ADO: ActiveX Data Objects

The ADO Data Control Property Pages

The ADO Data Control is very easy to configure by means of its Property Pages, which are accessible through the Custom property shown in the controls property list.

The first page of the ADO Data Control Property Pages allows you to select a source of connection in one of three ways. This tab is shown in Figure D-1.

Figure D-1. The General tab of the ADO Data Control Property Pages

The first way to specify a source of connection is by specifying a Data Link File. A Data Link file is a file that contains the Connection-string information used to establish a connection to a data source. We will look into how to create Data Link Files in the next section of this chapter.

The second way to select a source of the database connection is by specifying a Data Source Name. To create a new DSN you can use the ODBC Data Source Administrator, which can be found in the Control Box or by pressing the New button located to the right of the Combo Box.

The third way to select a source of the database connection is to specify a Connection-string value. If you would like to, you can create a connection string by using the Build button. Creating connection-string values is also covered in the next section of this chapter.

Once you have specified the correct connection information for a data source, you can use the next tab of the Property Pages dialog box, the Authentication ...