ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook, 2nd Edition

1.20. Displaying the Data Link Properties Dialog Box

Problem

You want to display the Data Link Properties dialog box from an application so that users can create their own database connections.

Solution

Use COM interop with the OLE DB Service Component to display the Data Link Properties dialog box.

You'll need a reference to the Primary Interop Assembly (PIA) for ADO provided in the file ADODB.DLL; select adodb from the .NET tab in Visual Studio .NET's Add Reference Dialog. You'll also need a reference to the Microsoft OLE DB Service Component 1.0 Type Library from the COM tab in Visual Studio .NET's Add Reference Dialog.

The solution creates and displays a Data Link Properties dialog box using the Microsoft OLE DB Service Component through COM Interop. Follow these steps:

1. Create a C# Windows Forms application, DisplayDataLinkPropertiesDialog.

2. Add a TextBox control. Name it connectString. Set the MultiLine property = true.

3. Add a Button control. Name it openDialog.

4. Double-click the button to add a Click event handler named openDialog_Click.

The C# code in Form1.cs shown in the project DisplayDataLinkPropertiesDialog is shown in Example 1-19.

Example 1-19. File: Form1.cs for DisplayDataLinkPropertiesDialog solution

using System; using System.Windows.Forms; namespace DisplayDataLinkPropertiesDialog { public partial class Form1 : Form { public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); } private void openDialog_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { ADODB.Connection adodbConnection = new ADODB.Connection( ...