Components of an OLE DB connection

When you access an OLE DB data provider in PowerBuilder, your connection goes through several layers before reaching the data provider. It is important to understand that each layer represents a separate component of the connection, and that each component might come from a different vendor.

Because OLE DB is a standard API, PowerBuilder uses the same interface to access every OLE DB data provider. As long as an OLE DB data provider supports the object interfaces required by PowerBuilder, PowerBuilder can access it through the OLE DB interface.

Figure 4-1 shows the general components of a OLE DB connection.

Figure 4-1: Components of an OLE DB connection

The figure shows the general components of an OLE DB connection. At top is the Development environment. It is connected to the Database interface D L L called P B OLE n 0 dot D L L, which is supplied by Sybase. The Database interface D L L is connected to the Data provider, here the OLE D B Data Provider, which is supplied by a database vendor. The data provider connects to the database.