Is DAO dead (in 2k3 or 2k7)?

R

RoyalFalcon

Been out of the MS Access world for a little while. I need some feedback on
this. When I moved from a97 to a2k I remember there was a big focus on moving
to ADO and discontinuing use of DAO. What happened with this?

What is MS’s direction with a2007? Will it be using ado.net or ado? Are
there still active updates to the ADO or DAO libraries? Are there plans to
stop shipping a2007 with either ADO or DAO?

Also if you know of any MS links on the topic please share them. I will need
to get my co-works onboard (they're still using a97).

Thanks for any information you can share.

RoyalFalcon
 
R

RoyalFalcon

Thanks for the feedback Dave. I thought that might be the case from little
things I've seen. Do you know if MS has formally said, “we recommend only
using ADO, more so, we aren’t updating the DAO library – stop using it� I
saw that at least with a2k3 they still ship it with DAO (you just have to go
looking).

And I hate to be redundant, but MS is still updating ADO even though in the
..Net arena they are using ADO.net (I’m guessing yes)?

Also, if by chance you know of any web related material I can reference it
would help me big time at work. I need to help the team understand, coding
against a dead library is only making things worse.

Thanks again.
RoyalFalcon
 
A

Albert D. Kallal

Been out of the MS Access world for a little while. I need some feedback
on
this. When I moved from a97 to a2k I remember there was a big focus on
moving
to ADO and discontinuing use of DAO. What happened with this?
Click to expand...

Well, we had a2000, and the DAO was not there by default, but you could, and
had to set a reference to dao to use it.

In a2002, again, the DAO was not there by default, but you could, and had to
set a reference to dao to use it.

Note that in the above two cases, if you converted any application that DID
USE DAO, then a reference was automatically set for you.


In a2003, which is the latest version (not including 2007 beta), the DAO
REFERENCE IS BACK BY DEFAULT!!!

This means that you do NOT have to set a reference to DAO, and the default
in ms-access is to use DAO.

So, the fact that after MANY years, and in fact you have to go all the way
back to access 97 (about 10 years now) to find a version of ms-access that
has a DAO reference by default.

What this means that the CURRENT LATEST AND GREATEST version of ms-access is
defaulted to DAO.

This means that DAO is alive and well. You can ignore the other posters
answer, as that answer is one borne of complete and utter ignorance.

Further, for a2007, we have multi-value extensions, and the DAO object model
has been extended to deal with these multi-value (called complex data).


So, not only is DAO alive and well, not only is DAO being extended for the
next version, but IS NOW the default for the current version.

The other poster is perhaps confused, as it is ADO that is being tossed out,
and developers are being told to use to ADO.NET, which by the way is a
rather different object model. So, while there is NO new products coming out
that are pushing ADO, and all of the .net development tools are telling you
to NOT use ADO, it is quite clear that DAO is alive and well in the
ms-access camp, and is STILL the preferred choice when building JET based
applications.

So, developers are being told to drop ADO, and use ado.net. However, for
ms-access, DAO is alive and well, and is the default for a2003!!!

For a2007, this does not change.....
 
A

Albert D. Kallal

Dave F said:
It's all ADO now
Click to expand...

no, I think you are confusing ado, and ado .net.

See my other response. For ms-access, the JET engine is still DAO based, and
the latest version of ms-access has DAO as
a default reference....
 
B

Baz

If you use ADP's then you cannot avoid ADO. Otherwise, ADO is as dead as a
very dead dodo, whereas DAO is pretty vigorous for an old 'un.

Do not confuse ADO with ADO.Net, it's a completely different product and, as
of the current version, Access 2003, is of little interest to Access
developers.
 
R

RoyalFalcon

Hi Albert,

Thanks for taking the time to respond back in so much detail. I really
appreciate that. Could I ask for a little more info on this?

I’ve been 24x7 VB.net for a while now, so I’ve had no reason to touch ADO
since A2K and VB6. ADO.Net being the new MS direction is a key reason why I
wondered what we should be using now. When I left MS said, drop DAO for ADO,
DAO is “dead†(as tooted in my Getz/Litwin Access 2K Developer Handbook). So
when I heard ADO was “dead†in the VB world in place of ADO.net, I figured
a2k7 would follow and say you must use ADO.net. This is the key reason I
started asking.

From a couple of the links in the responses I see DAO is indeed the default.
So MS is keeping the DAO library and building on it? Also a2k7 doesn’t use
ADO.Net? Can I reference ADO.Net from A2K7 if the framework in there?

Has MS said then ADO is not being updated? I did do a lot with ADPs when a2k
came out.

I must say, as much as I thank MS for a line of employment, their zigzag
direction sometimes throws me for a loop. Being out for a little while feels
funny. I rewrote a bunch of DAO code (a lot) to ADO when 2k came out. Now it
sounds like MS is saying convert it back if you’re using a2k7.

Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it.
 
B

Brendan Reynolds

In addition to Albert's good advice, with which I agree ...

I haven't heard anyone from MS advise converting existing ADO code to DAO,
but I have heard MS people advise *against* converting existing DAO code to
ADO. Generally, if your existing code works, be it ADO or DAO, the best
thing to do is probably to leave it alone. For new code, if using Access on
the front end and JET or ACE on the back-end, there seems little reason not
to use DAO for most tasks.

I haven't seen any official announcement that there will be no more updates
to ADO 'classic', but I do think it is looking increasingly unlikely. It
seems probable, then, that DAO is likely to be a better match to the new ACE
database engine going forward.

It's probably not possible for Access to adopt ADO.NET as long as Access
continues to support VBA, because of the different type systems. You can
call ASP.NET web services from Access, though.
 
T

Tony Toews

Brendan Reynolds said:
I haven't heard anyone from MS advise converting existing ADO code to DAO,
but I have heard MS people advise *against* converting existing DAO code to
ADO. Generally, if your existing code works, be it ADO or DAO, the best
thing to do is probably to leave it alone.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Furthermore we're mixing ADO and DAO code in some apps for
one client.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
 
R

RoyalFalcon

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to my
post. I appreciate your feedback. I was very helpful. Thanks again.

Royal Falcon.
 

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