String, _
       OptionalByRef ErrInfo As String = "") As String
  
      'DEMO USAGE
 
        'Dim sAns As String
        'Dim sErr As String = ""
 
        'sAns = RegValue(RegistryHive.LocalMachine, _
        '  "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion", _
        '  "ProgramFilesDir", sErr)
        'If sAns <> "" Then
        '    Debug.WriteLine("Value = " & sAns)
        'Else
        '    Debug.WriteLine("This error occurred: " & sErr)
 
        'End If
 
        Dim objParent As RegistryKey
        Dim objSubkey As RegistryKey
        Dim sAns As String
        Select Case Hive
            Case RegistryHive.ClassesRoot
                objParent = Registry.ClassesRoot
            Case RegistryHive.CurrentConfig
                objParent = Registry.CurrentConfig
            Case RegistryHive.CurrentUser
                objParent = Registry.CurrentUser
            Case RegistryHive.DynData
                objParent = Registry.DynData
            Case RegistryHive.LocalMachine
                objParent = Registry.LocalMachine
            Case RegistryHive.PerformanceData
                objParent = Registry.PerformanceData
            Case RegistryHive.Users
                objParent = Registry.Users
 
        End Select
 
        Try
            objSubkey = objParent.OpenSubKey(Key)
            'if can't be found, object is not initialized
            If Not objSubkey Is Nothing Then
                sAns = (objSubkey.GetValue(ValueName))
            End If
 
        Catch ex As Exception
 
            ErrInfo = ex.Message
        Finally
 
            'if no error but value is empty, populate errinfo
            If ErrInfo = "" And sAns = "" Then
                ErrInfo = _
                   "No value found for requested registry key"
            End If
        End Try
        Return sAns
    End Function

the keys in registry are stored in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ODBC\ODBC.INI
as well as
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI

with the above code you have to read these registry values (look through them and find what ur looking for)
it will have all the data.
i would first read a little on reading registry in .NET before going further because you will need to know basics of registry reading if u havent done it before like you mentioned in your PM
hope that helps, if you have any other questions, just post them

[maged]

thx a million kovan, i will give it a try by myself.

of course i will let you know the results.

Again thank you very much for your kind help

BST RGDS