Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic (6, not .NET!)? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes???
Thanks.
Davide
Subject: Thanks.
Thanks.
Subject: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
There is no native ADO interface/“OLE DB provider” for Notes.
Other fairly common approaches to accessing Notes from VB:
The ODBC driver might work if you want to go that route, although it’s not the greatest (but then Notes isn’t relational).
There is an OLE (not OLE DB) interface.
There is a COM interface.
hth,
dgg
Subject: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
From the Designer Help:
Requirements for OLE DB Connectivity
Connectivity software requirements depend on the operating system platform and the OLE DB version that you are using.
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Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.0 or higher is required. MDAC 2.5 is recommended; the latest version is available for download from http://www.microsoft.com/data. MDAC 2.5 can be installed on Windows NT 4.0 and is included in Windows 2000.
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OLE DB supports connectivity to Microsoft SQL Server 7, SQL Server 2000, and Microsoft Access 2000. SQLOLEDB, the Microsoft SQL Server OLE DB provider, is currently the only supported OLE DB provider.
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The preferred Net-Library can be set by the SQL Server Client Network Utility. Alternatively, the Net-Library can be specified in the Provider String when making a connection.
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
…so?I need to connect from Visual Basic (6.0) to Lotus Notes and I’d like to access data using ADO.
So…are you telling me that there is an OLE DB Provider (that I can use with ADO in Visual Basic 6.0) for Lotus Notes???
Thanks! 
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
There is no native OLE DB Provider for Lotus Notes. The excerpt from the designer help file stated what OLED DB drivers were usable from within the Lotus Notes designer.
Do you really need ADO? If that’s the case, you can use the ADO ODBC driver, and install the Notes ODBC driver (see http://www.lotus.com/notessql ).
Performance for the ODBC driver will not be too great, since Lotus Notes is not a relational database.
Also keep in mind that you will have to install/configure NotesSQL on all client machines that you want to install your VB App on.
You may want to investigate implementing your VB app with the Lotus Notes COM API. This will be a lot faster and far more powerful than ADO.
cheers,
Bram
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
First of all thanks for your reply.
I know that I can use OLE DB Provider for ODBC, but I also know that NotesSQL ODBC Driver perfomance is very poor! It’s too slow.
Yes…
And…I heard about LotusNotes COM API.
I have to work on an existing project in Visual Basic (6.0) that access data from LotusNotes. How can I be sure that the project actually uses LotusNotes COM API???
Is it enough to find in the References of the project the “Lotus Domino Objects” (domobj.tlb)???
THANKS!
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
Just an FYI, NotesSQL is only slow if you don’t know how to use it, there is a great section on optimizing your querys and what can be done to the .nsf to make querys faster. Most people don’t look at the documentation and just blame the product…
Ron
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
Ok, please help me.Let me know how we can do an heavy SQL Query with 4-5 tables in JOIN on a database with 100000 records. THANKS!
I know we have to use a lot Lotus Notes Views. And we do it.
And we also have redundant datas in the dbase structure to avoid some JOIN.
And…ODBC (NotesSQL) accesses to Notes (from the VB 6.0 application) are still SLOOOOOOOOOW.
Please help me.
Thanks.
Davide
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
according to the doc, don’t use views for joins, use forms… read the doc…
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
sorry…I’m not able to find these infos in the help…Can you tell me where I can find these infos?
THANKS!
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
…ehmmm…I just undertood what you told me…Ehmmm…we already read that chapters…and…it seems there’s no way to make the application going faster than now using that driver (it seems we already applied those suggestions).
Anyway…
LotusNotes/Domino is not a Relational Databse and it’s normal that NotesSQL driver is SLOW.
I don’t want to blame the product! 
I was just trying to find a way to reach our goals using LotusNotes.
Our goal is to have the VB (6.0) application working both on LotusNotes and SQL Server (and some more then…like MySQL, etc)…We want to have some installations working on LotusNotes and some others working on SQL Server.
So I thought to use always ADO to access data from databases. Then I searched for a native OLE DB Provider for LotusNotes and it seems it doesn’t exist. So I thought to use the OLE DB Provider for ODBC and use NotesSQL (ODBC) driver…(while for SQL Server I thought to use the OLE DB Provider for SQL Server…).
But it seems this NotesSQL driver is not enough fast.
So…
Maybe actually there’s no way to build a VB (6.0) application (reengineered!) that use STANDARD data access INDEPENDENT from the database that there is under the application and that is also FAST.
I know there’s a way to access LotusNotes data using OLE or (better) COM…but this not help me writing a reengineered database independent application…
Maybe I have to rewrite every single data access for each kind of database…this will be FAST (performace) but this is not “nice”, not standard…and the cost to maintain the application will be VERY HIGH!..
Any suggestion???
Thanks!
Davide
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
The only “elegant” solution for getting optimal performance from such different platforms I can see is just using an extra layer of abstraction.
Instead of using:
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APP → ADO → SQL Server
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APP → COM → Lotus Notes
You should create an extra abstraction layer (let’s call it DataAdapter) that presents a common interface on the application layer, and deals with the platform-specific stuff.
This will become:
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APP → DataAdapterForADO → ADO → SQL Server
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APP → DataAdapterForNotes → COM - > Lotus Notes
As an added bonus, it would be relatively simple to add support for other platforms by writing an appropriate DataAdapter for that platform without much changes to the rest of the application.
cheers,
Bram
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
LotusNotes/Domino is not a Relational Databse and it’s normal that NotesSQL driver is SLOW.>We want to have some installations working on LotusNotes and some others working on SQL Server.
But it seems this NotesSQL driver is not enough fast.
OK, I can not stay out of this thread any longer. Based on your above comments, you are hitting the same problems that everyone else hits. I know that you want to use VB (not VB.NET) and I know that you are asking for something free. But if you are want to do the job right, I really suggest you take a look at VB.NET, ADO.NET and Proposion N2N (Products A-Z).
Subject: *I have to agree with Stephen here. This is a case where Proposion’s products are the best answer.
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
If you’ve included domobj.tlb in your VB project references, that’s all you need to do. By using the COM interface, you are essentially committing to a Win/32 platform. And, to state the obvious, your program will be dependent on the presence of a Notes client/Notes server installation. But you’ll get performance comparable to that of the native Notes client and you’ll also get all the benefits of early binding. In my opinion, COM (and the API when necessary) is the best option for VB 6.0 integration with Notes.hth,
dgg
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
By using the COM interface, you are essentially committing to a Win/32 platform. <<<
I think the part of committing to Win/32 was already performed by simply choosing VB6 :-).
cheers,
Bram
Subject: RE: Can I use ADO to access LotusNotes from VisualBasic? Is there an (free!) OLE DB provider for LotusNotes?
Well, urh, uh, yeah . . . I suppose so . . . if you want to get technical about it . . . but then I guess this is a “technical” forum though isn’t it?:o)