Confused about MDAC, VB.Net, and Jet

  • Thread starter Thread starter TC
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T

TC

I have a VB.Net application which uses System.Data.OleDb to connect to
a Jet database. Recently, I learned that MDAC no longer contains Jet
drivers. I'm confused what that means for my application. Can someone
help me with answers to these basic questions?

First of all, does the absence of Jet driver from MDAC imply that most
computers in the future will lack Jet drivers?

Second, if I use a Visual Studio setup project to package my
application, will it recognize the Jet driver as a dependency, and
include it in the distribution file? In other words, if I distribute
my application to someone who has a recent version of MDAC, will it
work?

Third, does the exclusion of Jet from MDAC imply that Jet is
deprecated?


-TC
 
TC said:
I have a VB.Net application which uses System.Data.OleDb to connect to
a Jet database. Recently, I learned that MDAC no longer contains Jet
drivers.
Click to expand...

Yes, for some years.
I'm confused what that means for my application. Can someone
help me with answers to these basic questions?
Click to expand...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/239114

Does this answer all questions? AFAIK Jet is part of the OS now, and I'd
write an up-to-date OS as a prerequisite on your app's package.
Third, does the exclusion of Jet from MDAC imply that Jet is
deprecated?
Click to expand...

Well, it's there in the OS now and probably won't do any harm in
Windows 7 and later. I'm not MSFT, but I guess that no further
development is done, e.g. there won't be a 64 bit version, because there
is SQL Express as a free (and let's say better) alternative, and pushing
only one DBMS (SQL server) instead of two, saves work and time on their
side (and therefore probably the free SQL express version in order to
pull them over to the other platform over the years).


Armin
 
Yes, for some years.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/239114

Does this answer all questions? AFAIK Jet is part of the OS now, and I'd
write an up-to-date OS as a prerequisite on your app's package.


Well, it's there in the OS now and probably won't do any harm in
Windows 7 and later. I'm not MSFT, but I guess that no further
development is done, e.g. there won't be a 64 bit version, because there
is SQL Express as a free (and let's say better) alternative, and pushing
only one DBMS (SQL server) instead of two, saves work and time on their
side (and therefore probably the free SQL express version in order to
pull them over to the other platform over the years).

Armin
Click to expand...

Armin,

Thank you for the reply. It was very helpful, but I'm still a little
confused.

I read the page you referenced. It seems to imply that all versions of
Windows since Windows 2000 include Jet. If so, then why would a
Windows computer ever lack the Jet drivers?

Yesterday, a friend asked me to debug a problem. He was receiving the
message "The 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0' provider is not registered on
the local machine". When I researched that error, most of the search
results explained the problem by noting that MDAC no longer includes
Jet. However, if I understand http://support.microsoft.com/kb/239114
correctly, that explanation is bogus. My friend and others who receive
that error are not missing Jet because it was omitted from MDAC; they
are missing Jet because... why?

It is not an idle question. As a developer using Jet, I need to know
if Windows computers can be reliably expected to have Jet; and if not,
I need to know what I must do to package it with my application.

-TC
 
TC said:
I read the page you referenced. It seems to imply that all versions
of Windows since Windows 2000 include Jet. If so, then why would a
Windows computer ever lack the Jet drivers?

Yesterday, a friend asked me to debug a problem. He was receiving
the message "The 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0' provider is not
registered on the local machine". When I researched that error, most
of the search results explained the problem by noting that MDAC no
longer includes Jet. However, if I understand
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/239114 correctly, that explanation
is bogus. My friend and others who receive that error are not
missing Jet because it was omitted from MDAC; they are missing Jet
because... why?
Click to expand...


I'm afraid, I can't answer this. I don't know if it also applies to the
Jet OLEDB provider or only to the Jet core components (or whether both
are the same).

Armin
 
I'm afraid, I can't answer this. I don't know if it also applies to the
Jet OLEDB provider or only to the Jet core components (or whether both
are the same).

Armin
Click to expand...

Armin,

I just re-read article 239114, and I have a theory:

1) When it says "you have a later version of Jet 4.0...", it does not
mean "you already have Jet 4.0 installed." Rather, what it means is
"you have a setup package for Jet 4.0 on your product CD, so we don't
need to provide you with a download."

2) When it says "We recommend that you install the latest service pack
for Windows ???" it does not mean "you can install Jet 4.0 by
installing the latest service pack." Rather, what it means is "before
you install Jet 4.0, you should make sure your OS is current."

3) When it says "To install the latest Jet 4.0 service pack... 1.
Download the appropriate version of the Jet service pack", it does not
mean "download." Rather, it means "either download or obtain from your
product CD."

Could this interpretation be correct? If so, it means the Jet
components are not automatically installed with Windows, so I cannot
expect computers to have it when I distribute my application.
Furthermore, it means that people missing Jet, like my friend, cannot
simply download and install it; they must find it on their product CD.

Frankly, I'm more confused than ever. I'm going to post another
newsgroup message asking specifically how to interpret 239114.


-TC
 
TC,

If you want a complete answer then ask this in the newsgroup

microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.adonet

William Vaugh is probably the best one who can answer your questions in dept
while he is active in that newsgroup.

Cor
 
Or just read one of the few previous discussions about this topic a quick
google will bring them forward
cause Bill told his opinion lots of times regarding this mather

see this recent one where Bill is also participating , although it is
about DAO


http://groups.google.nl/group/micro...q=michel+posseth+bill+vaughn#ab500fad61eb452e

or more generic

http://groups.google.nl/groups/search?hl=nl&q=ACCESS+and+.Net&qt_s=Zoeken


Access is still usable in VB.Net ( if you target 32 bit computers only )
however personally i would go for the SQL server anywhere product family ,,
unless it is your goal that users can bypass your app and query themselves
on the DB

Regards

Michel Posseth
 
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