Installing References Automatically 2

[DISI]

I have an application that I am distributing. The problem is that it uses a number of References that are not "Typically" installed during MS Office installation.

I know that when I have worked on my user's PC, I've had to do "Custom" installation of MS Access and select every option available. My application references the following:

Visual Basic For Applications
Microsoft Access 9.0 Object Library
OLE Automation
Microsoft DAO 3.6 Object Library
Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Extensibility 5.0

My users are not Access savy and I don't want them to have to go into Access VB code to check references.

1. Is there a way to automatically install these files from my CD and reference them in my application?

2. If not, how can I tell which options to install during set up that will get me the references listed above?

Appreciate the help. Mind you, I am not a whiz at VBA so I'll need very specific instructions on how to use recommended code. Thanks

DISI
Paul Faculjak
paul@DataIntegritySolutions.com

 

[DISI]

Jim,

Point of clarification. When a reference is set, is that specific to a given application, or is it for MS Access globally? Same thing with registering an DLL. If I register a DLL to a directory of mine, will Access always look to my directory for that file, or just when my application is running.

Since I don't know if my users will be running NT, 98, ME, 2000 or the new XP I don't know the path where the DLL's should go. Therefore, I'd like to just place copies in my directory and point Access to them. Is that safe?

Paul Paul Faculjak
paul@DataIntegritySolutions.com

 

[JimHorton]

When the reference is registered, using either dllRegesterServer or regsvr32, that sets a global registry entry for any apps that use that class ID, so any apps will now look for that particular path/file.
But when adding a reference in vb or access, you're choosing from a list, which is built from the existing registry entries, which contain the descriptive name, the classname, classid, and file path/name. I'm not sure what happens if you, say, use the 'browse' button in the 'Add Reference' dialog, and point to a copy of say, Dao360.dll that's in some private directory. I guess it must try to re-register that file, which would then make it's different path not the global one, but I'm just not sure.
--Jimi

 

[DISI]

Thanks for the insights. Paul Faculjak
paul@DataIntegritySolutions.com