Understanding OLE DB

An OLE DB provider is a program that can retrieve information from a database and pass it to a requesting application like BarTender. Each type of database (e.g., Oracle or Microsoft Access) requires its own provider program. OLE DB technology is similar in its purposes to ODBC, but is newer and is compatible with a wider range of proprietary databases and data types.

A number of OLE DB providers are installed with Windows and others can be obtained from database manufacturers.

To see what OLE DB data sources are available on your computer, create a plain text file and give it the extension ".udl". Double-click the file to open the Windows Data Link Properties dialog. Click the Providers tab to see the list of providers.

Related Topics

Supported OLE DB Database Platforms

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