They have paid support plans for aspiring enterprises. Am I right? Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage Tech Gossips

Like you, I've written a couple programs that access a database. In order to do this with ADO.NET(which is what I use), you must set up a connection string inside your OleDBConnection object. The connection string gives(among other things) a path to your database file. When you add a OleDBDataAdapter object to your form, a wizard pops up to help you set up your connection. For example, when I set up a data adapter to my Access database, the designer adds this line of code to my program: this.oleDbConnection1.ConnectionString = @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Password="""";User ID=Admin;Data Source= **Path to your file here** ;Mode=Share Deny None;Extended Properties="""";Jet OLEDB:System database="""";Jet OLEDB:Registry Path="""";Jet OLEDB:Database Password="""";Jet OLEDB:Engine Type=5;Jet OLEDB:Database Locking Mode=1;Jet OLEDB:Global Partial Bulk Ops=2;Jet OLEDB:Global Bulk Transactions=1;Jet OLEDB:New Database Password="""";Jet OLEDB:Create System Database=False;Jet OLEDB:Encrypt Database=False;Jet OLEDB:Don't Copy Locale on Compact=False;Jet OLEDB:Compact Without Replica Repair=False;Jet OLEDB:SFP=False"; I know that looks like a bunch of jibberish, but what you can do is before you open a connection to your database, modify your connection string to reflect where your database is. Because you don't know where the user will choose to install your program, you can use the System.Environment.CurrentDirectory property to locate where your application is running from and (assuming your database's location is based on the location of the app) append your database's path and name. My code to do this looks like this: string CurrentDir = System.Environment.CurrentDirectory; CurrentDir += "\\DB\\database.mdb"; this.oleDbConnection1.ConnectionString = @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Password="""";User ID=Admin;Data Source="; this.oleDbConnection1.ConnectionString += CurrentDir; this.oleDbConnection1.ConnectionString += @";Mode=Share Deny None;Extended Properties="""";Jet OLEDB:System database="""";Jet OLEDB:Registry Path="""";Jet OLEDB:Database Password="""";Jet OLEDB:Engine Type=5;Jet OLEDB:Database Locking Mode=1;Jet OLEDB:Global Partial Bulk Ops=2;Jet OLEDB:Global Bulk Transactions=1;Jet OLEDB:New Database Password="""";Jet OLEDB:Create System Database=False;Jet OLEDB:Encrypt Database=False;Jet OLEDB:Don't Copy Locale on Compact=False;Jet OLEDB:Compact Without Replica Repair=False;Jet OLEDB:SFP=False"; I hope that helps. Dani

Nishant S wrote: That way you can mix MFC and .NET and ATL/WTL/STL and native API stuff all in the same cpp file. but would that be the best thing to do? To me, managed c++ is best used for the bits of code you need to call from your .NET apps. Something that should be used only when needed. Mixing too many technologies will soon become a maintainance nightmare. Michael :-) Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority. - The Doctor