reading MDB file information from another language

[the_net_2.0]

all,

I'm looking for a way or a language in which I can read MDB files and their dependencies from outside the actual file. Whether that happens by writing a program in DELPHI, or something else.

I'm not well versed in this sort of stuff, however I'm looking for ideas. Anyone know if this would be possible?

More or less, I'm looking for compatibilities with the data format and structuring of MDB data. Access can open a multitude of file extensions if the data is structured in a compatible way that Access can read.

Does anyone follow this?

Basically I think I want a way to capture the objects inside MDB files and those object dependencies (properties only). I can throw the data anywhere once I have it, but figuring out a method for getting it is the tough part.

Any suggestions? thanks!

 

[Galaxiom]

You can interact with an mdb file using an ADO recordset via an OLEDB connection. ADO and OLEDB are COM objects encapsulated in Windows dlls. These are used by any programming language designed to support them, including Delphi.

Here is a link to get you started:
http://delphi.about.com/od/database/a/adodelphi.htm

 

[the_net_2.0]

Galax,

Do you know if there are free downloads of Delphi anymore? Either person ed's or professionals?

There seem to be so many broken links to Borland's domain, it's difficult to determine if the software can still be accessed without a cc #.

 

[Galaxiom]

Sorry. I have never worked with Delphi. However the principle of using ADO and OLE apply to any language worth developing in, at least on a Windows platform.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

it's embarcadero now

and their pricing policy is crazy.

you can get a one month trial of delphi for the package with no database connectivity - but there are no student/learning/options as I could see for the database version, and the permanent cost was £1000 aprox, I recall for database connectivity - whixh was ridiculous just for a "play"

I wanted to try and explre connecting to access databases from a compile-able environment

I downloaded Delphi anyway, but struggled to be honest, and decided to try Visual Studio instead (VB) - where MS are very good about learning tools, to be fair.

 

[Galaxiom]

I would also suggest that Visual Studio is a better direction to go. Firstly it is free for the Express version.

I recently tried my hand at making an exe using VB.NET in Visual Studio 2010 Express. It was a pretty empressive development environment. It prompted with suggestions when it didn't like my code by putting little red lines under dodgey expressions rather than being "in your face" about it. The errors window was handy too.

I had already been using ADO via OLEDB in VBA for a long time and that code pasted straight in. It removed the Set keyword automatically since all variables are objects in VB.NET hence no need for discriminating with Set (and the implicit Let) used in VBA.

I only did a console application but it wasn't a huge jump from VBA to get started though it is clear that VB.NET's use of classes and associated objects (Interfaces, Structures etc) is far more elaborate than VBA. Overloading, Shadowing and the complexities of Inheritence in VB.NET are also new concepts for the VBA developer but not a huge step for one with a good grasp of Classes.

It was interesting how compiling Visual Studio did the whole job right through to automatically posting the completed installer on a website and generating a page linking to it.

I had my first application all working in half a day.