The OLEDB pane of the database connectivity dialog provides database access to different database systems, which expose their functionality through OLEDB providers. Use this pane to connect to relational databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, DB2 and many others. An OLEDB provider for a particular database should be installed on your computer in order to use OLEDB connectivity.

 

A tree of OLEDB providers is located on the left side of the OLEDB pane.  It shows all the available OLEDB providers and enumerators on your computer. Expand an OLEDB provider node or enumerator for a desired database system to see all the resources you can connect to using that provider. When you install OLEDB providers after the TARGET component(s) installation they will not appear in the tree automatically, please press F5 of "Refresh" from the context menu to update the tree.

 

An enumerator is an OLEDB object, which lists all the database servers available for a particular OLEDB provider. For example, the Microsoft OLEDB enumerator for SQL Server will show all of the SQL Server servers available on your network. Some database systems, such as Oracle, do not have such an enumerators  In these cases, you should select an Oracle' OLEDB provider in the tree and use the following dialog to set up the database connection. The dialog will pop up automatically or you can launch it from the tree' context menu by selecting "Add/Edit data source".

Specify the name of the server you would like to connect to and the display name as it should appear in the OLEDB tree. Select an authentication method supported by the database server you are connecting to.

• Integrated - your windows account login credentials will be used to access access the database.
• SQL - provide a user name and password for the database connection.
• Provider String (Advanced) - set provider-specific properties for the database connection.

 

The following picture outlines the basic elements of the OLEDB database connectivity pane. The tree structure beneath a Provider or an Enumerator node can differ. For example, sometimes the Server or Schema level nodes can be missing. The list in the middle of the pane shows all the elements of the currently selected tree item. When a table or a view is selected in the table list, its field structure is shown in the field list. This allows to make sure that you are looking at the right table without opening it.

The data connectivity dialog is used for two different tasks:

- to open an existing data source

- to connect to a new data source, which will be created as a result of a future process (component specific).

In the first case, the "Set" button reads as "Open" and you can not connect to a nonexisting data source.  In the second case, you can type in a new table name, which will be used in the future to create a new table. Click "Set" (or "Open") when you have selected your data source.