Document Your Access Database With Visual Basic Presented by Joseph J. Sarna Jr. JJS Systems, LLC

Documentation Is a Necessary Evil! Does the client require documentation? What do follow-on developers need to know about your application? What do YOU need to know six months from now?

Types of Documentation We need to provide: – Database documentation – File format documentation – Registry entry documentation – Project and code documentation

Database Documentation Tables – Field names, data types, descriptions, valid data ranges, etc. Views/Queries/Stored Procedures – Definitions and SQL strings

File Formats Documentation Layouts of any special file types used – XML schema – Ini file formats – Application specific files

Registry Entries Documentation Locations and purposes of all registry entries Location and purposes of all Active Directory interactions (additions if users, roles, groups, etc.) Do not need to include entries made by Setup program

Project & Code Documentation Directory structures of files Reporting formats Technical specifications Code procedures

Using Visual Basic to Generate Database Documentation DBDoc.vbp – By Tim Patrick, from Visual Basic Programmers Journal, July – This application reads the database structures of tables using ADO and ADOX and then writes the document to an HTML file. – Modified by J. Sarna to include Views/Queries

ADO Object Models Three object models of ADO provide the functionality found in DAO. – ADO – Microsoft ADO Extensions for DDL and Security (ADOX) – Microsoft Jet and Replication Objects (JRO). Visual Studio\MSDN\2001JUL\1033\techart.chm::/html/daotoa do.htm

ADO and ADOX The ADO model allows access and manipulation of data through any OLE DB provider The ADOX model contains objects for data definition (such as tables, views, and indexes) and creating and modifying users and groups. With ADOX, one can control database schema and grant and revoke permissions on objects to users and groups

DBDoc Example Code C:\Visual Basic Projects\DBDoc\DBDoc.vbp Add a reference to Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.5 Library. Add a reference to Microsoft ADO Ext. 2.5 for DDL and Security.

Closing Document your project for your own safety! Find methods that will automate this documentation