COM as the Heart of ADO Development

Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) is central to all ADO development. When you use ADO, you use COM, regardless of the language you have chosen for the application. In particular, ADO is an Automation Server, and you use COM to invoke and utilize ADO objects.

Some languages hide the implementation details of COM more than others do, so you don't more than a beginner's understanding of COM to proceed. However, as your expertise with COM grows, so does your ability to use ADO efficiently and with more complexity. VBA hides many of the details of COM development, so you might choose VBA for your ADO applications. Visual C++, Java, and web-based scripting do not provide as much native COM support, but they do offer you more low-level control than what you might find with VBA.

The following are key areas of COM that you might want to be familiar with. In addition to understanding foundational COM concepts, these subjects directly affect your ability to develop an ADO application:

For more information about these topics, see parts two and three.

For developers new to both COM and ADO, it may seem like a double learning curve to get started with ADO. This is true, but once you master the COM fundamentals needed for ADO, you are ready to implement applications utilizing other COM components. As you are learning ADO techniques, try them first in VBA, then try them in Visual C++ or Java. This will help you determine whether any difficulties you encounter are in your understanding of COM or ADO.

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