ADO Overview and Benefits

ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) is a high-level, easy-to-use interface to OLE DB. OLE DB is a low-level, high-performance interface to a variety of data stores. Both ADO and OLE DB can work with relational (tabular) and nonrelational (hierarchical or stream) data.

ADO provides a layer of abstraction between your client or middle-tier application and the low-level OLE DB interfaces. ADO uses a small set of Automation objects to provide a simple and efficient interface to OLE DB. This interface makes ADO a good choice for developers in higher level languages, such as Visual Basic and VBScript, who want to access data without having to learn the intricacies of COM and OLE DB.

This section contains the following topics.

• ADO History

• Prerequisites for Using the ADO Documentation

• Referencing the ADO Libraries

• ADO Task Table

• ADO Technology Table

• ADO Security Design Issues