Contents

 Introduction
 Database Tier - Code

Introduction
Welcome to part two of Access Stored Procedures. Part one [^] described in detail how to
create stored procedures in Access using ADO.NET and Visual Basic.NET. Part two will
demonstrate how to utilize the stored procedures created in part one by assembling a
Database Tier that can be modelled and used in your own applications. This article will
describe in detail one implementation of a Database Tier for Visual Basic.NET.

The main purpose of the Database Tier is to provide a gateway to the database via a class
module. This class module would act as the glue between the database and the application.
There are two main advantages to using a data tier to access your database. You will have the
ability to modify your underlying database technology (moving from MS Access to SQL Server
for instance) without affecting your application in a major way. You will also be placing a
control layer between your application and the database allowing you to ensure that all data is
properly "cleansed". The Database Tier in .NET applications would most likely consist of a class
module keeping in line with proper object-oriented coding conventions. Earlier versions of
Visual Basic would employ a Standard Module to do the job.

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Database Tier - Code

It's now time to roll up our sleeves and get dirty with some code. The first thing after adding
an empty class declaration file is to pull in the proper .NET Framework libraries listed below.

Impor t s Sys tem

Impor t s Sys tem.Data

Impor t s Sys tem.Data.OleDb

The System Library is standard for most applications, and I make it a habit to include it in
almost all my code modules. The System.Data library is necessary for almost all database
access applications. The System.Data.OleDb is used specifically for OLEDB Database Providers
to which Microsoft Access belongs to. If we were using SQL Server we'd include the custom
SQL provider System.Data.SqlClient.

Then next line of code starts the definition of the Class:

Pub l i cC lass DBT ie r

Here we've named the Class DBTier and have given it a modifier of Public, thus making it very
accessible from other code modules. After the class is defined all properties are declared:

Sha red connec t ionS t r ing

As St r ing= _

"PROVIDER=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Program " _

& "Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Samples\Northwind.mdb"

Only one property is declared here as a string variable, connectionString. This variable
holds the connection string for the Northwind Access Database. Declaring the variable as
Shared defines it as "Class Variable". A class variable is associated with the class, not each
object instantiated from the class.

After the connection string declaration you'll find there are three subroutines and one function.
The function returns a dataset with a listing of all products. It calls the stored procedure
procProductsList, created in part one of this article.

Next you'll find the three subroutines. There is one for each stored procedure; add, update
and deletion of products. They're all similarly structured; each with a command, connection
and required parameter(s) declared. As a sample, let's dissect the ProductsDeleteItem
subroutine. After understanding how this subroutine works the others should be easy to
digest.

To start off the routine takes in one parameter, ProductID, which is an Integer representing
the Product to be deleted.

Sub ProductsDeleteItem(ByVa l Produc t IDAs I n tege)

r

Next, all variables are declared. One for the connection, command and a parameter to be
passed into the stored procedure. This parameter is the ProductID to be deleted.

Dim con As OleDbConnec t ion

Dim cmd As OleDbCommand = New OleDbCommand()

Dim paramProductID As New OleDbParameter()

Command and connection objects are initialized:

con = New OleDbConnection(connectionString)

cmd.Connection = con
The paramProductID parameter properties are configured. Then the parameter is added to
the command object. In this case the parameter name in the stored procedure is
inProductID, it's an integer and the value is set to the ProductID passed into this
subroutine.

With paramProduc t ID

.Pa rameterName = "inProductID"

.OleDbType = OleDbType.Integer

.Size = 4

.Value = ProductID

End With

cmd.Parameters.Add(paramProductID)

The last part actually calls the stored procedure.

cmd.CommandText = "EXECUTE procProductsDeleteItem"

con.Open()

cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

con.Close()

Notice that the connection object only stays open long enough to carry out the stored
procedure and then closes immediately. This reduces any possible contention.

While the DBTier class included in this article clearly describes how to access the stored
procedures, it would need some enhancements to become quality production code since no
error handling has been added. There may also be the need to further enhance performance
here.

The downloaded source code associated with this article includes the DBTier.vb file along with
some very basic forms to test the actual implementation of the class.

In conclusion, I hope you have gained at least two things from these articles. One being that
stored procedures are alive and well in Microsoft Access, although not without their limitations.
The second thing to walk away with here is understanding the need to break down an
application's data access into separate classes, subroutines and functions. This makes
maintenance and upgrades much easier to implement.

Entire DBTier.vb source code:

Impor t s Sys tem

Impor t s Sys tem.Data

Impor t s Sys tem.Data.OleDb

' Functions and subroutines for executing Stored Procedures in Access.

Pub l i cC lass DBT ie r

' Change Data Source to the l o ca t i on o f Nor thw ind .mdb on your l o ca l

' sys tem.

Shared connectionString As St r ing= _

"PROVIDER=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Program " _

& "Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Samples\Northwind.mdb"

' Th i s func t i on re tu rns a datase t con ta in ing a l l reco rds i n

' the Produc ts Tab le .

Func t ionProductsList() As DataSet

Dim con As OleDbConnec t ion

Dim da As OleDbDataAdapte r

Dim ds As DataSet

Dim sSQL As St r ing

sSQL = "EXECUTE procProductsList"

con = New OleDbConnection(connectionString)

da = New OleDbDataAdapter(sSQL, con)

ds = New DataSet()

da.Fill(ds, "Products")

Retu rn ds

End Func t i on

' Th i s Func t ion adds one reco rd to the Produc ts tab le .

Sub Produc tsAdd I tem
(ByVal ProductName As String, _

ByVal SupplierID As Integer, ByVal CategoryID As Integer)

Dim con As OleDbConnection

Dim cmd As OleDbCommand = New OleDbCommand()

Dim paramProductName As New OleDbParameter()

Dim paramSupplierID As New OleDbParameter()

Dim paramCategoryID As New OleDbParameter()

con = New OleDbConnection(connectionString)

cmd.Connection = con

With paramProductName

.ParameterName = "inProductName"

.OleDbType = OleDbType.VarChar

.Size = 40

.Value = ProductName

End With

cmd.Parameters.Add(paramProductName)

With paramSupplierID

.ParameterName = "inSupplierID"

.OleDbType = OleDbType.Integer

.Size = 4

.Value = SupplierID

End With

cmd.Parameters.Add(paramSupplierID)

With paramCategoryID

.ParameterName = "inCategoryID"

.OleDbType = OleDbType.Integer
 .S ize= 4

.Value = CategoryID

End With

cmd.Parameters.Add(paramCategoryID)

cmd.CommandText = "EXECUTE procProductsAddItem"

con.Open()

cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

con.Close()

End Sub

' Th i s func t i on Updates a spec i f i c J obT i t l e Reco rd wi th new data .

Sub ProductsUpdateItem(ByVa l Produc t IDAs I n tege,r _

ByVa l ProductName As St r ing

)

Dim con As OleDbConnec t ion

Dim cmd As OleDbCommand = New OleDbCommand()

Dim paramProductName As New OleDbParameter()

Dim paramProductID As New OleDbParameter()

con = New OleDbConnection(connectionString)

cmd.Connection = con

With paramProductID

.ParameterName = "inProductID"

.OleDbType = OleDbType.Integer

.Size = 4

.Value = ProductID

End With

cmd.Parameters.Add(paramProductID)

With paramProductName
 .Pa ramete rName = "inProductName"

.OleDbType = OleDbType.VarChar

.Size = 40

.Value = ProductName

End With

cmd.Parameters.Add(paramProductName)

cmd.CommandText = "EXECUTE procProductsUpdateItem"

con.Open()

cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

con.Close()

End Sub

' Th i s func t i on de le tes one reco rd f rom the Produc ts tab le .

Sub ProductsDeleteItem(ByVa l Produc t IDAs I n teger)

Dim con As OleDbConnec t ion

Dim cmd As OleDbCommand = New OleDbCommand()

Dim paramProductID As New OleDbParameter()

con = New OleDbConnection(connectionString)

cmd.Connection = con

With paramProductID

.ParameterName = "inProductID"

.OleDbType = OleDbType.Integer

.Size = 4

.Value = ProductID

End With

cmd.Parameters.Add(paramProductID)

cmd.CommandText = "EXECUTE procProductsDeleteItem"

 .con
Open ()

cmd
. Execu teNonQuery ()

.con
C lose()

End Sub

End C lass