Supporting Different Versions Of MS Access Using OLEDB

I have a WinForms C#.net application in which I export data to MDB files. To create the initial database I use this code:

public static bool CreateDatabase(string fullFilename) { bool succeeded = false; try { string newDB = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" + fullFilename; Type objClassType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("ADOX.Catalog"); if (objClassType != null) { object obj = Activator.CreateInstance(objClassType); // Create MDB file obj.GetType().InvokeMember("Create", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, obj, new object[]{"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" + newDB + ";" }); succeeded = true; // Clean up System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(obj); obj = null; } } catch (Exception ex) { Tools.ShowMessage("Could not create database file: " + fullFilename + "

" + ex.Message, "Database Creation Error"); } return succeeded; }


This works perfectly fine on my system. But I've learned from one client that such MDB files cannot be opened using MS Access '97. Why they're still using this old version is a great question but the customer is always right, right?!

Anyhow, I thought that I could just alter the number "4.0" to "3.5" or "3.0" but it doesn't work on my machine. I got to wondering though if it might work on a client's machine if they had that version of OLEDB data access components installed.

So I'm wondering how I can programmatically test for which version(s) of OLEDB are available to use?

Robert Werner
http://PocketPollster.com
Vancouver, BC, Canada