Using a password protected Access database in VB.NET

ArmatageShanks · Post by **ArmatageShanks** » 23 Oct 2006, 10:16

Hello. I am a n00b. Yes, I am an IT student, but I'm a n00b one. Here is my current problem.

I'm trying to use an access database that's password protected in vb.net 2003, using the OleDbAdapter and the Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider, but it throws me this message when trying to test the connection:

VisualBasic.NET wrote:Test connection failed because of an error in initialzing provider. Cannot start your application. The workgroup information file is missing or opened exclusively by another user

Can anyone help?

Post by **Kronos** » 23 Oct 2006, 10:33

ArmatageShanks wrote:Can anyone help?

The only honest help I can give you is to say:

NEVER, EVER!!! FOR EVER EVER!!!!!!!
Use either Access or VB.NET

Access is the worst excuse for a DB system.
Only capable of handling small amounts of data, and even then, something as stupid as flat files would be better.

And VB is, well. VB!

But I guess this is for a varsity project, so you don't really have a choice?
So I'll attempt to help, even though I don't approve of the choice of technology.

How do you set up the connection to the "DB"? Setting the properties of the controls, or in code?

LordRage · Post by **LordRage** » 23 Oct 2006, 11:47

I agree with the Access problem, however, the nice thing with Access, is it requires very little work to make the program run to a SQL DB later on in its life.

I do have to dissagree with the VB bashing, as VB is great for exactly that type of application, as long as you cos everything and dont just use the wizards, alot of industry uses that!!

ArmatageShanks · Post by **ArmatageShanks** » 23 Oct 2006, 12:58

@ Kronos. VB.NET is the language we 1st years are learning. Access is the only DB system I know how to use.
No, this is not for a project. I'm just experimenting.

To set up the DB connection, I use the OleDBDataAdapter control in the 'Data' tab in the toolbox. The wizard pops up and then I click 'New Connection', the 'Provider' tab, I choose the 'Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider'. I then browse for and select the DB file. On the 'Connection' tab, I uncheck the 'blank password' box, enter the password, click 'Test Connection' and then instead of the usual "Test Connection Succeeded", I get the above error message.

Screeper · Post by **Screeper** » 23 Oct 2006, 13:06

Do you have access to the DB? If you do, try disabling the password on the DB and then try creating the connection. Lets first make sure that it is the password bit that is causing the glitch.
That error doesn't look like a password error to me.

I did my final project with an Access DB and VB.NET - it was a bit of a pain to get Access to work smoothly with my application but it can be done, just takes some fiddling about.

ArmatageShanks · Post by **ArmatageShanks** » 23 Oct 2006, 13:17

It works with the password disabled.

Otherwise, can anyone tell me how to make whatever source data a program is using (whether that may be a DB, text file, image) unreadable by a user?

e.g. This program I'm doing now is a simple Quiz one. The DB holds the questions and answers in a table. Now I don't want people to just be able to open the DB and see the answers. That's what the password is for.

Post by **Ron2K** » 23 Oct 2006, 13:21

#ifndef VB_RANT
#define VB_RANT

VB... ugh.

VB is a poorly designed language that teaches one bad coding habits. No, don't ask me to explain - it's enough for you to know that I've been there and done that, so I'm speaking from experience here.

One of those bad habits is becoming dependent on a single vendor's (Microsoft) libraries, widgets and development tools. There is a prototype open-source implementation but it doesn't cover a lot of the language. This pretty much forces you to use Microsoft's implementation, which in turn locks you in to only those platforms that Microsoft chooses to support. As far as I'm concerned, any language that isn't fully supported by at least three operating systems from different vendors is a bad one to program in.

If you're forced to use VB, then I can sort of understand your situation, because that's where I came from. Just learn a better language as soon as you can. Once you've finished your course, you should be good enough to give C/C++ a go. If you absolutely insist of writing programs for the .NET framework, C# is far superior to VB, plus there's a decent open-source implementation (Mono).

As for Access - there's so many better database implementations out there.

#endif

To answer the question that you posed, I think I may have some code lying around at home - if so, I'll post back tomorrow.

ArmatageShanks · Post by **ArmatageShanks** » 23 Oct 2006, 13:28

C++ will come next year, then C# (at least that's what the Technical Programming lecturer told us this morning). All of them will be for the .NET framework.

I appreciate your help.

Post by **Kronos** » 23 Oct 2006, 14:30

ArmatageShanks wrote:Hello. I am a n00b. Yes, I am an IT student, but I'm a n00b one. Here is my current problem.

I'm trying to use an access database that's password protected in vb.net 2003, using the OleDbAdapter and the Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider, but it throws me this message when trying to test the connection:

VisualBasic.NET wrote:Test connection failed because of an error in initialzing provider. Cannot start your application. The workgroup information file is missing or opened exclusively by another user
Can anyone help?

Find the workgroup information file.

Post by **Ron2K** » 24 Oct 2006, 11:34

OK, I couldn't find my VB .NET code anywhere (may have deleted it), so... this is how you would declare and initialize an OleDbConnection object with a password protected database in C#. It shouldn't be too difficult to convert this into VB .NET code.

Code: Select all

OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; User Id=whatever; Password=whatever; Data Source=Z:\wherever\yourdatabase.mdb");

Hope this helps...

(Someone please post if I've made any typing errors in all of that.)

DCStudios · Post by **DCStudios** » 31 Oct 2006, 05:58

@ Kronos....

Visual Basic .NET [being a 3rd gen lang.] is one of the better up and coming languages. C sharp .net of course is ahead simply because of it's c-like syntax. VB can handle databases just as good as cpp; it just depends on how you code it. Code it right and it will do exactly what you need it to do. I still have yet to see somebody that wants to do something that cannot be done in Visual Basic .NET....

---------
http://www.vbdotnetforum.com
http://www.dc-studios.net

skunkymunky · Post by **skunkymunky** » 31 Oct 2006, 09:09

if u really wanna be fancy do this

in the Web.Config file under the configuration section

Code: Select all

<appSettings>
	<add key="strConn" value="Provider=Microsoft.JET.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" />
</appSettings>

in your webform.aspx

Code: Select all

Protected Connstr As String = _ ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("strConn") & _ Server.MapPath("yourDatabase.mdb")

Dim conn As New OleDb.OleDbConnection(Connstr)
        strSQL = "SELECT * FROM sometable"
        Dim da As New OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter(strSQL, conn)
        dim ds as new DataSet

--do ur parameters and databindings here and walla

PCFormat Forum Archive

Using a password protected Access database in VB.NET

Using a password protected Access database in VB.NET

Re: Using a password protected Access database in VB.NET

Re: Using a password protected Access database in VB.NET