Chapter 3. MAKING THE CHOICE: MDB OR ADP, DAO OR ADO
IN THIS CHAPTER
Prior to Access 2000, when you created an application, you had to plan whether you wanted to use a Jet (the database engine Access uses natively) or a client/server back end. Depending on which type of back end was chosen, you would use various methods to create the application.
Although this is still the case, as of Access 2000 you now have more choices to make when starting on a project. Now, in addition the back end choice, you must decide what type of database container to use: the traditional MDB or ADP.
The other choice to make is the method of accessing the data while working in VBA: DAO (Data Access Objects), which has been used since Access 2, or ADO (ActiveX Data Objects), the new data-access technology now used throughout a number of Microsoft products, including Visual InterDev.
Helping you decide which technology to use in which case is what this chapter is all about. When you first look at the choices, it's hard to see when one should be used over another.
Note
This chapter isn't intended as in-depth discussion of these technologies. Each is discussed at length in various parts of the book. At the end of this chapter you can see where each technology is discussed further.