Access allows the user to create projects which connect directly to a SQL Server source and which expose tables, views and stored procedures to the user through the familiar Access front-end.

Working in ADP projects takes a bit of getting used to and allows the developer to experience all the usual joys of working within yet another frustrating paradigm.

First curiosity is the name - "ADP" - why "ADP"? Microsoft makes this clear by saying:

A Microsoft Access project (.adp) is an Access data file that provides efficient, native-mode access to a Microsoft SQL Server database through the OLE DB component architecture.

So there we have it "ADP" stands for "Microsoft Access Project". More in a similar vein later.

The next enhancement to the user experience which Bill's boys dish up is the absence of any obvious way to create an ADP project. You might expect to click on "New" and be offered a choice but no, for that would be far too much like the sort of thing that those pesky user-interface obsessed boys at Apple might do.

Instead you click the Office button, click on "New" then type in the name of the new project - not forgetting the .adp extension. In this way Access know what you mean to do!


You will then be asked to identify the SQLServer to which you are connecting and you are away.

Binding a Form to a Table >
Populating a combo box from a stored procedure >
Binding an updatable form to a disconnected recordset using SQL >
Binding an updatable Form to a stored procedure >
Forcing a bound form to update its recordset >